Smith Rock and Crooked River

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

  

Happy Birthday, Laurie.  Seems like only yesterday you were a baby and then that sometimes cranky teenager.  Where have the years gone?  Love you and am very proud of the woman you have become.

Our venture out today really was not very exciting.  We drove north to the Crooked River Ranch which looked like it would be a very nice golf course, housing area, etc. from the write up we saw.  What a disappointment.  It is located down in a valley (see pictures below) and like the area near Redmond, high desert, very dry and not too pretty.  We also never saw the Crooked River.

Saw a sign for Steelhead Falls and followed GPS directions right and left and finally down a dirt road to the trailhead.  While it said it was a half mile to the overlook which would have been okay with us, what wasn’t is that most of it was a steep downhill walk which meant a walk back up that steep hill.   Needless to say, we decided to skip it.  We looked up pictures of the Falls on Google and while it looked rather nice, the walk was not something we really wanted to tackle.  So onward to the next sightseeing adventure or not.

We returned to the town of Terrebonne (an unincorporated community 6 miles north of Redmond) and went to Smith Rock State Park which is a rock formation of majestic rock spires that rise above the Crooked River.  The rock became famous in the mid-1980’s as a rock climbing destination.  We decided that climbing the rock was just “a bit beyond our climbing level” (hee, hee), so took a picture and departed back to Redmond.

Ron stopped in downtown Redmond for me to enjoy a large Antique Mall with lots of interesting things to see.    I found a small object (a wooden rooster) to add to my collection which I put on top of two shade valances n the RV.  It has to be small and even then sometimes it is difficult to find some place anything in so limited a space. 

We leave here tomorrow for Stevenson, WA, the sights along the Columbia River and a visit with my college roommate Julie and her family.  I haven’t seen her for 11 years so it will be great to catch up.