Donaldson Crew Adventures

2nd half of October and weather looking like it might pop into the 70’s in town we decided to head out for a short fall getaway to one of our favorite family spots - little crater campground at Paulina Lake. It’s the latest we have been there in the year and the campground was almost empty with only a few locals there. The hot springs were almost empty on a sunny Saturday afternoon!

Dinner, smores, fire and a sunset made for a good evening and we also got to see the comet again after dark. 

Sunday morning was cool and windy but warmed up nicely and we went to the obsidian flow for a quick hike. 

Hunter, Preston and I went for a day hike on the west side of the Sisters mountains. We did about 10-11 miles on a loop that took us to some mountain lakes and to the top of Scott Mountain (6116 ft).

Hand Lake - first lake on the loop. 

 This is called the wagon trail. Before there was a road over the pass a trail was hacked out through miles of lava in the late 1800’s that you can still see today - only sparse vegetation growing.

The summit of Scott Mountain. Great views of the sisters slightly subdued due to the smoke in the air. 

Benson Lake is a beautiful swimming lake in the mountains.  I took Hunter and Noah here on an overnight backpack when they were younger in 2015.

This year we headed up to Elk Lake for July 4 to best the heat in town.  It was an amazing relaxing day. 

It’s been a while since we have been to Sparks lake so decided to head up.  Still patches of snow but great weather.  Boys got in to swim.  Hunter, Preston and his buddy Caleb from the neighborhood.

Lulu and papa were visiting and the weather was amazing this past weekend so so got out for some nice fall walking (including some shopping for the girls on Saturday). 

While the girls shopped the boys walked Shevlin park on Saturday and Sunday we all went up to hike Todd lake in the cascades.  (Big mountain in the background of some Todd lake photos is Mt Bachelor - the local ski mountain) 

We were able to sneak in a quick weekend camping trip to Paulina lake and Little Crater Campground the second weekend of September.  The weather was perfect early fall weather. Warm in the day and cool at night. Two nights of amazing sunsets as well. 

Friday night. 

Saturday Fun with friends 

Saturday Sunset

Noah wanted to do a backpacking trip with some friends for his birthday. Unfortunately, one of them broke his foot, so it was just 4 of us this year. A few years ago we did the same on his 13th birthday.

This trip we went to another one of the cascade volcanoes. Mt. Thielsen in southern Oregon. 

Fathers Day hike with the family near Sisters. Little chilly today but great to get out. 

Also Abbie made me a cake which was so cool! 

Fresh snow overnight at bachelor and clear sky’s today - we decided to head up for perhaps our last day. Not because there isn’t enough snow - just that May gets busy. Great day today especially with fresh powder.