Ahhhh - it is mid August and what better time to head up to Jefferson Park to camp at one of the most beautiful places in Oregon?! There were eight of us - Jessica, Bev, Camille, Kyna, Jenn and McKenzie Isom, Melissa Albiston, and I. Olga was planning to go, but at the last moment she had to drop out because of a terrible tooth infection and subsequent extraction.
We left at 7am Monday so we could be on the trail by 10:00. Here we are in all of our clean-ness
There was a big fire in 2018 which caused the closure of Jefferson Park in 2019 - and you could see the devastating results of the fire!
This is the junction with the trail to Triangulation Point
In the full sun, we were really HOT, and the soles of my feet were burning up. But, the only option was to press forward.
The only good side of the fire is that there were unrestricted views of the mountain. Previously we couldn't see the mountain because of the pesky trees.
You can see the extent of the fire damage. It looks like the fires just swooshed up the mountain side...especially in the valleys.
The trail to Jefferson Park is 5 miles long, and at the four mile point, we hiked into luscious green meadows with babbling brooks.
Bev and four others had gone ahead of three of us slower folk and had roamed the tent site area, finding the most perfect spot available.....our favorite site, #6, was already taken, but they found a good one, #17, which was on Bays Lake - that was a first for us as we've always been on the shore of Scout Lake.
And, we got to watch the movie on the mountainside called, "Sunset".
Bright and early Tuesday morning we headed to The Edge of Paradise - my most favoritist place in the whole world. I think I like it so much because one must scramble cross country and up a very very very steep mountain to get to it. And, besides that, Kyna, Olga and I discovered it on one trip when we followed surveyors tape that had been tied on to tree branches. The marked trees led us to a small area where there had been a fire - so we figured the fire fighters had put up the tape. We explored the area more extensively and kept going uphill and crossed three snow fields - and there we were on the Edge of Paradise.
Here we go - leaving our campsite
Walking past Scout Lake
Heading across a meadow
And in the distance you can see a rock fall on the side of a hill
Right there, between the two little trees is the entrance.
Up we went
Now we're through the really steep part into open mountain meadows.'
Made it!!
We plopped down at the lunch site and enjoyed the view for a couple of hours.
This may be my favorite photo.
Photos all around
Eventually we had to leave - - one last photo of E of P
Back across the meadows
Passed by Favorite Number 6
Next morning - Wednesday -we woke up to a rain shower...."plop plop plop" on our tents. The sky white with clouds
which got thicker
What to do? It was cold - I had on all three of the jackets I had brought, and the others were bundled warmly too. The plan had been to hike to Park Butte, but only three of the eight of us wanted to go. McKenzie and Melissa had nasty blisters (really nasty ones), Jenn and Jess didn't want to to Park Butte, and Kyna was cold - - - who wants to sit huddled in one's tent while three others hike to the top of a beautiful place - not as beautiful of E of P. The decision was made,...we would leave a day early.
We packed up....sniff..
Jenn's tent had a big problem with tent poles.
The hike out was much easier - well, it was all downhill, but there were clouds!!! We did the five miles in three hours
The alpine flowers were the best ever!
the burned forest didn't bother us much
..and lunch at Poppa Al's was the best
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