Labor Day Camping Trip

Spencer and I ventured into new country this last Labor Day Weekend, at least new to me. We packed up our trailer and headed South to Crater Lake. We spent the first two nights at Diamond Lake, which is the closest campground near Crater Lake. The last three nights we stayed a little further down south in a town called Shady Cove. Shady Cove is a quaint little town that sits on the Rogue River. Our time at Diamond Lake was wonderful! We spent the first full day touring Crater Lake. Oh my goodness, what a site Crater Lake is!! I was in awe at how beautiful the water is. The lake is such a vibrant color of blue and turquoise, so pretty. At one of the many pit stops along the course of the lake there is a hiking trail that leads up to a really cool lookout tower. The hike was a full mile up hill. Luckily, I was able to convince Spencer that we should all go up there, so we both took turns carrying Andrew. It was well worth it. The rest of the time was really relaxing. We went on a family bike ride around part of Diamond Lake, Spencer took the kids fishing and we just relaxed. It was really fun running into a friend of ours who was there spending time with his brothers. What a small world we live in :)

Shady Cove was probably the most fun though! The Rogue River is so beautiful!! The RV park we stayed at has almost 1,000 feet of river front property with a rock path and park benches all along the way. It was very classy and nice. The Park also owns a hotel next door and all guests are allowed to use the pool and hot tub facilities, which was a bonus. I highly recommend this place to others. The highlight of this part of the trip was taking our kids on a rafting trip down the Rogue River. We went on a 4 hour float down the river which, surprisingly, had some pretty good rapids. Nothing strong enough to knock you out of the boat, but strong enough to get a little adrenaline pumping through the veins. Our boys LOVED it! Andrew was a little "cautious" at the beginning, but had no problem as he became more experienced. Every night we did family bike rides around the park. We took an afternoon and drove into Medford so I could say that I've officially seen it, and the boys (Spencer & Austin) did a lot of fly fishing on the river.

This trip was special because it was just us. No other family, no other friends, just us, and we loved it!! We ate well, we played hard and we now have some great memories to cherish!