One of our most spontaneous trips was our venture to south eastern Oregon for some spectacular views of the high mountain desert. On this adventure, we made it all the way to the top of Glass Butte in the Jeep Mojave up a long dirt road.
Sky High Views
At 6,388 feet, we had an unparalleled view of Oregon’s high desert in all directions and shards of obsidian littered the ground everywhere we looked.
Obsidian Deposits
In fact, the area around Glass Butte boasts the largest obsidian deposit in the world!
Over the Fire Cooking
After some rockhounding, we pulled out the Yeti gear for a cast-iron delight in the desert:)
Made it to the Painted Hills of Oregon last year . . . finally! Been talking about it for years and we were not disappointed with the colors and views of this unique geological masterpiece:)
A few years back, we kicked off a new season of exploration when we bought our Mojave Jeep and headed east to do some out off-road driving. Our adventure ended in a series of Sunriver vacations in Central Oregon.
At an elevation of 4,200ft, Sunriver sits on the edge of Oregon’s high desert plateau. And with proximately to the spectacular Crater Lake National Park, upscale entertaining in Bend, and olympic-style winter sports at Mt. Bachelor, Sunriver has it all for the vacationing families!
Sunriver is full of B & B’s and rentals with all the amenities: hot tubs, game rooms, bicycles, porch entertaining, luxurious bathtubs and walking / biking paths for over 40 miles! All of this circles the shopping and dining options of the Village as well as four award-winning golf courses at Sunriver Resort.
Waterways allow for kayaking, swimming, golf course views and gorgeous hikes all round and through Sunriver, Oregon. This includes trails along the Deschutes and family swimming at the Aquatic Resort.
All in all, between the in-town beauty and the surrounding outdoor playgrounds, Sunriver is a vacation option for groups of all shapes and sizes!
Wolf Rock, located centrally in the Oregon Cascades, is recognized as Oregon’s largest monolith. This was the plug of an ancient volcano that has since eroded away. It’s also been called Oregon’s “big wall” and has about 20 established rock climbing routes including an early 70’s classic established by Wayne Arrington and Mike Seely in a multi-day effort.
On this particular excursion, we caught site of a few climbers close to the submit.
Not much has ever been written on Wolf Rock and I’ve yet to meet anyone who is familiar with this forest giant. Aside from rock climbing opportunities, there are view from every direction and an adventurous creek trail to the base.
Oregon’s own – Pendleton – has been crafting wool products for over 100 years! Avid thrifters, we’ve scored some awesome coats and hats over the years, worn them for a season and passed them on to friends and family or the nearest weary traveler.
Because of the wool, Pendleton coats kept the rain out and the warmth in as we traversed the #pnw throughout the year. The perfect outer layer for snow and rain our Pendleton coats almost never leave the Jeep;)
During the drizzling seasons, we put our hats to good use as well.
Let’s not forget those big Pendleton towels on our Mckenzie River adventures!
Or those cozy blankets!
From beach to forest these woolen delights have kept us warm and dry winter, spring, summer and fall💙
One of the great joys of owning a truck is the built-in bed you get to take with you where ever the road may wander;) But by diving a Jeep that’s ALSO a truck, outdoor camping takes on entirely new heights with off-roading now on the table. Last summer, we had the most magical mountain top camping trip in eastern Oregon in the Mojave.
Jeep Off Grid
It was such a mild evening, we decided to forgo the tent and air mattresses and, instead, spread the netting over the back of the Jeep and rollout the couple’s sleeping bag in the truck bed.
Over the Fire Cooking
One of our favorite parts of the camping experience is the outdoor cooking! We stopped at a small grocery store before heading up the mountain where we splurged on a T-bone for a delightful, over the fire dinner of creamy gnocchi, large prawns and steak. Special thanks to the bearded talents of Mr. McKenzie Castiron Cooking!
Eck Family Tradition
This gorgeous mountain top is actually part of a winter hunting camp tradition with generations of Ecks roaming these heights, hunting elk and stocking the family freezer each year. And on this magical night, we spent the evening telling stories of days gone by around the fire as the sunset.
Mountain Top Sunset
And speaking of sunsets, while there were magical landscapes in all directions with a panoramic view from the mountain top, like most summer sunsets, this one lasted forever!
We even managed to capture the moment from the back of the Jeep through the curtains for a beautiful time lapse video:)
A well-known tourist trek through rural Oregon communities will often include a scenic view of one of our many covered bridges.
One of the most photographed covered bridges in the state, theGoodpasture Bridge near Vida, Oregon spans the McKenzie River.
For those of us living along the McKenzie River, we are treated to the ever-changing faces and seasons of Oregon’s second largest covered bridge.
Spring Growth
At their height the early 1900’s, Oregon had about 600 covered bridges in operation. To this day we still have over 50 – one of the largest collection in the nation – with as many as 20 in Lane County alone.
Sunsets & Moonlight
Though the historical structure of this covered bridge makes for amazing photographs, Oregon’s own McKenzie River with its reflections and the beautiful sunsets throughout the year are quite striking as well.
Adventures
Fishing, boating and swimming adventures are easy to find near Oregon covered bridges! Just down the way from the Goodpasture Bridge is a boat ramp and Leaburg Reservoir not to mention the fact that the bridge spans the iconic McKenzie River itself!
Winter Wonderland
Spring, summer and fall are all wonderful, but some of the best pictures of Oregon’s Covered Bridges happen in the winter with a dusting of snow to set the mood.
**Side note: In pulling together this gallery of Goodpasture Bridge views, I found the snowy pictures above that pre-date the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire. I was struck by the reality that many of us in the McKenzie River Valley share the experience of stumbling across images we’ve captured of ‘before.’ It was an unexpectedly intense trip down memory lane resulting in the gallery you’re viewing now containing a striking array of photos before-and-after the flames and heat dramatically changed the landscape❤️❤️
Christmas Lights
The Goodpasture Bridge is one of a few Oregon Covered Bridges that changes into holiday colors come December. Be careful not to block traffic, but the red and green lights are amazing from every angle.
The Heceta Head is one of the most iconic lighthouse views along the Oregon Coast. If you’re traveling from Eugene to Florence, THIS is the view that assures a visitor that ‘you’ve arrived’ and will soon be feeling the sand between your toes. The entrance to Devil’s Elbow (i.e. Heceta Head beach) is the second tunnel on the journey along HWY 126. Once you get through the tunnel (and after honking your horn a few times!) you’ll see an immediate entrance to this Oregon Coast location on your left.
This was the beach that I walked on in my youth. I spent years trekking all over beach, the trails, the lighthouse, and the near-by Hobbit Beach finding agates and checking out the tide pools at low tide.
Despite my long-standing realtionship with this particular wedge of the Oregon Coast, I’d never actually captured a sunrise view of this Oregon Beach. But this year, from an empty pullout just up the highway, we caught an amazing rainbow of a morning of Heceta Head Lighthouse.
In my youth, I remember my long-pasted grandfather painting this lighthouse decades ago from a perch somewhere near Heceta Head Bed & Breakfast (pictured and glowing below and to the right).
Not to be surpassed, the views just kept coming on this particular morning. To our left, we caught sight of the moon rising along the horizon . . .
On mornings like this, it amazes me that even after a lifetime of looking at Heceta Head Lighthouse and playing on her beaches, I had yet to see her in all her glory. But on this morning . . . I saw it all:)
If you’re spending the night in Florence, Oregon, be sure to make it to the beach before the sun rises for these views.
Fern Ridge is a wide, shallow reservoir just west of Eugene and hosts all sorts of water activities during the summer. Since this body of water is also used for flood control as part of the Long Tom Watershed, it is drained by the US Army Corp of Engineers in the colder months to absorb seasonal rain. During these months, the low water levels allow for a unique trek across a mostly empty reservoir.
Now, be careful! You have time these treks. They’ll be easiest following a dry spell (a challenge during any Oregon winter). If you trek too soon after a rain, you’ll soon find yourself sliding or sinking into heavy, caked mud.
Long before the dams were built in the mid-1900s to create Fern Ridge Reservoir, this area was a large swampy flat and the seasonal home to natives with access to an array of hunting and birding opportunities. To this day, an extraordinary number of animal species call this area home with more than 250 species of birds visiting the neighboring wildlife areas each year.
On this particular winter day, we had sun on our side and we took quite a trek across the exposed mud flat. Yeti – always keeping it chill and cozy;)
To top it off, this evening we caught a sunset that just seemed to go on forever!
All in all, an amazing seasonal adventure . . . if you time it right;)
Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall walks along this shore are both beautiful and therapeutic. We’ve caught both sunrises and sunsets here and the landscapes are truly breath-taking. Along the way, we’ve found lovely stones scattered everywhere just waiting to be picked up by the handfuls including a number of agates.
Picnics & Campfires
For day trips, the Yeti Hopper Flip is our go-to travel cooler so one chilly winter trip, we picked up all the makings for beach-side charcuterie board from Provisions Market complete with a bottle of port to enjoy around the campfire.
Sunsets
Because of the long flat beach in every direction, the sunsets are truly breathtaking from every angle . . . we just couldn’t stop taking pictures!
Tabitha Crystal Eck 