Sled riding down a volcano on a dinner plate... and other Oregon adventures

We've arrived in Oregon, which is incredibly beautiful, particularly when you love waterfalls!  Many thanks to Melenie and Katie for all the Oregon advice!

When I chose to see Crater Lake in June, I had some people advise us that we "might still be dealing with some snow at that time."  I thought, "How much snow can there really be in June?"

We arrived at Crater Lake, and these poles are along the roads in the National Park, so that they park service can see where to plow.  Kind of like the short poles my dad puts near his driveway.  These poles are 18 feet tall.  Crater Lake gets an average of 533 inches of snow each year.  For perspective, my town in Ohio gets an average of 47 inches of snow each year.

Each side of the road is still piled with snow, often taller than our ridiculously large truck!  Also, over half the roads are not yet open in the park because of the snow.

Here's a picture of our kids sliding down the snow pile.  There is no hill under this snow, it's just snow that was piled near a parking lot.  Crazy!

We enjoyed this so much that we came back later in the week, this time prepared with dinner plates, stopping at a small volcanic mountain to sled ride.  Some adventures on this trip make my "most memorable" list.  Sled riding on dinner plates down a volcano in June makes this list!

So how much snow can there be in June?  Hmm.  I stand corrected.

Crater Lake itself is amazingly beautiful.  Char declared it the most scenic thing we've seen so far.  We love this!

While in Oregon, we're camping near a river that flows extremely quickly.  The water speed could fill an Olympic-sized pool in a minute.  We're keeping our kids away from the edge.

We also got to hike to a bunch of waterfalls, which I love!!!

And we went to Natural Bridges.  The Rogue River flows through lava tubes from the volcano.  Most of the tubes have collapsed, but parts have not, and so the river goes underground in those places, creating the natural bridges.  Char and the boys had fun crossing this natural bridge and looking at the potholes.

Oregon is a wonderful state!  We're also really limited on technology, needing to leave our campground if we want to make phone calls or get internet.  If you're trying to reach us, and we're not replying, that's why!

Hope all is going well for you!!  Much love from the Utter family!

P.S.  While in Utah, students of the Utter Roadschool picked up a cinematography elective, and here's the result.

Tae Kwon Do Bear