Crater Lake National Park + Rogue River

After my interview on the coast, I drove inland to visit my buddy Mitty in Eugene, OR.  Mitty and I have done a bunch of traveling together, so true to form we rallied for a road trip down to Crater Lake National Park and Joseph H. Stewart State Recreation Area.  The interview I had on Tuesday was actually for two positions -- one at Beverly Beach and the other at Joseph Stewart.  I've been researching the bojebus out of both places, but there's nothing like actually going there and seeing it for myself!

Our trip to Crater Lake National Park did not get off to a promising start.  The weather was cold and drizzly, and the views were totally socked in with fog.  But we decided to wait it out, and it totally paid off -- the fog rolled away to show the clear, dazzling blue waters.  Amazing.  Crater Lake go down almost 2,000ft -- it's the deepest lake in the US and one of the ten deepest in the world!  The lake was formed 7,700 years ago when the volcanic Mount Mazama catastrophically erupted.  Without the underlying magma to support it, the top of the volcano collapsed, leaving behind a giant caldera.  The caldera eventually filled in with rain and snowmelt, forming Crater Lake.  Wizard Island sits defiantly in the middle of the lake -- it's a cinder cone produced by a later volcanic eruption.

After Crater Lake, we hit the road again and drove along the Rogue River.  The water was clear and roaring, and the canyon walls were coated with ferns and moss.  The Rogue is classified as a 'Wild and Scenic River,' which means it's protected from development.  It runs through southwest Oregon from Crater Lake to the Pacific, and it's known for its whitewater rafting, salmon runs, and rugged scenery.  I'm definitely coming back with the ducky to raft the 35-mile run of Class III+ rapids downstream of Grants Pass!

We drove along the Rogue and made our way to Joseph H. Stewart Rec Area, which is located along Lost Creek Reservoir.  So far in my career I've only worked at 'scenic parks' with less of a focus on recreation, and honestly I'm not wild about reservoirs.  But at least reservoirs in Oregon seem a little different and fit in with the landscape a bit more -- they don't seem like giant evaporation tanks!

Mitty and I finished the loop up to Eugene that night, and I drove back to Portland the next day just in time for the North American Organic Brewers festival. I hung out with the fam a bit more and got to see another cousin with another new baby.  :)

The next afternoon, I caught my flight back to Salt Lake City.  I settled down into my seat -- tired but satisfied.  Even if I don't get the job, it was a great trip.  I got to soak up some much needed ocean/tree/rain/moss, see some really incredible places, visit family and friends, and escape the hot desert summer for a week. Fingers crossed!

Oregon Coast

After saying goodbye to the family, I drove west from Portland to the Pacific Coast.  The Oregon coast is stunning -- the cold Pacific relentlessly beats against a craggy shoreline, lighthouses stand like silent sentinels over tidepools full of crazy critters, and gray whales migrate just offshore.  Thanks to a far-sited government in the 1910s, the entire Oregon coast is public land dotted with over 70 state parks and federal land.  I've lived in landlocked places my entire life (you don't count Chicago's Lake Michigan, right?) so the ocean always seems like the end of the earth to me.  I must have pulled my rental car over 1000000 times on the 70-mile drive from Tillamook to Newport -- it was hard to pay attention to the road when all I could do was gawk.

My destination was Beverly Beach State Park, where I was interviewing for a job.  I reached Newport the day before my interview, so I spent the afternoon exploring the park.  It's in a really amazing location, about 6 miles north of Newport, right on the coast.  You can walk right from a gigantic campground (250 campsites and 21 yurts!) to a big sandy beach.  From the beach, you can see Yaquina Head Lighthouse and the headlands of Otter Rock.

In the evening, I went to check out the Oregon Coast Aquarium.  I saw otters, a giant octopus, and the jellyfish room.  It was definitely a switch from my land-locked desert critters!  That night, I walked along the bay and grabbed dinner at Noodles, a small restaurant with fantastic Asian food located right on the waterfront.  Good stuff.

On Tuesday, I had my interview at Beverly Beach State Park.  It went well enough, although I don't think it was a slam-dunk.  This park is reeeeally popular and gets some huge numbers.  It's probably too big of a jump for me to seem superqualified.  Oh well -- it was still a good experience.  I got to introduce myself, practice my interview skills, and learn a little about a different state park system.  It's something to work towards!

On my way out of town, I stopped at the Rogue Brewery for a tour.  The tour was really casual and low-key. Afterwards,  I grabbed a beer at the pub and hit the road to go see my buddy, Mitty, in Eugene.

Oregon

Heyo!  I'm officially on the road for a spur-of-the-moment trip to interview for two jobs with Oregon State Parks!  Utah is an amazing state, but every once and while a job will pop open that seems too good to pass up.  So when two supervisory park ranger positions were posted -- one on the Pacific coast and the other near Crater Lake National Park -- I had to apply.  The timing is a little ridiculous because we're in the thick of wedding reception and honeymoon planning, but hey ... there's never a perfect time for anything, is there?  I figure if you wait for the "perfect" time to move, change jobs, get married, etc. you'll stay in the same place forever.  And even if I don't get the job, I get to go on a killer roadtrip, explore beautiful places, and see some family and friends.  Here we go!

the Pacific!

