Fall River Campground

Today at Amanda and Brian’s we tried to help them reorganize in preparation for their trip to Iceland — tomorrow.  Brian’s parents came over for a visit. After visiting, organizing trash and recycling, and eating leftovers, we headed out to return the empty beer kegs and shop for a few veggies and milk.  The former errand was a bit difficult as the place to return kegs was closed on Monday.  We left the keg and hope we won’t get late fees. Amanda will call in the morning.

We certainly lucked out for the wedding, weather wise, as this morning we had heavy smoke in Bend.  A fire has started in the west of the Sister Mountains and wow was it smokey for a while.  It cleared as we headed south to our campsite for the evening, but returned as we hiked.

Fall River campground is nestled into a bend of the Fall River.  Eleven sites with picnic tables, fire rings, and pit toilets.  Our site is a bit secluded but has a ring of yellow “crime scene”tape around a tree.  There is one of the biggest ant hills (termites) I have ever seen.

After parking we took the trail along the river for about 3/4 of a mile.  A well-traveled trail.  Lots of deer poop and “rivers” of ants crossing the trail. We walked until an interesting ridge covered with volcanic boulders and what looked like Ponderosa Pines.  The water in the river is very shallow and absolutely clear. Lots of familiar wildflowers — yarrow, scarlet Gila, daisies, and fireweed. We returned to the van for a stir fry incorporating leftover pork from the wedding dinners.

We have AT&T cell service here so we learned from Emily that her flight out of Phoenix to Madison had been cancelled because of equipment problems.  The airline is putting her up in a hotel and have her on a direct flight home in the morning.  She appreciated that the hotel greeted her with lemon water and warm chocolate chip cookies.

-- Janet (text) and David (photos)