Drama Free 4th of July at Cottonwood Canyon

 

One year later!

If you are looking for a quiet spot on the 4th of July, away from loud fireworks and festivities, I can’t recommend Cottonwood Canyon enough. Since Riley is no fan of fireworks, we try hard to find him a safe haven. This is the second time we’ve spent the 4th at Cottonwood Canyon and not heard a single pop, bang, or boom. We came here last year after picking up nine-week old Raney, so we had some fun recreating “one year later” photos. She has grown so much!

What a difference a year can make. 

We arrived at the Lone Tree campground in Cottonwood State Park near Wasco, OR on Friday, 6/30. My brother, Tim, had arrived a few days earlier and was all settled in. He has Starlink and graciously shared his Wi-Fi. One potential downside of the campground, absolutely no cell service for miles! I’m thinking we may have to add Starlink to our load out. We don’t mind going a few days without cell service, but we’d just spent a week at Big Pines on the Yakima River without internet/cell service and another week would have been pushing it! No internet, no blog. Lol.

Cottonwood Canyon State Park.

Tim was set up and waiting for the party to start. Lol. 

Tim took this gorgeous shot of the moonrise. 

We got set up and other folks also began to arrive. Yep, this year we had a total of nine in our party. Tim and Mike’s friends, Jeff and Lori, arrived Friday afternoon with their tiny puppers, Zippy and Susie. Then Mike, and Mike’s cousin Erin got in late Friday evening. More friends, Glen and Mikey, pulled in Saturday. We planned for dinners together, rotating responsibility for the main course, while everyone pitched in with appetizers, sides and salads. We did not go hungry! Most evenings we gathered outside Tim’s coach for happy hour and dessert. There are no hookups at the campground, but there is a sprinkler system and Riley took full advantage of it to keep himself chill.

Tim and Mike met six years ago.
Mikey brough a  special cake to celebrate. Yum!

Everybody, including the pups, gather for happy hour. 

Riley LOVES the sprinklers. Lol. 

There are several trails that leave from the campground. We'd already biked the two longer trails (Pinnacles and Lost Corral), so this year we wanted to tackle the hiking trails. Given the heat – we’re talking mid-high 90’s with no shade and brutal sun, we tried to get an early start.  The Sage Knob hike was only .2 miles, how long could that take. Right? We started about 9am on Sunday, and the Sage Knob overlook was a bit anticlimactic, maybe 60’ above the ranch area. But an unofficial trail started there and went right up the hillside. So of course, up we went. Besides, we were finding easter eggs! The park hosts a summer institute for high school age kids and they had seeded the trail with painted rocks. We had a blast searching for the rocks and they had planted them all the way to the very top of the bluff.  

The ranch/day use area is an oasis of green.

Look at all the fun painted rocks we found!!

The views got even better as we ascended the hill.

Pano of the park, campground and river.

View downriver from the top of the hill.

We made it!! Whew!

By the time we got back to the RV, we had hiked several miles and were hot and sweaty. Luckily that was easily remedied by taking Riley and Raney to the water. It’s a short walk from our campsite to the John Day River and we made multiple daily pilgrimages so Riley could visit his happy place. Raney plays in the shallows, but Riley loves to stand in chest-deep water with this totally blissed out look on his face. 😊

Hello!

This is definitely Riley's happy place. 

Raney enjoys the river too. 

Hey Mom, watcha doing?

The next day, we left a little after 7:30am and walked the Willows Flat trail along the river to the Hard Stone Trail. Altogether it was about 5 miles and I’m thinking we should have gotten an even earlier start. Lol. We saw lots of small-mouthed bass and chatted with folks fishing the river. At the turnaround point we scrambled down to the water and soaked our shirts in the river to help keep us cool on the return trip. A good hike, but with no relief from the sun, it was toasty!

Hard Stone Trail.

Rog chats up the fishing folks.

