This year has been busy for us. The kids are interested in the outdoors more than ever right now, but between our work, new business ventures, biking, running, adventuring, and school (their school is year-round), we haven’t had as much time for backpacking as in years past. That doesn’t mean we aren’t all jones-ing to get out there.
The other weekend it was going to rain in Portland so we decided to find a dry place to get away to. I remembered a camping spot I used to go to in Central Oregon long before I met my husband and the numerous hikes around it. We pulled it up on the internet (they didn’t have that back when I camped there, yikes!) and found a great trip to Bend Glacier.
To get to the campsite was an adventure all in itself.
We planned on backpacking in to Broken Top in the Cascades and then hiking to the summit via Bend Glacier, which unless you are a rock climber I don’t think you can get any closer to the top. None of us have ever seen a glacier up close. So the hike sounded perfect for our needs.
On our trip there I underestimated the time it takes to get to the place on the rugged backroads. So instead of backpacking in we stayed at my old car camping spot. It is a really nice spot by a creek where the kids could play, so nobody minded …and after being in the car for 5.5 hours instead of 3.5-4 we were hungry and ready to get out.
We set up camp and planned the hike for Saturday morning. I’m glad we stopped where we did, because had we continued on to the trailhead we would have had another 45 minute car ride. The roads were awful. You really need a high clearance vehicle for the roads out there nowadays. (Man, I’m sounding old).
At the trailhead, we signed in at the wilderness station and started our hike. It was a fairly easy hike with a lot of wonderful high-mountain wild flowers. I had forgotten how much I loved Central Oregon.
Click on a photo below to enlarge into a slideshow…
