McKenzie River with Camille and Archer - July 6-8, 2015

Last year I took Camille and Archer to the Obsidian Limited Entry Area (Three Sisters Wilderness), but we were thwarted by snowbanks obliterating the trail. Bummer!  But in our drive to the trailhead we drove alongside the McKenzie River.  A little research revealed that alongside the river is the McKenzie River National Revreation Trail. What could be better than backpacking this trail!  Well, actually, it turns out that the trail is nice, the river gorgeous, the trees regal, but "primitive camping" is neyt. Visualize a beautiful river nestled at the bottom of a steep and deep valley, where the vegetation is very thick. Right - no places to set up a tent without first clearing the land with heavy equipment. 

So our backpacking changed to car camping with a couple strenuous day hikes.  The campground was massive and right next to a pretty big reservoir. There were 45 tent sites, and we were the only campers. Flush toilets, water from a spiket. We were roughing it. 

There are a couple big waterfalls that we explored

And walked along

Yeah stumps and trees were fun

We also did some geocaching along the trail. The name of one is "It's Hot Here"

We went to find the hot spring. Our first attempt took us to this little creek where I hoped we'd find the spring. Nope. So the kids frolicked. 

This was their idea of going under water. Granted the water was shallow. 

Back at the car we discovered if we had gone in the opposite direction across the road, we'd come the the spring and the casch.  There were no nude soakers at the time, but we decided to come back in the morning when the air would be fresher. 

Some mist. 

Some sulphur fumes. 

And finally the famous Blue Pool and hot but hungry picnickers.