Lake Billy Chinook and the Crooked River

This has been another hot day, but right now, at 6 pm, we are getting rain, thunder, and lightning.  Maybe the weather will cool down a bit.

Due to the heat, we went for another early morning bike ride.  We rode at Dry Canyon again, but this time we only rode eight miles.  Once the ride is accomplished, we feel like we've gotten our exercise for the day.

Lake Billy Chinook

We packed a picnic lunch and headed north and west on Highway 97 to Lake Billy Chinook and Cove Palisades State Parks.  The lake was a busy place today, but we snagged a picnic table near the swimming area.  We didn't swim, but I waded in the water for a little while.  The water was cold, but not as cold as I expected.  Lots of people were swimming and floating on rafts.   

Lake Billy Chinook State Park rents boats, included patio boats and houseboats. 

Houseboats awaiting rentalA large houseboat tied up at the dock 

Views of Lake Billy Chinook from above the marina 

A fine view of Mt. Jefferson from the lake

Cove Palisades State Park contains two campgrounds.  We visited Crooked River Park and found it to be a very nice oasis of green near Lake Billy Chinook.  The park is open year-round and contains 91 sites with water and electric hookups.  Deschutes Campground, which we didn't visit, is open only in the summer and has 82 full hookup sites.

After leaving the lake, we drove back to Redmond on Highway 97 and stopped at the Peter Skene Ogden Rest Area, which besides being a rest area, has a good view of the vertical basalt cliffs that are on each side of Crooked River.  As you can see in the pictures below, there wasn't much water in the river.

Peter Skene Ogden, born in 1790, was a fur trapper and explorer of the western USA and Canada.  Many places have been named after him, including the city of Ogden, Utah.

Portrait of Peter Skene Ogden 

Crooked River is part of the Columbia River basin, being a tributary of the Deschutes River, which is tributary to the Columbia River.  It, along with some other tributaries, helped form Lake Billy Chinook (and Prineville Reservoir, which we visited last Friday).

The Crooked River High Bridge is a steel arch bridge that was completed in 1926. The bridge was eventually unable to keep up with the growing traffic demands of U.S. Highway 97 and a new bridge was built.   The old bridge is open to pedestrians.

In the other direction, a railroad bridge crosses the river.

We ended our adventure with a drive to Crooked River Ranch, checked out the two RV parks there, and admired the green (and the greens) at the golf course there.  The Ranch properties have a scenic view of the Crooked River Gorge.

'Twas another fine day in hot Central Oregon!