Bend, Oregon

Sunday
We left collier SP to drive north to Bend, which is just to the East of the Cascade Mountains. We planned to camp at Tamula State Park, which is close to the centre of Bend. Roy intended to get some work done on his pickup, so we wanted to stay for a few days. After some negotiation with the very nice ranger we were able to book to stay until Friday.
Monday
By now the weather was improving, but all the activity of the last few days has taken its toll on Sally, who has crashed for a couple of days to try and recover.
Tuesday
The weather is now warm and sunny. Sally is still resting so I took Roy and Anne and we attempted to drive up one of the local volcano features - Mount Pauline, which has two lakes at the top. However 6 miles from the summit the road is closed for the winter - we think it opens on Thursday. So we had to turn round and come back down, however the day was not wasted as we found a lovely mountain stream where we had our picnic lunch and took a walk in the sunshine. we saw some pretty birds, one of which is a nuthatch. my photos were poor as focusing is difficult when the birds are in trees and the auto focus chooses the closest object (usually a twig) to focus on, still the pics give the general idea.

Bend is surrounded by evidence of vulcanicity and many volcanoes can be seen around the place. To the West is the skyline of the Cascade mountains, with its volcanic peaks: Bachelor, Sisters, Washington, Three Finger Jack, Jefferson and away to the north Mighty Mount Hood, beyond that I can just make out Mt Adams. They are all snow covered and look very impressive. Above the campground is a bend in the road which gives a good view of these mountains. I have been able to to get some pics during the day and this evening took some sunset photos.