July Camping Trip, part 3

Continuing from yesterday's post, here is what we did while camping at the Newberry National Volcanic Monument in Central Oregon.

DSCN7752, originally uploaded by Adventures of Pam & Frank.

Enjoy the fire now while it's actually burning. One thing we learned about building campfires is that we suck at building campfires.

...until the camp host told us to douse all the kindling and wood with lots of starter fluid first...

...too late for this fire...

DSCN7759, originally uploaded by Adventures of Pam & Frank.

Yes. S'mores for breakfast.
Why not?
We're on our first vacation in many many years.

DSCN7764, originally uploaded by Adventures of Pam & Frank.

It seems most of our camping time was spent building fires and managing meals. That was fun, though.

What surprised us was the climate on the mountain. Again, we were at an elevation of about 6400 ft in a part of Oregon called the High Desert. Of course, this is a very arid part of the state and the sun is intense.

This photo was taken at about 6am and the outside temp was only 50 degrees. Everyone was bundled up in sweatshirts and heavy pants to keep warm. Pam had been pulling things out of the cooler and placed a hershey bar on the table. In about 30 minutes the sun melted the hershey bar into chocolate soup.

Rachel's Cabin, originally uploaded by Adventures of Pam & Frank.

Rachel's Cabin

The kiddo opted out of sleeping in the tent with the snoring adults, so we laid down the back seat and slid her twin air mattress into the car. Yes, in our little car! It wasn't super warm (the mattress was cold) but it was cozy and quiet.

And she was safe from bears!

DSCN7773, originally uploaded by Adventures of Pam & Frank.

We forgot some kind of blanket or pad for the pooch to lay on, but he seemed happy sunning himself in the dirt.

He got a good bath at East Lake before we packed up the car and left the mountain.

Coming up next: Central Oregon scenery and the trip home