Donaldson Crew Adventures

For many years we have been doing an annual August family camp trip before heading back to school. This year we went for 4 days to Paulina lake from August 20-24. August 20 is of course Abbie’s birthday so we celebrated both at home and in camp the first night.  And we always go get abbie a free birthday drink at Dutch bros coffee. 

Friday was a mixed bag of weather. Lots of clouds and a little cool. Our friends the Bercots were camping for 3 nights so we decided to go to the hot springs on the north side of the lake. 

Saturday was probably our best weather day. Calm, no wind so a great day for being on the lake. Normally it gets choppy in the afternoon but it was as smooth as glass most of the day. We even tried to get holly on the paddle board. She put up with it for a while before jumping in and swimming to shore. 

Sunday was also good other than some smoke that started to roll in from Oregon fires. Not enough to smell it which was great be it put a haze in the air. Our friends the Christoff’s came up for a few hours in the afternoon with their kids. 

We love little crater campground on Paulina lake.  We have been going to this area for years now and the kids know how to get around on their own because its so familiar.  This year we will camp there 3 times!  Our annual family trip is always late august but Kelly picked up a great site that just happened to be open in June and we will go again in September with a few other families we know.

As is typical in the mountains the weather can change dramatically.  While cooler than Bend since we are up high, the weather on Friday (June 26) on arrival was in the mid 80's!  By our departure Sunday June 28, we had snow flurries:)  The fun of the mountains!  Jasper Lovejoy came with us this weekend as Hunter was camping with Jack Lovejoy.  

Pictures from the first day.  (note the green color in the lake is pine pollen washing up on shore)

Abbie practicing starting a fire with a ferro rod.

Noah and Jasper riding bikes into the lake at dusk.

Saturday after a breakfast of egg bites in the Dutch oven, I took Abbie, Jasper and Noah up to the lake overlook hike.  PJ stayed back to hang with Kelly.  

Sunday unfortunately was not nice to wake up to, so after trying to keep warm with a mornings fire we packed up and headed out as it started to snow.

Last friday I took the kids to Paulina Lake inside Newberry Crater.  This week after Hunters swim meet we went up to East Lake, which is the sister lake inside of Newberry Crater.  (see this picture - the lake on the right side is east lake)

Here is a panorama of the lake from our spot on the beach

We hung out on the beach and also rented a boat for a ride around the lake.  Great fun.

A cool old sign by the boathouse

Kelly is gone on a girls weekend in Boise, so I took Friday off and we went up to Newberry Crater for the day.  We rented a small motor boat at Paulina Lake Resort for 2 hours.  A good deal at only $30.  We traveled across the lake to the north side where the Paulina hot springs are located on the shore.  We had the area to ourselves.  The hot springs bubble out of the beach.  

After the lake I wanted to take the kids from the water level to the top of Paulina Peak at just under 8000 ft which is accessible by road.  The kids enjoyed seeing where we had just boated across.  Notice the 'big obsidian flow' a massive lava flow in the greater crater area.  

We ended the day off with a bbq in the back yard.