Last summer I bought a large half tent to use at the beach. The Oregon beach is often cold and windy and a little shelter is never remiss. I didn’t end up using it though and wondered if I had made a mistake buying it.
As we were packing for our extended camping trip my brother found it, saw the sun/rain description on the tag and said, “Hey! We should take this camping!” And it was so lucky we did! Our first morning in the woods we woke to rain and guess where we cooked our breakfast?!
According to my brother, chilaquiles is the ultimate Mexican junk food breakfast, but really it means “flexibility.” Just kidding, but if you look up recipes, you’ll find thousands, if not hundreds. Our rainy day became a flexible one. We drove around exploring and found a cool, hidden swimming hole. Then when the rain stopped we went and hiked up a waterfall.
The weather in the Umpqua National Forest was more extreme than I expected. The first several nights the lows were 32-40°F and the daytime highs around 50° then the last two days the temperature got up to 80°. I haven’t replaced our tent yet, the one I mentioned in the Early Spring Preparedness post, so it leaked again when it rained. We were so glad to have our warm sleeping bags and a good fire every night.
In addition to the extreme temperatures, there was very limited cell phone reception and the GPS didn’t show most of the small forest service roads, campgrounds, and waterfalls until we were in the area. Once we were there and did a search for “waterfalls near me”, we discovered a virtual cornucopia.
Unfortunately, because of last year’s devastating forest fires and the time of year, many of the falls were closed. Some opened just in time for us to visit them, as did the north entrance to Crater Lake. Some required travelling on gravel service roads to reach. There were also some that, hard as we tried, we could not find.
Most, if not all, of the campgrounds in the Idleyld Park area don’t have potable water or showers, so you should bring your own water. Also, within 30-40 miles in either direction there were no stores, gas stations, anything. On Friday we went to Crater Lake and were excited to find a general store where we could stock up on some extra water and ice. On Saturday evening we discovered a store at the Diamond Lake Resort, and when we left on Sunday we found a store 40 miles away as we left the area. But for the majority of our trip we didn’t have anywhere to restock and were glad that we had planned well.
Sometimes even if you research and plan well, the reality of your destination could surprise you. Be “chilaquile” and prepared for anything!
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Those Chilaquiles look so good!
Thanks Barbara! Not bad for camping food!
I can only imagine how fantastic the wilderness must have been. You are literally in the middle of nowhere. Happy camping!
We had a great time, Jon. I would have been happy to stay a couple of extra days!
Your breakfast looks amazing! What a great camp site to enjoy to peace that the forest can bring!
We were very happy with the site. I think we got really lucky!
On one hand, I never had proper Mexican food and that makes me sad. On the other… you posted pictures and I just imagined the taste :3