Bye Bye Oregon

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time

 in Oregon. This state has a wide variety of outdoor wonders to choose from. We started in Ashland, which is a great little town. It is nestled in between two large mountains. It is known for its artsy vibe and Shakespeare festival. There is quite a bit of hiking to do in this area. We then headed toward Crater Lake, only to find it was closed for the season. That was a bummer. We went north, on to Bend. I think Bend could be a great town. It was hard to say. We could not see any thing. Literally, there was a blanket of pea soup fog over the entire town. It did make the trees stunning. The fog froze on all of the trees. It was a beautiful sight. We decided we wanted to miss the snow that was heading our way so we moved on toward Portland. Chris and I were only there for a couple of days. Just long enough to decide the gorge was an extremely windy place in the winter. We held on tight and tried to not be blown to Oz. At this point, I wanted warmer weather and some SUN!!!! We drove west toward the coast. For the first time in a week, we felt like were on vacation. We rented a yurt near the beach. Chris looked up the local hiking trails and away we went, hiking that is. The scenery was stunning. We have enjoyed our time on the coast. We have checked all of the antique shops. Chris is looking for that perfect hand tool. Chris has inspected all of the tide pool, and we finally saw some sea lions. Our next stop is California. Red Woods here we come.

More photos from the Canyon

Hiking in the Grand Canyon

Chris and I left Tennessee on the 4th of January. After five days of driving and playing tourist, we arrived at the Grand Canyon. We were lucky enough to reserve a cabin at Phantom Ranch for the night of the 10th. We left early saturday morning and began hiking down the South Kaibab trail. It is 7.5 miles long. The first 2 miles had snow and ice. For those of you who know about my fear of heights, hiking this trail was a feat in itself. After five hours of hiking down, down, down, we arrived at Phantom Ranch. It is a neat little oasis in a huge canyon. The ranch sits back in its own little canyon. The cabins are made out of stone and lumber. Chris and I stayed at the ranch for one night and then set up a tent for the second night. We enjoyed our stay at the ranch, however, we really enjoyed camping in our tent next to the little creek that runs thru the canyon. We stayed down in the canyon for two days. We left the third day and hiked 5 miles to Indian Garden campground. This campground sits on the plateau. It was beautiful. We hiked an extra 3 miles so we could sit at the edge of the canyon and watch the sunset. After a restless night of sleep, we awoke the next day and prepared for our hike out. It was only 5 miles, but it was a long, long, slippery hike out. The sites were beautiful and the experience was remarkable. I would do this again in heart beat.

California here we come!!!

Road trip 2009 has officially begun. We have made it to Little Rock and are heading west. The weather has been unpleasant to say the least. Lots and lots of rain. Our plans are to stop in the Grand Canyon and do some backpacking. We will then head north toward Oregon, where we will spend a couple of weeks checking out the scenery. We will then turn south, down the coast of California and hopefully catch some warmer weather. We should be back in Tennessee in about seven weeks. I will try and keep you posted on all of the happenings along the way. I want to wish our friends and family a happy new year. May you all be blessed with good health an much happiness.
Love
The Virdens (aka the Vagabonds)