September 16

Today we awoke to the warmth of the fancy gas fireplace in our swanky motel on the Oregon coast. Before departing, we walked the 50 feet from our hotel room to the coastline to gaze once more upon the waves before heading inland towards Crater Lake. Justin and Becca ventured further out onto the rocks than either Luke or I dared (WE heeded the sign below).
To Becca's question as to the wisdom of this venture, Justin could just be heard to answer before he was silenced by a wave: "We'll be OK, we're on high gr . . . ." They were drenched. After the motel re-opened our room--we'd already checked out--Justin and Becca changed and dried off and we finally took off. Fog engulfed us as we left the coastal area, but as we drove inland a beautiful warm--high 70s!-- sunny day greeted us. However, as the saying goes, there's no such thing as a free lunch, and apparently with pleasent weather come wildfires. About 150 miles from Crater Lake, around 3:45, we saw a digital highway sign telling us the highway was closed due to forestfire between mile markers 59 and 69, about half way to our destination. Expecting to find a detour, we drove on towards mile marker 59. Forty-five minutes later, a park ranger stopped us at said mile marker. When Luke, the driver, rolled down his window to speak to the ranger, the smell of burning woods permeated the car. The ranger told us to turn around and advised us against using backroads as "too dangerous." Since we could literally smell the danger, we heeded the ranger's instructions, turning around and driving all the way back to where we had first seen the warning sign. We then took another route to Crater Lake, arriving around 8:30, well after sunset. Our day didn't go as we had planned, but I think the extra driving was worth the right to tell people we had adventures with forest fires.