The story so far: I had discovered a paved route, suitable for motorhomes, from Medford, Oregon all the way north through the state along the summit of the Cascades Range. I endeavored to slowly make my way along it in my motorhome and Jeep, camping along the way. I had just spent several days camped near the Rogue - North Umpqua divide.
My next planned stop was at Waldo Lake, near Willamette Pass, Oregon. But Waldo wasn’t open yet. So I headed down the river to another old favorite haunt: Black Canyon campground. I had camped there before:
Now, this place could have served as the movie set for Luke Skywalker’s Jedi training in The Empire Strikes Back, but those scenes were filmed on a British sound stage. It is a low-elevation (less than a thousand feet above sea level) patch of old-growth forest that absolutely teems of Life. There is something growing on every square inch of soil there.
I half expected to see Yoda appear at any moment. Here’s a phone shot of camp. I can’t do anything about the blown-out highlights; the photo sensors in phones do not have the dynamic range of a professional DSLR:
The place triggered Pookie’s internal Wild Jungle Beast. She spent her days outside, sleeping under the ferns over on the right side of the motorhome. And she prowled the roads, unafraid. You might have to click this one to see her standing guard:
As for myself, I just wandered the campground with my camera. I had nowhere to go; I was waiting for the snow to clear up at Waldo Lake. I don’t recall ever leaving the campground during that time, although I probably made a grocery run to Springfield.
Here are a few more photos of this magical place, taken while wandering around the campground roads.
And I took a couple of photospheres. It seemed appropriate to totally wrap the viewer into this place, surrounding you with the awesome vegetation and LIFE! of this place. This first photosphere is of campsite #63, which is a secluded tent-only spot out of view of the campground road. This photosphere is on the Google Maps website, so you’ll be able to zoom in and out with your mouse wheel as you pan up, down, and side to side:
This second photosphere is of another campsite very near the first one, but I can’t tell from the GPS whether it’s campsite 64 or 67. This image is not hosted on Google Maps, and you can’t zoom in or out of it; you can only go up, down and sideways:
Waldo Lake opened up a few days later. We headed up to high-elevation Hell, unaware of the misery that awaited us there.
to be continued…
Another good read, Ken. Pookie was so much a part of your trekking. I’m sure you miss her.
That's so lush. I halfway expect to see a Sasquatch in the bushes.