THE APPROACH OF WINTER – BEND, OREGON

Leaving the relaxing hot springs at Crystal Crane, we headed west to Bend, Oregon.  Since we had but a few days to spend in Bend, we stayed at the Bend Elks Lodge (click here for read our review and see photos).

The first 100 miles west of Crane look like this (although usually without a building!)…	…then you spy trees, and the stunning Cascades.  Not much farther to Bend.
	We stopped in Bend to visit Costco and Trader Joe’s (yes, Sue, there IS a TJ’s here, on the north end), and to see – at long last – Newberry Volcanic National Monument, south of Bend.  Too bad for us, the first cold blasts of winter arrived on the same day we did! It was 44 degrees and windy when we stopped at Lava Lands Visitor Center to watch a 10 minute orientation video.  Our very short walk on the nature trail ended when a few drops of rain began to fall.
After a stop at La Pine State Park to check out the campground for future trips and visit Oregon’s largest Ponderosa Pine, we were off to Newberry Crater, hoping to hike on the big obsidian flow. As the road climbed towards the Paulina Visitor Center, the temperature dropped.  Before long, we saw fresh snow on the sides of the road.  This was the greeting we got at the Visitor Center: Boarded up!  CLOSED!  And COLD!
	And it only got whiter and colder as we drove higher.  Before long, we faced reality: the first blasts of winter have arrived, and we weren’t gonna find warm sunshine any time soon! This was our view from our picnic spot: the boat launch ramp at Paulina Lake.  We didn’t linger long, especially when a few snowflakes started to drift down.  We don’t have clothes for this!

The nights are now cold enough that our little electric heater can’t handle the chill.  Since we don’t like the noise of the furnace, Odel hauled out the Kozy-World propane heater which keeps us snuggly warm with no noise.  Looks like we’re going to need it every night next week, as we make our way from Bend to Sacramento.