TUMALO STATE PARK - JULY, 2010

We headed out after church on Sunday for a few nights of camping in central Oregon. The days were in the low 80s, the nights in the mid 40s. It was really nice weather!


Sunday - We arrived about 3:00 and set up camp. Tumalo State Park is about five miles from Bend, on the outskirts of little town of Tumalo, and right next to the Deschutes River. Our site had virtually zero afternoon shade, so we scarfed down an early dinner and fled the scene. There is a day use area across the street from the campground, so we went to check it out. Our plan was to get our feet wet in the river, just cool off a little and relax. A couple of the kids ended up soaked from head to toe, but we had a good time. Feeling a little more comfortable, we headed back up the hill to our site and roasted some marshmallows.
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Some of us tried to avoid smoke inhalation.

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Some of us attacked our s'mores (minus the chocolate, because they're better that way) like savage beasts.

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Some of us had our s'mores attack us.

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One of us opted to just eat graham crackers.
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Monday - We eat breakfast and head out to the Lava Lands Visitors Center, a place suggested to us by a friend. We drove up the hill you see in the picture below and checked out the view from over 5,000 feet elevation.

The view from the top, into the crater and for miles into the distance.

The view from the opposite side of the crater rim (we walked around the rim) with the fire lookout, which is where the previous picture was taken from, on the right.

An overhead view of the Trail of the Molten Lands, which we walked when we came back down the hill.

Walking through the trail pictured in the previous picture.

That night we hung out at the campground playground, showered, then played Skip-Bo in our tent until bedtime.

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Silas playing in the sand pit. Love this picture!

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Discovering weird things in the sand.
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Realizing the weird thing is the back of Devon's head, after being buried alive by Silas.

Tuesday - We head out for the Lava River Cave. We'd actually been near it the day before, but weren't prepared to go and had tired kids. It was cold and a little anticlimactic, but now the kids can say they've been in half a mile into a cave.

The boys heading into the mouth of the cave.

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Tuesday afternoon we went back to the day use area and spent several hours playing in the river, tossing a football, eating, reading books, and relaxing.

Three kids, who were bundled up in a 40 degree cave in the morning, enjoy soaking up some sun in the afternoon.




Naomi gets wrapped up like a taco by Devon, then guarded from the sun by me, producing an odd picture.

Our evening consisted of roasted hot dogs, a sleepy girl, roasted marshmallows, the token camping injury, moonlit walks, and lots of sitting around a fire.

Naomi, who hadn't napped, hit the sack a little early.

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Silas saw this cool rock and picked it up.

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He was unaware it had just shot out of the fire. He now has blisters on two fingers and a thumb.

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Wednesday - We woke up, took the mandatory family picture we'd failed to take during our trip, tore down our site, then headed home.