Our goal today was mostly just to visit Crater Lake then get as far east as possible. We left Grants Pass around 10:30 am and went south on Interstate 5, exiting towards Crater Lake. We took a short 4 1/2 mile detour to look at the House of Mystery, a tourist trap dedicated to interesting architectural illusions and a geological mystery "vortex", however tours were guided only, and would involve a 20 minute wait and 1 hour on the tour. As we debated what to do, we heard a kid crying and sobbing in the parking lot. A lady we were talking to explained that the tour guide publically humiliated a young boy after he slipped and fell on their tour. What a shame.

We left and continued on towards Crater Lake, covering the remaining 50 miles on a series of long roads with moderate amounts of recreational traffic. We arrived at the lake just past noon. Crater Lake was a bit smaller than I was picturing; it was several miles across, however the steep cliffs and mountains along the rim definitely gave it a three-dimensional appearance. Indeed it was quite beautiful and the crowds weren't too thick. Driving around the west rim we got a couple of scenic views of the lake and of Wizard's Island.

We left through the north roads, wandering gradually through the early afternoon up towards Bend. The traffic was incredibly congested all the way from La Pine to Bend, and Bend itself was extremely congested -- well over a hundred cars must have went by as we waited to turn left into a restaurant. Bend was easily the most congested town we'd seen since San Francisco - Oakland and we were happy to head east.

The road leading east was was quite empty, and the terrain rapidly changed from dry forests and fields into dusty, wide-open rolling rangeland, reminiscent of New Mexico and Nevada. After driving about 100 miles we pulled into the only large town in southeastern Oregon: Burns, and fueled up, got a snack, and washed off the car for the first time on our drive.

The remainder of the drive through eastern Oregon, another hundred miles or so, was long and uneventful, taking us through basalt and rhyolite outcroppings covered with sage and native grasses. Much of this area was blasted by an asteroid impact that occurred about 17 million years ago; this uprooted much of the rocks that make up the scenery, and is the source for numerous iridium deposits found all over the globe.

The road meandered gently along a shallow stream winding through a canyon, and we saw numerous elk and geese traversing its length. The road gradually led into dusty spinach and potato fields as we approached the Oregon-Idaho border town of Ontario. The air became thick with some sort of flying insect that we didn't identify (black flies?), which immediately swarmed over our car as we reached the first stop sign. As we crossed into Idaho Shannon noticed that these insects were often hovering in dense clouds above trees. They continued to pelt our as we made the remaining 30 miles to our hotel in Caldwell.

We got to the Best Western around 9:30 pm Mountain time, where there was twilight as late as 10:45 pm. We celebrated the long distance we traversed today with some downtime, some Red Seal Ales from Ft Bragg, and some goodies from Dominos (the only place open this late on Sunday). Tomorrow we hope to start our central Rockies activities with a visit to Craters of the Moon National Park in central Idaho and stop somewhere in southeast Idaho or adjacent Wyoming or Utah. Who knows where we'll end up? We're also hoping to get on an earlier travel schedule, as we've been getting in late the past couple of nights.

Tim: "What did you think of today, Shannon?"
Shannon: "I was a little tired of being in the car. I miss my animals, my chickens, my doggies, the house, the field, our hot tub, and our good bed. And my diet. But the asteroid impact area was cool."
Tim: "Where do you see us in a couple of days?"
Shannon: "Let me think. Maybe Santa Fe?"
Tim: "Zoom, zoom, zoom." (that dumb Mazda commercial that got stuck in Shannon's head during the Highway 1 journey)
Shannon: "Grr."
(We also sang versions of "I Went To The Animal Fair" during the boring stretches).

Miles travelled: 506

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