Sunday, April 25, 2010

Our week for gravel turnouts


We are at yet another gravel pull-off, this one along US-395 north of Lake View, Oregon (map). Just a few yards east of us is an older alignment for 395, still paved, and we briefly considered pulling the bus up onto the old road for the night. Ironically, there is a commercial RV park just a quarter mile north of here.

Yesterday's drive was lovely, up into the Surprise Valley and across the Warner Mountains. As we rolled north to the state line, we noticed Goose Lake is nearly empty, the first time I've seen it this way in the two decades I've been coming up here. We made a brief stop at the Safeway in Lake View for supplies before continuing here, a spot that was listed in our Day's End directory.

Today we will take Oregon 31, the continuation of the Oregon Outback Scenic Byway, which will angle us over to US-97 towards Bend. We've done this road before, in the other direction, and remember it as being quite a beautiful drive. First, though, I'd like to take a walk on the old grade. The countryside is gorgeous, with the hills green with spring, but still sporting patches of snow.

3 comments:

  1. Hope George is okay. Not fun to have an ill animal on the road. Taking him to the vet on a scooter had to be difficult to say the least. Don't envy you. Agree, three pets are fun. Couldn't go with fewer.

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  2. I'm sorry about your kitty. Our JR died of kidney disease a couple of years ago, so I know that treatment and waiting is kind of rough on the humans and cats alike.

    I am very familiar with the CAT unit.

    When you say "pull-offs," are these "official" parking lots, or are they just spaces by the road where you can pull off? My DH and I are preparing for a life full-time on the road, and we like boondocking. If you have a link where you've explained this please feel free. I'm a newcomer to your blog and thoroughly enjoying it.

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  3. @Linda: In this particular case, they were small parking areas immediately adjacent to the road. That's unusual for us, and we generally will not spend the night at such a pull-off unless we have some other evidence that it is permissible to do so. In this case, they were listed in a directory of overnight parking locations.

    I have written extensively about boondocking on public lands a bit further from the paved road, here.

    The directory is one of many that Louise wrote about here.

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