Cove Palisades SP, OR - May 2009

On Tuesday, we said goodbye to Mom & George and left Bend and began heading north. Since it was so close by, we decided to check out the Crooked River Campground at Cove Palisades State Park near the town of Madras, Oregon. The campground is about 40 miles from Bend, so it was a delightfully short driving day.

We found Crooked River to be a pleasant campground with roomy sites, lots of grass and large shade trees, plus we have a great view of Mt Jefferson to the west. There are only a handful of campers here right now and the weather is beautiful, so we decided to stay through the weekend.

The state park is adjacent to Lake Billy Chinook which is formed by three rivers -- the Crooked River, Deschutes River and Metolius River. While we cannot see the rivers nor the lake from our campsite, a short drive took us to a spectacular overlook.

The name "Cove Palisades" came from a blend of two features -- a deep swimming hole (called "The Cove") and "Palisades" from the basalt pillars that form the steep cliffs.
Here I am about 600' above the lake level. The mountains in the background are the Three Sisters -- near Sisters, Oregon.

Stay tuned because I'll be posting more pictures soon. We have a very slow Verizon internet connection, so waiting for blog pictures to load is a pain. We'll set up our HughesNet dish soon and then I can post more pics.