Sunriver Flyout

The Columbia Aviation Association has flyouts to Sunriver quite frequently.  It is a close enough destination that pilots that don't have planes are able to drive there and several members of the club have permanent or vacation homes there so it makes it a convenient place to go.  It has been a few years since we have gone there and Bill really wanted to go this year.  He has been wanting to hike around the Newberry Crater for some time.  This was his chance to do it.  We decided to drive as the crater is around 25 miles from Sunriver and we didn't want to inconvenience anyone to take him there and/or borrow one of their cars and risk damaging it.  Sunriver is spread out enough that it was also helpful to get to the various parties.

We drove over on Thursday morning over Santiam Pass and had lunch in Sisters on the way there.  Luckily we were able to check into our condo as soon as we got there.

The first night was happy hour at the Noordwijk's home and then dinner our with some of our friends at the Village Bar and Grill.

Bill got an early start Friday morning to start hiking at 0545.  It took him around 8 hours to complete the hike.  He took lots of photos of Paulina Peak, the Obsidian Lava Flows and the lakes.

While he was hiking, I did my own hike.  I got going a little bit later but I hiked around Sunriver for about three hours.  I was thrilled because I got to see so much wildlife on my hike.  I saw lots of ground squirrels, two coyotes, a family of river otters and a deer.  I also had a bald eagle fly right over my head.  I tried to take a photo but no luck.

We got a tour of Sunriver Brewing Company in the afternoon and then had a picnic at a private park on the Deschutes River that evening.

We decided not to do the Deschutes River float trip so we headed to the High Desert Museum, the Deschutes County Museum and lunch at a food truck court in Bend.  Dinner was at Kevin and Karen Padrick's hangar on Saturday night-a terrific prime rib and chicken dinner.

We had breakfast at the Sunriver Lodge before heading back home.