We rolled into Bend on a whim. Mostly because somewhere in her reading Tara discovered that Bend, OR is the #1 most dog friendly city in the country. So much so that one of their local breweries, and there are a lot of them along the “Bend Ale Trail,” Boneyard Brewery, even makes 6 packs for your dog..it’s called Dawg Grog. Bend is also the home of Ruffwear, which Murph might as well be a brand ambassador for, because he’s fully decked out in their gear…he even has their hiking pack so he can carry his own weight on long hikes..we’re also eyeing their dog sleeping bag so Murph will stop stealing all our covers at night when the temps drop down. (If you’re looking to buy Murphy a christmas gift this year, that’s what’s on his list) So obviously we had to stop. The first thing we did when we got there was take Murphy to an off leash dog park. I wasn’t expecting this, but this area of Bend looks a lot like the desert (a desert with snowy mountain peaks right behind you).. the ground is very dry and dusty except for the dog park… greenest grass in the town… like they had a sprinkler system for just this area. Murphy had a blast and on the way back to the car, decided to roll around in the dusty area… covering himself to the point that he no longer looked black… So, on to the dog wash. We stopped and got Murph a bath so that he wouldn’t smell like a foot anymore.
We spent the next 2 hours walking through the downtown area and there were a lot of really great stores, cafes and breweries. Again, we were able to bring Murphy just about everywhere… everything was pet friendly.
We make our way to the Bend Brewing Company for a drink and some lunch. (I know, Brewery after brewery with these two…) Then headed down the road to Crux Fermentation Project (another brewery) which had a huge lawn, picnic tables, lawn games, tables, high tops and live music playing… we spent some time here because it was really an awesome place and a good time. Then we sobered up, and headed to Crater Lake.
We left Crux on the later side, which is fine, but that meant we’d be arriving at Crater Lake in the dark. Luckily, the campground only had one pull through site left which is worlds easier than trying to back our camper into a spot in the dark. So we were in and headed to bed to rest up for our hike of the Cleetwood Trail.
Tara and I woke up, got Murphy squared away and were getting ready to head out for the Cleetwood trail hike when we noticed in the park handout that the trail was closed for the rest of the year due to construction and the expansion of the trailhead parking lot. Super bummer. The Cleetwood Trail is the only trail in Crater Lake NP that goes inside of the crater all the way down to the lake, where you can actually swim, fish, and be waterside. Without this trail, Crater Lake is really just a “drive and see” park… like Yellowstone, but not as “Disney”. There are a handful of other hikes, but aside from the Pacific Crest Trail which thru-hikers use, the other hikes are mostly to higher vantage points to view the lake, and didn’t really interest us. So, unfortunately that’s what we had to do… we drove around the lake taking in the views, which were incredible.
I really can’t express the water’s shade of blue. The pictures that we took have not been edited or enhanced in any way… this is just how blue the lake was.
Once we felt that we had our fill of Crater Lake views, Tara and I turned our attention to the more important obstacle at hand… it was Sunday. Not just any Sunday, but the first Sunday of the NFL season and the Pat’s were the 8:30 game (or, at Crater Lake, the 5:30 game) So while doing our laundry (the second time in the past month and half), Tara and I started asking around for where we could watch the game. Not one lodge in Crater Lake NP has a television. Not one. And anyone we asked, because we had no service to look this up on our phones, looked at us like we were crazy. Here we are at Crater Lake, in Oregon, with pretty much every outdoor activity you could ask for, and we’re desperately asking anyone who will listen where we can find a TV to watch football. The next suggestion we got was Klamath Falls, which was a solid hour, hour and fifteen minute drive. I happened to walk into one last visitor center and asked some kid who looked like he might have a clue.. and he said, head toward the town of Prospect, and go to Prospect Pizza. If the game’s not on, just ask and they’ll put it on for you. Prospect was about a 35 minute drive… so that’s what we did.
Prospect Pizza is located at the entrance of a rather shady looking RV Park (Read: Trailer Park), but we took the kids word and went in. It was a really nice family pizza place/small bar (felt like we were sitting in someone’s living room) with good beer and quite possibly the best BBQ chicken pizza Tara or I have ever had. The owner was the guy ringing up the register and pouring beers, and he had no problem putting the game on, as long as it didn’t bother the woman eating with her son… they didn’t mind, so we were in. It was an ugly win for the Patriots, but we’ll take it.
withoutwhatifs 