What a weekend.
We were able to cross an item off the ol’ bucket list on Friday, with a ski trip to Mt. Bachelor. For those of you who don’t know, we grew up in Kentucky, where our only skiing experiences were on the hills of southern Indiana and Ohio. Let me tell you, skiing on a real mountain is much, much different.
We have no pictures to prove we were there (one of the many downfalls of not having fancy schmancy camera phones, and not being a good enough skier to bring a real camera to the top of the mountain), so you’ll just have to trust me. But know that skiing is much more death-defying than I remembered.
After enjoying a winter wonderland on Friday, a 75-degree Sunday in Eugene sent us out for a hike. Unfortunately, 75 degrees in Eugene doesn’t mean 75 degrees an hour away in the mountains, which we failed to take into account as we headed to Salt Creek Falls. I stepped out of the car and into several inches of snow. Someday we’ll learn.
We hiked down to Diamond Creek Falls, which was pretty spectacular, despite the small mudslides we tried to avoid (melting snow makes for tricky trails). I thought I remembered reading that the Diamond Creek Falls trail was a loop, but I wasn’t positive, so we just did an out-and-back hike. But I did confirm when we got home that it’s a 3.4-mile loop.
We came back up the trail to the Salt Creek Falls observation deck, which gives some pretty impressive views of Oregon’s second tallest waterfall (and if you aren’t in the mood for a hike, the parking lot for this overlook isn’t too far from Highway 58).
We took the trail down the hill to to a lower observation point too. My guess is you could get a bit closer to the waterfall if you were dressed more appropriately for the weather and didn’t mind getting wet. But the falls were pretty darn impressive from every vantage point we had.
-Ally
Betsy Ringer says
Magnificent! Breathtaking! Thank you for sharing!!