Pine Needle Cluster

Today's the day! *bounces up and down in excitement* We're going RV camping again!! This will be our longest trip yet, a full 21 days of adventures! We'll be checking out a few of Oregon's central state parks this time around with locations on both rivers and lakes, in forest and high-desert settings.

Our starting point will be in an area we're familiar with, though we haven't been at the exact location before. LaPine State Park is near both Sunriver and Bend, Oregon, nestled in deep forest and hugging the popular Deschutes River. We stayed at Sunriver for my birthday last September and had a fantastic time mountain bike riding and hiking while we were there. Criss-crossed with nearly countless multi-experience bike and hike trails, it would take many weeks to traverse them all (During winter the whole area is packed with ski-bunnies!).

The LaPine/Sunriver/Bend area was the first place we thought of for our next trip, though it turned out that we couldn't stay as long as we'd hoped. Due to extreme popularity and proximity to the flourishing town of Bend, we had to be satisfied with only 3 nights here for this trip (with a single night's stop off at the end of our trip). In the future we'll make reservations well in advance so we can stay for a week next time! We're really happy that we get to spend several days here though, and can't wait to explore this area again!

Since we won't be leaving until about 1pm today (check-in is at 4pm and it only takes a couple of hours to get to LaPine), I'm preparing as much of my post early because I have some time now.I'm betting that it will be very late when I post tonight so I'm taking advantage of this opportunity now.

Another change for this trip is that we've got a friend of ours staying at our place while we're gone since it will be three weeks away and we'd like to make sure our frogs and snake are cared for. It will be a win-win because he'll get the chance to hang out at our rural home with access to great cycling (a favorite activity of his) and we'll have peace of mind!

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We're here!! And oh my goodness It's absolutely gorgeous in this pine fores!t Our site is marvelous and spacious too. We pulled into LaPine State Campground at about 4pm and got settled by around 6 or so. Dinner was melt-in-your-mouth ribeye steaks with our nommy faux-tato salad...soooo yummy!!

Lots of birds all over the place and there are CHIPPERS here! An adorable chipmunk ran over to our site and Steve tossed a bbq-pork rind at him...a second later the little guy was racing away with his prize--SO CUTE! I hope I'll get pictures while we're here!

I'm too rushed to write much more today except to say that we're delighted by this wonderful campground and can't wait to go for a bike ride tomorrow and check this stunning park out!

I had enough time to step outside our RV and take some macros. This cluster of dead pine leaves caught my eye and turned out looking a little bit like a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree…or maybe a brown Tribble? :D No other pictures tonight, I'm out of time!

Pam, I hope all is well with you, wish you were here! :) *BIG HUGS*

Explored on 6/10/19; highest placement, #3.