Days 44 - 47 House Rock and Tombstone Pass, Oregon

Days 43 - 46

Day 44 - 12 July

Sunday morning we went to the Corvallis Unitarian Church to hear about and experience New World Kirtan music.

We drove to House Rock Campground on Route 20 in the Cascades.
The kids are collecting rocks in the South Santiam River next to their campsite. 

We took an afternoon walk to a 30-foot waterfall about 1/2 mile walk up the river. 

Sophie has all the moves

while Ansel and Kiana played in the shallow water.

The parents even found a few minutes to relax.

Day 45 - 13 July

We did a 2.4-mile loop to Echo Basin. Billy goats gruff is still a favorite game. 

Picnic lunch under Alaskan yellow cedars.

A dragonfly landed on Ansel's hat.

Echo Basin 

Bee on western coneflower (Rudbeckia occidentalis)

Hellebores with giant leaves

Back at the campground the kids found a deep hole for swimming and jumping.

Ansel and Sophie crouched to avoid the smoke while cooking 

hot dogs for dinner

and s'mores for dessert.

Lucky kibitzes while Midge plays Patience.

Day 46 - 14 July

Every morning Ansel and Ethan would go fishing for native cutthroat trout.

Baby chipmunk on walk to Tombstone Prairie from Tombstone Pass.

Columbine

Coneflower heads

Huckleberries

Cricket on western coneflower

After lunch we went on the Hackleman Old Growth Forest Walk. Sophie noticed how new plants get started by growing on fallen logs.

Large leaves and spiny stems of devil's club.

Sophie started another fire

so we could have more s'mores after dinner.

Day 47 - 15 July


Ansel fishing on the last day

Midge reading The Narrow Road to the Deep North

McDowell Creek Falls County Park near Lebanon on the way back to Corvallis.

Sophie and Ethan at 39-foot Majestic Falls