One of the things we love so much about this campground is that we get to live amongst the lodgepole pines.

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Fall is definitely in the air. The aspens are a beautiful golden color.

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Today found us day-tripping to the Newberry Crater. This volcanic area lies at the nexus of several overlapping fault zones. It was not a single volcano but rather a crazy quilt pile of hundreds of small volcanoes that erupted in the same general area for about one million years. High above the caldera from Paulina Peak we have an incredible view of both Paulina and East Lakes as well as one of the lava flows.

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Geologists think that this caldera may originally have held one large lake but deposits of pumice and lave have divided the crater into two separate bodies of water. Paulina Lake is one of the deepest lakes in Oregon at 250 feet. On the far side of the lake is a natural hot spring.

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Paulina Creek feeds this dramatic 80-foot waterfall which spills over volcanic cliffs into a canyon. The creek is the only surface outlet for Paulina Lake and has been designated as a wild and scenic river.

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Today found us driving to the top of Pilot Butte for an incredible view of the local snow-capped mountains. All of this snow has fallen since we have arrived in the area!

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We woke up this morning to find that it had snowed during the night. We had flurries all day but the ground is too warm for the white stuff to stay around. The temperatures have gotten quite cold (freezing and below) so Al has disconnected the water so we don't have frozen hoses.

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We couldn't resist going outside and playing in the white stuff a little. We built this mini-snowman on our picnic table.

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The gray squirrels are huge. They seem to be scurrying around more today hiding pinecones. Maybe the snow was a wake-up call that winter is around the corner. Questions: How do they find the pinecones they hide and what happens when the hidden cones are covered with snow?

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With the temperatures outside so cold, it was a great day to get the sewing machine out and work on the quilt.

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How fun it is to see the colors in the trees and the snow in the mountains. When I went to take another photo of the aspens, they were leafless - we had some winds today which evidently blew all the leaves off!

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The Deschutes River meanders all through this area. Today we went to another part of the Newberry Crater National Park and took the hike along the Deschutes that passed the lava flow from Lava Butte that you see in the background.

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This took us to Benham Falls. Although they call this Benham Falls, it really is a rapid as it shoots through this canyon. Falls or rapid, it's still beautiful.

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As you can see, we're bundled up. When we woke up this morning, our thermometer read 20 degrees. As the day has progressed, we finally got into the high 40's. Believe me, I'll take the cold over the heat any day - you can put on lots of layers but there is a legal limit as to how much you can take off!!

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