Wednesday Drive

We've been walking for several weeks now.

It's time to take a drive.

Let's head out east from Eugene...

Just past Pleasant Hill and Dexter is the Lowell covered bridge.

At its peak Oregon had over 450 covered bridges.  Now there are only 56, 13 of those are in Lane County. The Lowell Bridge was built in 1907 and was replaced with this bridge in 1945. My maternal grandmother lived in Lowell in the 1930's and talked about how scary it was to walk through this bridge at night. 

As the Willamette River finishes cascading down from the mountains in must then navigate Look Out Reservoir and Dexter Reservoir. The reservoirs are drawn down now awaiting winter rains and spring runoff.

We then travel through the Willamette and Deschutes National Forests as we climb up the Willamette Pass.  Parts of the pass have a grade of 6% or 7% so there are several 'runaway' ramps for semi-trucks to use if needed. 

The forest is overwhelmingly Douglas Fir.

The understory has native rhododendron which are lovely in the spring.

Here's the beginnings of a mini forest - three different kinds of trees plus a rhody off to the left.

I was not able to get a photo of Odell Lake, one of our pretty high cascade lakes, but did manage a photo or two of Diamond Peak.

Diamond Peak is 8,748 feet tall and was white with recent snow.

The summit of Willamette Pass is 5,128 and there was fresh snow on the hills and the side of the road.

On the eastern side of the pass, the forest and the scenery change.

The Cascade mountain volcanic activity becomes very obvious with piles of basalt and red pumice.   

The forest changes from fir to pine and the vistas become more expansive.

We had a nice day trip and hope that you enjoyed our trip from Eugene to Sunriver as well.