Deserts, Volcanoes, Obsidian Seeking, And Crowds!

a pandemic vacation

Of late, I had been feeling blah….sad….probably a bit depressed….having trouble getting anything done….etc….

I think it was my pandemic life catching up with me. I have worked at home for years, but I was never S.T.U.C.K. at home. My now infrequent trips to Costco are the highlights of my months. I live in a nice spot — on a river — and it’s summer — but even that river life lost its glimmer for me.

My daughter-in-law asked me what I’d like to do — and I said get away somewhere — go someplace other than Costco! She said she’d watch my pets and I should go the coast — I’d be treated to a vacation.

I thought about it and foresaw walking along the ocean [which I love to do] — but it mentally felt no different than walking along the river so I said thank you but not my thing — not now.

After a bit, I said what I’d really love to do is to go to the high desert and dig obsidian — but it was not a trip I wanted to do alone — especially in this pandemic time.

My daughter-in-law said she’d love to go do that with me and so we started planning our camping-digging-for-obsidian vacation. We figured what foods we wanted, packed extra water, lots of fruit, camping gear, boots — and layers of clothing.

I’ve never done this dig before — but it’s been on my mind since moving to Oregon. I’d been wanting to make wind chimes and other art pieces with the glass.

In previous years, I had fallen in love with western volcanos and on this trip, we were going to be near or on many volcanos.

The vacation as it unfolded

Off we went — from Portland to Glass Butte!

Glass Butte volcanic area is a great area for gathering obsidian — it’s all over the place! The trip past Mt. Hood [a volcano I ski on] and on down toward Bend and toward Glass Butte offer spectacular views of Oregon's volcanos! The photo above is near Madras, a high desert town. From there we drove in what I am prone to call “the middle of nowhere.” [I have been in the “middles of nowhere” in many western states during my life.]

This middle of nowhere is in a Bureau of Land Management [BLM] area and we set up camp near a reservoir intending to relax and drive to Glass Butte the next day. The variety of birds was amazing — but then came the bugs! We thought they might dissipate but they got worse. None were biting but they were on and getting in everything. We decided to break camp, drive directly to Glass Butte, and set up at the small BLM campground near the obsidian.

Seeking Glass Butte

This is a “good” section of the road to the Glass Butte obsidian camp and digging area. Barely wide enough at times for one vehicle and not many spots to make room for anything passing us.

Thankfully, this cow was the only living thing we saw driving up that narrow road. We began skidding a bit as the gravel, dust, and ruts made for even hairier driving.

Then suddenly there was no road! It had washed away! We sat there a bit shaken before backing down to a spot where we could turn around. Eventually, we got turned around and drove back to the “main” road. We thought there might be a better road to the campground, but nothing showed up as a possibility except the one we had just tried.

The pandemic had created a host of issues we had not considered. Our plan was to get away and go camping and digging — but we quickly figured that agencies like BLM were not doing maintenance.

Lesson learned very quickly — but there were more lessons coming.

Glass Butte to La Pine

Leaving the Glass Butte area, we decided to go west and find a campground. That led us into Bend, a major tourist area, and after checking a few crowded, no social distancing places, we found a small private campground in La Pine and set up camp — for the 2nd time that day. It was hard to believe it was still the same day.

One highlight of this camping spot was that we saw some of the Perseid meteor showers. Another was being woken at sunrise by a murder of crows who were sitting in and on our camp chairs!

Over breakfast, we planned where to go next, and decided to camp the coast for a few days.

La Pine to the southern Oregon coast

At this point, we were frequently singing about being on the road again. We were having a fun time in spite of everything. We drove down into California for a quick pass to get to the road we needed for the Oregon coast. Not having been there for years, I said hi to the state!

After some looking at overcrowded RV no-social-distancing camping areas, we found a park for tents where we were allowed a fire; a wonderful respite.

Southern coast to end of trip

We left our spot after breakfast and started driving up the coast — looking for a spot to stay for a few days. I was laughing as I had turned down a coastal trip — and yet here I was — on the coast.

The traffic we encountered was worse than in a city. Masks were not seen on many and no-social-distancing-crowds abounded for anything that was open — including paths to the ocean.

We did pull over at an empty scenic area and also found a fairly empty day-use park where we ate lunch.

As we drove north, we kept seeking a campsite — all were full. We decided to go seeking sites inland a bit. All full! We kept driving east — still failing to find a spot and also getting further from the ocean.

Guess what we did find? Road signs showing us the way to Portland.

Guess what we decided? Yup — we went home.

Thus ended the pandemic vacation. But in chatting with people we met — we got information about other obsidian areas and spots good for mushroom hunting.

We are already planning that next trip — but now we know better what to do! [And what NOT to do.]