I haven't been to Bend/Central Oregon in almost a year! Can you believe that!? I sure can't. So, I needed to get my butt over there to see what's going on in the pines. I left from Salem, taking Hwy 22 over the pass, just a few touches of snow left at the end of May, and luckily not horrible traffic, but I did seem to tweak a few speeders off since I had my cruise set at about 60. At any rate, was a great drive, beautiful day. The valley was in the 70s when I left at about 8am, and was around 90 by the time we hit Bend. Just a nice day to go for a drive and visit old haunts. :)
On the way back I was more inclined to snap a few pics, and did so above Clear Lake, overlooking Mt. Washington. The trees below (and all around you at this point) are recovering from a huge burn that took place a few years ago. In some places you can really see the new baby trees coming back. Likely the area was replanted about 4-5 years ago. I'm glad they made the effort to replant. That area is beautiful, and I remember driving through there right after the fires. It was devastating.
Another trip I took was to the Oregon Coast. Just a quick "let's get cool" trip over 26, down to Newport and back home. Always a nice drive. And the trick to escape the valley heat worked, as the fog had already rolled in and cooled things down very nicely at the coast! This pic is near Manzanita, I believe. As I was barefooting it around on the rock ledge overlooking this view, a truck full of Chicago Italians pulled up to get a few snaps themselves. I haven't seen that much gold around somebody's neck in awhile! Wow! You know you're a northwesterner when... :)
The next day, I spent just tooling around the mid-valley area. Happened upon this beautiful field of orange. Situated among all the green grass and hay fields of Marion and Polk counties, it called to me like a beacon and I just HAD to take a few pictures. Doesn't really do it justice, because the colors were SO vibrant. Of course it was really cool to take the pics because when you got down close to the flowers, all you could hear was the buzzing of busy honey bees!! Which made me happy, because our bee population is dwindling fast and I was happy to hear a couple hives hard at work. Not really sure what the planting was, but it was beautiful. Maybe a type of mustard? Sort of looks like a mustard variety, though the mustard fields I've seen are typically much brighter yellow. If you can spot it, notice the lone California Poppy hiding among it's orange colored friends.
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