Klamath Falls, Ore. -- I arrived at the Running Y Resort, about 10 miles west of Klamath Falls, Sunday afternoon, about five hours after leaving Portland. My sisters had already arrived, having left from Medford. Our room looks down on the 11th hole of the Arnold Palmer-designed golf course and a small lake. Off in the distance you can see part of Klamath Lake.
We spent Monday exploring the Running Y. Shirley and I took about an hour-long walk in the morning, then Shirley went to the spa for a massage and Colleen and I went into town and did some grocery shopping. Later in the afternoon we drove through most of the resort. Kristin and her husband, Ryan, have been here a couple times and John and Karl stayed here when Karl was visiting the technical college in Klamath Falls that summer before John was killed. But this is my first time at the Running Y. I wish I’d been able to come here when John was still alive; we probably could have, we just never did. Regrets aren’t worth much.
On Tuesday we left about 8:30 and headed to Crater Lake, about 90 minutes north of here. Shirley and I had both seen the lake before. Years ago John and the kids and I had spent several days at Diamond Lake camping. We spent a day at Crater Lake and another day driving down to Klamath Falls. I have a photo I took of John and the kids at one of the overlooks with Crater Lake in the background.
The lake is amazing. It is the most vibrant blue color -- like a huge chunk of polished lapis. Cameras really can’t capture the breathtaking color. It makes the sky look pale in comparison. The clarity of the water and the depth of the lake (almost 2,000 feet) allows the blue and violet rays to penetrate and bounce back, thus the amazing color. The lake was formed when Mt. Mazama, a 12,000-foot-tall volcano, erupted and imploded some 7,700 years ago. There are no streams that feed the lake, it is filled by snow melt (about 44 feet per year), precipitation and seepage so the water is extremely clear and pure.
Wednesday we viewed a Birds of Prey presentation that was very interesting, then Colleen got her hair cut, and I had a massage. Earlier this morning Shirley and I often take long walks and the other day saw a great horned owl sitting on the ground at the base of a tree. He mostly just watched us as we walked past; perhaps he had just gorged on some of the many ground squirrels and needed to take time to spit up some of the owl pellets to be light enough to fly; or else he may have been a young owl who just needed to rest before flying again. In addition to the many, many ground squirrels, we’ve seen deer, a weasel and several bald eagles. There are many red tailed hawks, turkey vultures and smaller hawks (kestrels), and we’ve seen Sandhill cranes and egrets.
It is a lovely, quiet place, except -- unfortunately -- our immediate neighbors have a passel of kids who are very noisy and always running and yelling. And they like to leave their doors open so it’s hard to relax on our deck when they’re home. That’s the down side of resorts sometimes.
But it’s good to be spending time with my sisters. Tonight we're going to a free concert on the green and last night we tried to experience the arts and environment of KFalls but that was a total bust, unfortunately. We leave on Sunday and Monday night will do our jet boat trip on the Rogue. Then I'll be home on Tuesday afternoon and am very much looking forward to having my own space again. In the meantime, hopefully Charlie is having a good visit with his “Uncle” Tom and not missing me much.
