Trip to Redmond - McKenzie Pass

After I took Friday off from riding I decided to go see the snow-capped mountains off in the distance. Several people had mentioned to me about the McKenzie Pass ride that was only a few hours.  So off I went. This was Saturday, July 17th, or the 8th day of my trip.

First pics are of the little town of Sisters, about 20 miles to the west of Redmond. A nice touristy kind of town but way too crowded for me to stop and spend any time.

Here are a few pics of me fooling around with the camera.

I continued west on highway 242 toward the snow-capped mountains and got into the Descutes National Forest.  Here is a GPS track of my route for the day.

As I climbed up in altitude I finally got up to the main feature of the park and the ride - the lava beds.

It was amazing to see the thick pine forests on one side of the road and then as far as you could see up the mountain the raw, rugged, barren lava beds. It didn't look like you could even walk very far they were so rugged. 

Farther up the road was the summit of the McKenzie Pass and an observation tower. Here are some more pics from there.

I thought this was a neat picture showing a living pine tree rising out of the lava next to a dead pine tree.

I continued along 242 descending down the other side of the pass. The road got very twisty and was a lot of fun. It was easy to get drawn into going faster and enjoying the curves but there were a few large and slow RVs and on some of the hairpins corners the cars or RVs had scuffed some dirt from the inside of the corner into the road - sometimes well into the corner so you couldn't see it until last minute. After a few of those I thought I better take it easy.

At the bottom the designated route turned onto highway 126 to go north and then onto highway 20 to return to Sisters.  It was a faster smoother highway but still in the tall pine forest. I stopped for a water and butt break at the Clear Lake resort.

Clear Lake is named obviously because the water is so clear you can see old trees down deep in the water. They make a major business out of renting canoes so you can paddle out and look down at the old forest trees in the bottom of the lake. I was tempted to do that but it was windy at the time which made it difficult to see much standing on the pier, so I decided to keep going. 

Once back at the rally site I walked around and looked at bikes and vendors, ate some dinner, went to the beer garden and watched the band for a while.  Then a shower and to my luxurious tent for a good nights sleep.