La Pine, OR Day 2

Saturday, June 6, 2015

Today we needed a day to just hang around home.  This sight-seeing business can wear you out.  We did laundry, grocery shopping and worked on a few little projects.

We decided after dinner that we would drive to Newberry Crater National Forest to see Paulina Peak, Paulina Lake and East Lake. We were thinking perhaps we could get some good sunset pictures.

This is one of the boat ramps at Paulina Lake.  Mallards around and people fishing.

This is the edge of the lake as Tic looked eastward from the boat ramp.

The clouds were building.  Tic got this cool picture of the clouds over the lake.

We saw the road heading to Paulina Peak, but it was closed. This was the first picture Tic got of Paulina Peak.    Paulina Peak is 7984 ft elevation.  Our RV park is at approximately 4200 ft elevation.  This lake was at 6336 ft elevation.  It was about 7:30pm and starting to cool down.

This is Paulina Peak from a different view.  Impressive.

Next we headed to East Lake just a little more eastward from Paulina Lake.

At East Lake we took a short hike up a hill to see what we could see.  This was the best view of East Lake.  East Lake was about 6450 ft elevation.

We hiked back to the car and headed to an overlook point we saw on the way to the lakes.  It was about 8:10pm by the time we got to the overlook.  We were in shorts and T-shirts so we sat in the car waiting for sunset.

This was our view when we first arrived.  The forest service had a controlled burn today and the sky is still full of smoke.  If I had not seen this view myself, I would think it was an imagined painting.

As we were walking around the lookout area, I saw this little pine tree.  I thought the flower sort of things and the tiny pine cones were amazing.

Sunset was starting.  We enjoyed it so much that you are getting the pleasure of enjoying it also.

This is the most awesome of the sunset pictures.

It was interesting that once the sun set, other clouds began to get that orange reflection.  We had to pull over on the side of the road so Tic could get this picture.  Just stunning.

This was the sunset as we parked the car at home.  

What a wonderful way to end the day!