We decided to return to Candle Creek CG again. We visited it the end of
October last year. It is close and a very nice place to relax. The
river is next to the campground, no crowds, and only a short hour drive
from Bend. It is not for lack of places to visit as so many are worth revisiting. This area has been fun to visit in spring and fall when crowd are gone. A large forest fire closed the area for much of the summer and it appears that some of the adjoining wilderness areas remain closed well into September. There was one other family with two motor homes in the site we stayed in last year and a tent camper a half a dozen sites away. I had forgotten about the sound of the river at the campground. It is so loud, very loud.
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| Campsite, lots of room |
We took the time to search out several geocaches along the east side of the river. It was a nice walk along the river and past some very old trees. Douglas fir and Ponderosa pines have thick bark that protect them from the natural forest fires that historically occur in Central Oregon. These fires would occur on a 20 to 30 year cycle. Once a tree survived and had some size they could really grow and achieve great size such as these trees which I estimate to be 300 to 400 years old.
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| This Douglas fir has survived many wild fires in it's long life. |
On the ridge line is the early results of this summer's wild fire, in the for ground is a wild fire that occurred 10 to 15 years ago. Young seedlings are beginning to dominate the area again. A new forest returning.
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| This summer's wildfire and past wildfire |
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One of the geocaches hidden on the east side of the river. It was a tribute on the cacher's dog. Pepper found it twice before we left the area.
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| Pepper and geocache |
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Fall color comes early to this area, cool nights and clear days bring out the color in vine maples, wild roses, and red twig dogwoods along the river. Also found a flowering dog wood on the east side of the river, it has not turned yet but will be a bright red later in the season.
We did not see a lot of wild life one doe and some tracks of a larger less common animal native to the area.
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| Who can recognize this track? Not that common this side of the mountains. | | |
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Part of the good life is to eat well, and Bobbe plans some great meals while at home and traveling.
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