Waterfalls, Rivers, Lakes, Mountains and a Rolling Hotel

The first objective today was to visit the two waterfalls which are just a couple of miles from the RV Park.  When I checked in, the worker told me that we had to go see the Mill Creek and the Barr Creek Falls.  He said that it would be a short walk, was not sure if Marcia's scooter would handle the pathway.  It ended up that I had to go it alone.  And his short walk was more like a mile and a half round trip...and when you walk down, you have to walk up...which made it seem even longer.  But the falls were very nice.

The above picture is the Mill Creek Fall, while the Barr Creek Fall is below.  The Barr Creek Fall is just a little taller than the Mill Creek Fall.  They are so close to each other, that there is a point on the path that you can see both falls, but through a bunch of trees.  They both empty into the Rogue River, which was our next stop.

I was also told that we should visit the Rogue River Viewpoint, which is on the way to Crater Lake.  The path is paved, and should not be a problem for the scooter to handle.  The view is of the Rogue Gorge.  Here is a plaque talking about it.

Essentially it says that the Gorge forms a Chasm 500 feet long which narrows to 25 feet wide, and the river is 45 feet below our feet.  Enough water flows through the Gorge to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool in a minute.  Unfortunately, there was a few hand-made signs which tell of a young man who fell into the river in early May, and they were looking for his body.  Research for this blog shows that they found his body 15 days later, 15 miles down river from where he went in.

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Below is a series of pictures showing the flow of the river above, through, and then below the Gorge.

Later, on our way back to the motor home, I stopped to get another picture of the Rogue River just a few miles upstream from the RV Park, which is between the River and the Highway.  At this point, the river is also upstream from the where the water from Mill and Barr Creeks enter the river a their respective waterfalls.

Well, we both liked that hike, and frankly, I was a bit tired after doing these two hikes, but we went on because we had two lakes to see, and a number of mountains.  Next stop, Diamond Lake, which is located 15 miles north of Crater Lake, and is between Mount Bailey to the west and Mount Thielsen to the east. 

Above is Diamond Lake with Mt. Bailey in the background.  Below is Mount Thielsen, with Skruffy Dog hanging out the window of the HHR watching me take the picture.

Well, it was around 12:30, and nearly time for lunch.  But when we went down to Diamond Lake, we found that everything required a "fee", including sitting along side the lake in the car eating lunch.....so we went on to Crater Lake....we both anticipated an even bluer lake with such big blue skies...

And we thought our last lunch view was something! WOW!  The blue skies make the Lake even that much bluer.  Unbelievable!

The image below will show how it still has a tint of green around the shoreline.

Well, I showed enough pictures of Crater lake a couple of days ago...so off to home we went.

As we were both a bit tired, I suggested that we get a pizza from the small ma and pa pizza place in Prospect across the highway from the RV park.  So I went by there, placed the order and paid, and took Marcia and the dogs back to our home on wheels.  When I got back with the pizza, Marcia was sleeping in the bed.  I just sat down to read emails and start on this posting, when this BIG, Orange "RV LOOKING" but not an RV thing came around the corner.  I actually saw it up at Crater Lake and wondered what it was.  I got this picture as it backed into its site right in front of us.

Here is a picture of how they cooked dinner...now that is some outside kitchen!

And here is their dinning room....

It seems to be a "rolling hotel" from Germany.  Essentially, Europeans, normally Germans, buy these tours in various places in the world where the company, Rotel, which stands for Rolling Hotel, has their "Bus" and "Rooms" with bathrooms, but no shower facilities.  They stay, here in the states, at RV Parks which have showers.  As soon as they pulled in, some people went for a walk, while others went to take their showers at what seemed to be an assigned time.  The cook started putting the dinner together.  They are a quiet bunch, mix of men and women, old and young.  Dinner was served about 90 minutes after they arrived.  Very interesting....

Oh, and the pizza was actually pretty good for small town pizza place, definately recommend it if you are in the area.