The main reason we came down to Bend on this particular weekend was to see NEEDTOBREATHE perform at the Les Schwab Amphitheater on Saturday night! We figured we would camp nearby and make a weekend out of it...and that is what we did. The weekend started on Saturday afternoon...
09.18.21 - We left for Bend around 1pm with plans on eating dinner somewhere before the concert. Thanks to a recommendation from Elizabeth (check out her blog here), we got takeout from Kebaba, and it was fantastic. I got the lamb bowl and Leslie got the salmon bowl.
Kebaba
We took our food to-go and headed straight for the Les Schwab Center to find parking. We got a spot on the street not too far away and ate in the truck before heading in! The show was great (it was our 4th time seeing NEEDTOBREATHE), but it was so cold! We got very lucky though, cause it was supposed to rain but the rain held off.
NEEDTOBREATHE Show
After the show, we drove only 10 minutes from the venue to a NF road to find a campsite for the night. We set up the rooftop tent and went to sleep!
09.19.21 - The plans for this day were based around rainy day activities! It was supposed to rain and it sure did...ALL DAY!
For a change, we did not get up early. We knew we were not going to be in any rush to get the day started, so we probably left our campsite around 8:30. It was cold and rainy and we decided, instead of cooking breakfast, let's stop by Safeway and grab some breakfast burritos!
We then had an hour drive to Proxy Falls! I had been wanting to come here for a while and it did not disappoint! It's a short hike and pretty easy as well. It was raining pretty hard when we were at the waterfall, but I would highly recommend coming here!
Proxy Falls
If you continue along just a little bit further, you will get to Upper Proxy falls! It is not as astonishing, but it's certainly worth the extra walk!
First stop was a success. Onto stop 2. In this case, we were going to try to go for a soak in Bigelow Hot Springs. Fortunately, we had no problems finding the hot spring. