We had a fairly long drive from Crescent City to Bend, but fortunately a ton of it was through forests and very pretty.The first thing we did in the morning was head out for another hike. We absolutely love the alpine lakes around Bend and headed directly to one of them.And we were not disappointed!When we got up to Matthieu Lake we decided that we had to have a swim. It was a very hot day, and the lake was surprisingly pleasant.Jules also got in!Me swimming over the lake. A handful of people came by, but we mostly had the place to ourselves.Jules has been snagging photos of butterflies everywhere we go.A huge fire seems to have moved through the area and some of the hike was through this devastation. As we were leaving we noticed that Jules had a pin nearby in Maps. So we headed over to see what it was and were not disappointed. The road headed through this lava field.And we found ourselves at an observatory built onto the hill.They had this really clever system where there were windows in the rock pointing at the various mountains around the area. Each labeled so you know what you’re looking at.The next morning I headed out early for a hike up to Green Lake. This is a permitted hike, but I luckily snagged one.The lakes at the top were each different, and each beautiful.Very nearly coming short crossing a log that turned out to be more floating than stable.This actually isn’t the Green Lake, but it surely should be called that! There was a fair bit of snow along the trail, and ultimately I was turned back by snow.That afteroon we headed off to tube down the Deschuetes river. Apparently 200,000 people do it a year, so they have this really well organized.At one point there are some smallish rapids, which feel quite intense in a tube. Especially when trying to film!After dinner we had a walk along the river we had just tubed down.And saw this beaver!The next morning after checkout we stopped off for yet another hike. Here the scenery is very different, with this river flowing along the dry, but beautiful Smith Rock.The trail we did is called Misery Ridge, and we assume that is because of the extremely steep climb. Several sections were at 24% gradient.Before hitting the road we both showered and got into fresh clothes!
