Simpsons Hood

Road Trip Day 5

First stop: Springfield, Oregon, Home of the Simpsons

Well, we didn't really see their house but the scenery in the area did resemble some show scenes. We went to a visitor center where I read they had maps to Simpson sites but they just printed something off and gave us a map of Eugene and Springfield and told us no one really does tours anymore. We went to see a mural that was was nearby and bagged the rest of the tour. The mural was great. Simpsons creator Matt Groening played a part in it and was there for a dedication in 2014.

Second stop Cannon Beach Mt. Hood

During our drive north before heading to the coast we saw Mt. Hood in the distance and decided to do Cannon Beach tomorrow. I have some mixed feelings about M.t Hood. It was beautiful, but getting that picturesque view was a terrifying drive down a narrow 2 way street with a drop off where I could not see the bottom (which I am assuming is a million feet down)! You could not easily get to any other views because they were through camp grounds where you needed a day pass and they were so crowded we couldn't find parking. I love a good visitor center to get my postcards and miscellaneous stuff with the place written all over it but this visitor center was...well, let's say quaint. It was a small museum with a couple shelves of stuff I didn't want but at least I got my postcards.

Ryan Note: We also passed a guy selling Elk Jerky out of his old station wagon. He did have a rigging on top of the wagon that contained a 5 foot tall "ELK" in block letters. "JERKY" was written on the windows in tape. He actually had a line waiting to buy his goods. See what happens when you legalize marijuana?

Third stop: Interstate 5

Literally stopped, for an hour on our way to our hotel in Portland. Traffic was so terrible Mabel (what I call the voice of Google Maps) had us make a complete circle and take us to a sketchy part of town. We finally made it and just ate dinner at the hotel because we did not want to get back in the car.

After 6 days in 6 different places we are getting a little tired and being together 24/7 Ryan and I are going between glaring at each other in annoyance and giggling over stuff that isn't even funny. (This was written before any of those Ryan notes)

Ryan Note: She's kidding. She loves my jokes and being stuck in a car with me for 300 miles a day. She just doesn't want to make everyone reading this jealous.

The Amazing Crater Lake

I'm a nerd and somewhere between the ages of 8 and 12, I was reading about an incredibly deep lake out west that was basically a caldera filled in with water. It didn't seem real to have a crater with that much water in it but sure enough, Crater Lake does exist and is absolutely amazing to see. I've wanted to come here for years and even though it was a ton of driving since this is very out-of-the-way, it was completely worth it.

The lake is in Mount Mazama, which erupted about 8,000 years ago and led to the collapse of the top of the mountain. After cooling, it filled in with rain and snow melt and now it's the deepest lake in the US and one of the clearest in the world. It has no inlet or outlet - all the water lost is by evaporation and all the water gained is via precipitation. Since there's no new sediment mixing it, it is very clear and an incredibly deep blue.

It snows a ton there and they don't open the full road until June (and sometimes not until July). There's still a little snow up there, which is insane to think about since it was about 75 degrees and very sunny at the top of the mountain and it has been like that for weeks.

It's hard to describe and the pictures below don't really do it justice. I think it's because from most vantage points you can take in the whole lake at once but whatever the reason, every view is spectacular.

I should also point out that we have about 50 pictures of chipmunks. They know people feed them so they just run over to you and basically beg for food. We didn't feed them but others around us did and who knew they loved pretzels and Doritos? They're basically the stoners of the animal kingdom. Anyway, they were cute (Disney kind of nailed their chipmunk cartoon characters) and Jess couldn't help herself. Enjoy!

As they say at Crater Lake, "Go ahead, feed the chipmunks - they almost certainly don't have the plague." Note: no one says this.