The Route
We drove 261 miles while crossing the Cascade Range. We left Eugene on OR-126, merged with US-20 at Hoodoo Butte, and said goodbye to OR-126 at Sisters. The terrain changes were dramatic.
It was sunny and clear all day.
Along the Way
This day was full of new scenery.
We followed the McKenzie River out of Eugene and began the climb over the Cascades. We were quickly greeted with beautiful forests, curvy roads, and steep climbs ... and a covered bridge.
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| Covered bridge getting a new roof |
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| The forest created a highway tunnel for us. |
We chose this route as a way to avoid fires in southern Oregon, California, and Nevada. We've been successful, so far. Unfortunately, we did see sobering effects of fire today. There was smoke haze in the valleys and lots of burned timber from old fires. At one point Carol spotted smoke rising from the backside of a mountain to the northeast.
Workers cleared hillsides of burned trees for miles.
We passed a lava field.
The terrain flattened as we approached Sisters and stayed that way all the way to Burns.
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| US-20 is straight and pretty flat out here. |
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| Lots of sagebrush along US-20. |
We were impressed with Eugene. It was clean, well maintained, and energetic.
Sisters is a lively tourist town. Brothers is a sleepy, three-building, stagecoach stop with a post office in the town's only café. Guess they didn't get along well.
We're in site 13 at the Burns RV Park. We stayed here on September 7, 2017. The appearance hasn't changed. They do have good internet speed and Direct cable TV service.
Tomorrow
Not sure. We're bumping into campground availability problems. All six places we've checked are full.
🔥😢
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