Before we got on the road I wanted make a quick side trip to show her a neighborhood nearby called Deschutes River Woods where I had seen a nice log home while I was out exploring. The house looked to me like it was just being completed. Besides being a pretty home, it had what must have been a six or seven acre pond behind it! (You know what they say about location.) We pulled off the road beside the pond just to take it all in, and I happened to glance up and spot a bird circling a few hundred feet over our heads with a white tail and head. It was a bald eagle! I just happened to have my binoculars with me so Alicia and I got out of the car to take a look. We had planned on driving for an hour to do some sight seeing, and here we were not 3 miles from our house already seeing one heck of a good sight! Alicia was really tickled to see the bald eagle. This was the first time she had ever seen one in person.
With one good sight under our belts we set out to see a few more. About a half hour north of Bend we pulled off the highway at the Peter Skene Ogden Scenic Viewpoint. At the overlook you can see strait down the basalt cliffs, hundreds of feet to the Crooked River below. It was spectacular! I hope Peter Skene Ogden was traveling east or west and not north or south when he encountered this chasm or he would have been really bummed!We finally made our way to the lake and ...oh...my...word. What a
stunning place! The approach to the lake was much like the approach to the PSOS Viewpoint. It was very flat and there was no hint of the water or the canyon until you were practically on top of it. A short drive down a steep road and we were soon beside the water where the Crooked River had slowed and widened to become one arm of Lake Bill Chinook. We were also now looking up the vertical face of these amazing basalt cliffs. The overwhelming 
sensation that I had was that we were much farther away from home, perhaps in the middle of a vacation. It reminded me of Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Wyoming and Utah if you're familiar with that. While I was out of the car taking a picture Shasta called shotgun.The campground itself is located on a strip of land between the Crooked River and Deschutes River arms of the lake. If you cross both of those rivers and keep going you eventually reach the Metolius River arm as well. I can't wait to go back. I'd better get those reservations made...
(Written 4/25/08 and back-dated)
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