Fall Creek Lake Explored

We have our favorite spots pinned for future outings

I sit here staring at the photo and though it doesn’t even do the area justice, I am still in awe of the beauty that surrounds us.

My wife and I have an ambitious 5-year plan of hitting the open road once our youngest of 8 children turns 18. Right around the same time, the grandaughter we currently babysit will be ready to go into Kindergarten. So we are crossing our fingers, making plans, knowing full well a lot can happen in 5 years.

In the meantime, on days we have some free time, or on days where we refuse to do any adulting, we choose a direction, gas up the car and go exploring nearby. I know each person has a different definition of nearby, so for our purposes, I am talking about 2 hours from here or closer.

Two days ago, when I had a total melt-down, my loving wife scooped me up and decided we were indeed due for one of these days. We decided the agenda would be to explore the entire circumference of Fall Creek Lake, in Oregon. It took less than an hour to get there from the house. It took a few hours to get around the entire lake and we were back home before it was time to babysit and get dinner ready.

The drive was beautiful. The timing could not have been better as the fires in our area would have the roads to this lake shut down a day or so later. The temperature was a perfect 76. There are only a few entrances to the actual lake. The two pins you see above are the two that we have pinned to go to in the future and take the family.

The pin in the far right corner is the Free Meadow Day Use Area. This was such a beautiful area. There were no people in the area when we were scouting it out Thursday. It is possible that this area will be packed on the weekends, but I don’t think it will be. The area has calm waters, perfect for laying in innertubes. The shoreline is long and has plenty of space for children and dogs to run and play. The scenery is so gorgeous that I had a hard time looking away from it. I could see myself in a zero gravity chair reading, or in a kayak, going across to the other shores. We definitely will be coming back to this spot with the children and the dogs.

Of note, and completely unrelated, at about the halfway mark around the lake, on a narrow, rocky, non-paved portion of the road, it suddenly gave way to a well-paved turn-in option for a resort. I’d never heard of the resort and had no idea of its existence. It has such a strange place to enter the property, that I do not feel many would happen upon it. So I decided we should note it here, in case it becomes a bucket list item for someone down the road. It is called Skycamp Retreat Center, and apparently has over 100 acres of this lake-front property. You let me know what you find out.

Following our way around to the other side of the lake, we found the majority of the drive was up in the trees, with little to no view of the actual water. It was a beautiful drive nonetheless. The cracking limbs of old trees and distant sounds of wildlife could be heard as we kept our windows down and the radio off. Large hawks vultures soared above. We came to one final turn-in toward the end of the lake. I had not thought I could think anything was more beautiful than the first spot we picked out, and again I was wrong. The thing about Oregon is that we are literally surrounded by beauty. The drive to the grocery store takes you over and along the river. It will take years to find all of the hidden treasures.

This is Fall Creek State Park. It is indicated by the bottom pin of my map up top. There was not a soul to be found around here. Again, it is a weekday, but still. These places are less known than some of the other lakes in Oregon, and therefore are perfect for people like us. We like to spend time in nature, with just nature. Don’t get me wrong, I am a friendly person, but when I’m out on the water, or lying on that deck right there, tanning and reading a book with my wife and children lined up beside me, watching my dogs run, granddaughter play in the sand, and the other children out on the water in inntertubes, I don’t want to think about the rest of civilization.

Yes, I envisioned that entire scenario the moment we drove up. I was smitten. There are grill tops, and picnic tables all over. There is plenty of tree cover for those that want shade. There are multiple carved-out areas of blackberry bushes, just begging to be picked. I can envision spending many days just relaxing out there.

I enjoy our scouting trips. Doing it without the children gives us time to find places they will enjoy without dragging them along for the ride for the actual “finding” part of it. It only took a couple of spur of the moment trips with our teenage children to realize that they do not appreciate the same things we do, do not find driving around all day enjoyable, and are never as pleased with the spot that we find as we are. This time, I took pictures to show them ahead of time, lol. We would have gone tomorrow, but the Oregon fires are putting a quick kibosh on those plans. This is the last really warm weekend of the year for us, so we will have this spot all picked out for next summer’s family fun days.

In the meantime, my wife and I will be getting lost in a whole new place next time, and I will tell you all about it. We have to find some good places to visit in cold weather. Oh, Halloween spots are a must as well. I will keep you posted. If you end up at one of my spots, let me know what you thought.

As always, this is the truth as I know it. What is your truth?

I will talk to you tomorrow.