Rogue River

I've been to the Pacific Northwest several times before, and each time I'm totally overwhelmed by the contrast between Utah and Oregon.  Where to start?  Obviously, the environments couldn't be more different.  Southern Utah is a red-rock desert that only gets 5.5 inches of rain a year.  Oregon gets at least ten times that much rain, with gazillions of gigantic trees, ubiquitous moss, and roaring river gorges to prove it.  Utah has a labyrinth of canyons and crystal-clear night skies; Oregon has volcanic mountains and the ocean.  Utah has tiny hidden Anasazi granaries; Oregon has tidepools full of starfish.  Both places are amazing; both are polar opposites.

That being said, Utah doesn't even get close to Oregon's culture.  There's a lot of things I love about Utah, but the politics, food, beer, coffee, and music unfortunately don't make the list.  Oregon is busting at the seems with fresh, creative, local food.  The beer is amaaaaaaazing -- after 5 year of Utah's halfassed 3.2%, I heard angels sing from my first Laurelwood Free Range Red Organic Ale to my last Rogue Dead Guy Ale.  And honestly, sometimes in Utah I feel like the token non-LDS liberal hippie, while in Oregon I felt conspicuously unstylish without a fixie bike, jaunty scarf, and tattoo sleeves.  I'll always feel a little like an outsider in Utah; Oregon could feel like home.

Anyway, my trip started in Portland.  The SLC-PDX flight is ridiculously quick (1 hr 45 min) and totally painless.  I stayed a couple nights with my cousin Kate, her husband Jeff, and their new baby Ruby.  My aunt and uncle were also in town getting some quality time with their new grandbaby.  I haven't seen them in a long time, so it was fun to catch up and see their new place.  Ruby is 3 weeks old, teenytiny, and really stinkin' cute.

Ruby!

We all spent Sunday wandering around Portland.  It goes without saying that Portland is amazing -- everyone knows that by now, right?  It's dynamic yet laid back, and busting at the seams with Gore-Tex, gourmet Peruvian food carts, urban gardeners with living roofs, and hipster fixies.  Portland is the perfect size for a city.  With around 600,000 people, it's big enough to feel exciting and dynamic, but not so huge that it feels crazy.  I could always find parking, the drivers were unexpectedly polite, and people were really friendly.  We had some amazing food, watched a red-head bike festival (?), walked around beautiful city parks, and drank beer.  Perfect.

amazing city parks

Westwater

Goblin Valley employees hit the permit lottery this year!  Between the three of us, we snagged permits for the San Juan River, Buckskin Gulch, Zion Narrows .... and Westwater!  Westwater is a 17-mile stretch of the Colorado River filled with some pretty gnarly Class IV rapids.  You can run it as a 1- or 2-day trip.  It's big, rocky, and definitely more than our Class-III ducky could handle.  Nate offered to take his Cataraft down, which was fantastic.  The river was running around 6000 cfs, which was considered a moderate flow (check river levels here,) so the five of us piled in and held on!

There are eleven rapids in Westwater Canyon.  The first two are Wild Horse and Little Dolores (a.k.a. Little D.)  The craziest rapids are found within a two-mile stretch of canyon surrounded by black pre-Cambrian Rock:  Marble Canyon, Staircase, Big Hummer, Funnel Falls, Surprise, Skull, Bowling Alley, Sock-It-To-Me, and Last Chance.  It was definitely crazy, but Nate handled the whole thing with finesse and a level-head.  We used Belknap's waterproof map as a guide.  The final stretch of river is slow-going flatwater, so we whipped out a little motor to scoot us along.

To raft Westwater, you'll need to do a shuttle.  The Westwater Ranger Station is the put-in and Cisco Landing is the take out.  To get to the Westwater Ranger Station from I-70, take exit 221.  Turn north at the stop sign. Turn right onto the road paralleling I-70. Turn left shortly after passing over Westwater Creek. Follow this road for 4.5 miles to the Ranger Station.  To drop a car at Cisco Landing from Interstate 70, take exit 214. Turn south at the stop sign. Follow this road to the ghost town of Cisco. Turn left near the "Cisco Disco," a decrepit building with an elaborate mural. Take another left shortly thereafter. After 2.5 miles, turn left toward Cisco Landing. The boat ramp is two miles down this road.  The round-trip shuttle takes about 2 hours.

map credit: blm.gov

Redtail Aviation Scenic Flight

Holy sh*t, this weekend was amazing!  I finally checked a big item off my bucket list and took a scenic flight over Canyonlands.  As long as I've lived in Utah, I've wanted to hop in a tiny plane and get a bird's-eye view of the red rock desert below.  Sufficed to say ... it was amazeballs.

We booked the Canyonlands Tour with Red Tail Aviation, then drove to the tiny Moab airport in the morning.  We hopped in the Cessna 172 with our pilot Jim and took off.  The views were incredible, Jim was a fantastic guy, and we took some great photos.  It was amazing, even though I got a little green when we hit turbulents.   But besides all that... seeing this world from the air gave me a deep sense of satisfaction.  I've spent the last 5 years hiking, biking, and kayaking all over this desert and seeing everything from ground level.  But being up at 7,000' let me see the big picture -- a landscape that can seem like a convoluted maze suddenly revealed its order and patterns.  I could look across an endless red world of spires, canyons, buttes, and mountains to see how everything fit together.  Seriously amazing.  I can't seem to find the right words to do it justice, so I'll let the photos take it from here:

confluence of the Green and Colorado

Dead Horse Point

potash ponds