Camping at Crane Prairie Reservoir

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This time of year, when the weather in the Willamette Valley is stifling hot, it's nice to find a mountain lake to camp by with the promise of cool breezes and refreshing swims. We made plans to escape to one such place by the name of Hosmer lake for the weekend, and ended up at a beautiful spot on the shores of nearby Crane Prairie Reservoir with some adventures in between. Both lakes are in the vicinity of the Cascade Lakes Highway, a U.S. Forest Service Scenic Byway that runs along the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains from Bend to LaPine. In these dry pine forests with stunning views of Mt. Bachelor, the Three Sisters, and numerous buttes and peaks, mountain lakes are abundant. We spend a lot of time at Wickiup Reservoir in the late Spring, both car camping and canoe camping, and enjoying all the migratory birds and waterfowl.

On to our adventures in finding a campsite on the fly...After hearing about the crystal clear waters, grassy meadows and fish in Hosmer lake, we put that one on the calendar for a late summer camping trip. It sounded like a good canoe camping lake with limited car camping space, but our daughter broke her thumb last week on a beach excursion, and  couldn't go canoeing in a cast. We decided to just head out there and pick a lake. Our first destination was Little Cultus lake at the base of Cultus Peak. My husband had heard good things about the fishing there. While the lake was certainly beautiful, and no doubt contained fish, we found it too crowded for our tastes. Camping means a lot of different things to a lot of different folks, and if having your neighbors a few feet away on both sides suits you, this lake would be the place to go. To us, camping means not seeing your neighbors since they're close enough at home, so we moved along down the road.

The map showed a rough dirt road leading up to two lakes along the Pacific Crest Trail, Irish Lake and Taylor Lake. It was a rough road, indeed, but we made it up there slowly in our Subaru Forester (wishing all the while we had a truck.) We arrived at the lakes to find them gorgeous, lined with some fine campsites, and EXTREMELY mosquito ridden. It was a few degrees colder up there too, and windy. These lakes seemed like good candidates for a September campout where cold nights are prepared for with warm clothes and hot food and drink, and the mosquitoes have died off for the season. Feeling we had some adventure left in us for the day, we moved on again.

On our quest for a campsite, I found one of my favorite late-summer wildflowers, Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea) growing in clumps all along the roadsides.

We decided that Lava Lake would be pretty crowded on such a busy camping weekend, Sparks Lake would be more fun with the canoe, and Wickiup Reservoir was looking pretty low for the year, so we chose Crane Prairie Reservoir as our camping destination. We had camped there in July a couple of years ago with a friend who knows the area well, and remembered it being a great spot. We drove around the south side of the lake shore along the north edge of Browns Mountain and found a jackpot of dirt roads leading off to a string of unimproved (AKA, free) campsites along the shore. To me, they seemed more appropriately spaced and each boasted its own secluded stretch of beach with panoramic views of Mt. Bachelor and the surrounding peaks. Even better, there were no mosquitoes around. We picked our favorite spot and set up camp.

The thing I love about these "unimproved" campsites on Forest Service land is how campers have improved them in their own creative ways. Many are hunters camps used in the fall for days at a time, or favorite spots for fisherman to return to. At this one we found a hewn log bench, some stump stools, a primitive table built between two trees with some plywood, and an open air privy. In campsites such as these, one can find all the comforts of home in the outdoors, and all this without campground fees, crowded conditions and noisy neighbors.

Now, we don't do much campground camping, so we go out into the woods not expecting amenities like a toilet. When we come across a rustic privy with a view, built out in the woods where we're camping, it's always a pleasant surprise.

With all the big open water and sky, the sunrises and sunsets are events to be noticed here. I remember watching a big lightning storm dance across the sky above the lake on our previous trip. It was a little intense for the kids with all the thunder claps, but a memorable nature experience nonetheless.

The shoreline was mostly pebbly, but there were a few sandy stretches scattered around. This one was edged with some nice meadow grasses and lodgepole pine forest that surrounds the lake. With views of the mountains across the lake, it made for a lovely, scenic spot to spend some time.

In many ways, camping and getting out in nature is all about finding balance. For myself, I know that nature is where I find balance and rejuvenation for my soul. For our family, we know that we need to find the balance between time spent working on the homestead, and time spent relaxing in the great outdoors. Too much work and not enough play makes for a tired, grumpy family. Believe it or not, too much camping can also be trying. We get so excited about it, and want to go so often, that sometimes we realize we have hardly been at home and need to get a little more rooted down. Just look at how restless and rootless we can be travelling around to find the right campsite. Among the many benefits we can gain from camping, finding balance is a great life lesson. Knowing when to travel along, and when to settle in. There is much to be learned out there in places like Crane Prairie.