After a fun evening in Bend, Carolyn and I had decided we would take a day trip down to Crater Lake National Park. It is cloudy, a few drops of moisture, and smoke is in the air from as far away as California added to some local fires in the Mount Jefferson area.

The trip to Crater Lake is a beautiful drive on US Route 97, aka the Dalles-California Highway and the World War II Veterans Historic Highway through some small towns, (Chemult, La Pine, etc) and the traffic flows with no delays whatsoever. Amazing drive past state parks, river areas, the possibilities never end. The road continues on to Klamath Falls another area that has unlimited opportunity for outdoors activities.

We arrive at the northern entrance to the National Park and the Park Ranger informs us that you can barely see Crater Lake due to the smoke that has settled in area from the Northern California fires. We came to see so we were not going to be deterred from visiting.

Due to the smokey conditions, we only hiked along the rim with no peak hikes since the views had completely dissipated. We still had fun viewing another National Park that we had never been to and another one knocked off our list. It is beautiful and most interesting to read about the history of the area. The visitor center was open and the number of visitors was low.

On our return to Bend, we took our time and headed back to our craft beer tour. Our first stop was Silver Moon Brewing. This one is a hidden gem located next to the Bend Parkway and a short walk from our hotel. Great outdoor patio and the Mango Daze (Mango Pale Ale) was excellent. It was hopping and everybody was socially distanced and of course face masks. We walk about a mile and a half , down to the Mirror Pond and the Drake Park area, across the bridge and over to 10 Barrel. 10 Barrel is one that was on my to do list but long story short, that did not work out as the customer service was awful. Let’s just say I got a bit heated and left. What’s a fellow to do? Ok, the Boss Rambler Beer Club, got us right in and we sat outdoors and enjoyed ourselves.

We decide to walk next door to the Sunriver Brewing Co. Once again, we sit outdoors in the cool of the evening. We eat dinner and I can honestly say it was the best fish and chips I ever had. The fish was cod but lightly battered in some special way that was incredible. I haven’t not mentioned this but, I have eaten fish and chips almost every day in Oregon because they are really good. But this, in my opinion, is the best. Great dinner to end the evening and a nice walk back to the Doubletree.

Next stop on our Central Oregon adventure will be a Tumalo Falls hike.

It was another Beautiful Day, no words needed just some fine mellow music.