Hiking past lichen covered basalt cliffs

On Monday afternoon, the rest of the group did a day trip to the Painted Hills Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. They had a great time, and the Painted Hills scenery is positively stunning. Rog and I had visited it before and didn’t want to leave the pups alone since they’d already been stuck in the RV while we hiked. (Thanks Mike and Tim for the pictures!)

Painted Hills.

A cast of characters. Lol.
Glen & Mikey, Jeff & Lori, Mike & Tim, and Erin

Unfortunately, when they returned from the Painted Hills, Glen and Mikey discovered their generator was not working. Since our RV’s are just little metal boxes sitting in the blazing sun, no generator = no air conditioning = very hot box. When they still couldn’t get it to run Tuesday morning, they opted to head home rather than hang out in heat. (Still saying, we could have worked something out guys! 😊)

Happy 4^th of July! Tim, Mike, Rog and I biked the Pinnacles Trail on Tuesday, which parallels the John Day River. It was a gorgeous day and we rode until we came to the trail closure for nesting Golden Eagles. It was about 7.75 miles round-trip. Rog is still on his traditional mountain bike while the rest of us are using e-bikes, and yet somehow Rog is still always in the lead. Lol.

The helmet brigade. Lol.

Me and my baby bother. 

End of the trail.

Tim and Mike pause by the river.

Boys on bikes.
Rog (the only one without an e-bike!) is in the lead. 

Shade break!

Wednesday was our float day! We had never had an opportunity to kayak the John Day River and we were excited to check it out. We decided to leave from the campground and take out at Starvation Lane, about 10 miles downriver. We purchased our permit, hauled our boats down to the river, and set off. There were no real rapids on this section of the river, but there were lots of meandering splits and some very shallow water. Mike counted six times he had to get out and walk his kayak when there wasn’t enough water to float his boat, literally. Lol.

Rog and I on the John Day River.

Tim and Erin.

Mike.
Who looks way too comfortable. Lol. 

Did I mention we had some seriously shallow spots? Lol. 

Neon lime green underwater moss thrives in the shallow water. Cool!

We spent about four hours on the river. We spotted the elusive California Big Horn sheep, a group of six females on the hillside. We played in the water, passed one group that was spending five days fishing and camping on the river, and just generally had a great time.  We had staged Tim’s Grand Cherokee at the takeout point, and since we all have inflatable kayaks, we were able to get everyone and our equipment back in one load.

Can you spot the well camouflaged ladies? 

Sorry. Moving kayak and high zoom don't make for the best pics. 

Most of the river was smooth and slow.

Mike catches a little white water action!

Rock spires along the river.

A break in the shade.

But kayaking is not the only way to float the river. Rog and I walked upriver, walked out mid-stream, sat down, and butt floated down the river! The first time we hiked to a spot just above a little rapid. Remember what I said about shallow water? We bounced over so many rocks, Rog’s tush is still tender ten days later. Lol. The second time we wised up and got in below the rapid and had a much more pleasant float. Truly, no better way to beat the heat!

Ouch, Ouch, Ouch!
Enter below the shallow rapid. Lol. 

Aahhhhh. This is more like it. 

Happy floaters with our butts in the river!

Friday, 7/7, was our departure day. We snagged a group shot (missed you Mikey and Glen!) and then went our separate ways. Rog and I had originally planned to break the trip back into two days, but instead opted to just drive the 278 miles home. We dove into the unpacking, cleaning, laundry, and maintenance that inevitably follows every trip.

The Cottonwood Canyon Gang is missing two.
Jeff, Lori, Tim, Mike, Erin, Teddi and Rog.
Mikey and Glen were back in Spokane. 😞

So, what’s next? Oh, have I got a special treat for you. If all goes as planned, we will be doing a bucket list trip in September to Uganda and Rwanda to visit the Mountain Gorillas!  Stay tuned, I hope to have some amazing pictures and stories to share.