Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Cove Palisades/ Lake Billy Chinook

You may recall I mentioned Cove Palisades State Park in the post about our campsites.  Besides the 100-degree temperatures, free showers, and miracle ice-cream-containing camp store mentioned earlier, the park is also home to Lake Billy Chinook, an impressive three-armed lake formed by the Deschutes, Metolius, and Crooked Rivers being backed up behind Round Butte Dam.

The campground is on the peninsula between two of the arms, so to get to it, you drive down the basalt cliff, across a bridge, and then partially up the adjacent cliff.  One interesting thing to note is that the gorges through the basalt were not at all obvious until you are right on top of them -- as we drove toward the campground, it seemed like we were just on a plain with nary a lake or river in sight....until we hit the edge.


Incidentally, my mom remembers going here as a kid, back before the dam was in place.  One suspects the old campground she stayed at is probably now under water.

One of the things we wanted to do was hike the Tam-a-lau trail.  This 6-mile trail leaves right from the campground, winds its way 600 feet up the cliff in the first mile, and then loops around on the plateau on top for views of the lake and surrounding volcanoes before going back down to the campground.   Given the heat when we were there, we got an early start.

The teenager was not sure about the wisdom of a 6am start.  I knew it was the right plan -- it was very pleasant out at that hour, and we enjoyed watching the low-angle sunshine spread across the terrain.

We started to get views of the lake as we hiked up.

Once on top, there was a scenic flat loop, with volcanoes to view in seemingly every direction.

I particularly like the contrast between the yellow desert-y landscape and the snow-covered peaks.

There is almost an island at the edge of the peninsula between the Deschutes and Crooked River branches of the lake.  This "island" is closed to public access and has been designated a BLM Research Natural Area -- one of the few undisturbed bits of this particular ecological community.

Big views everywhere.


And very fine outcrops of columnar basalt, all before breakfast!


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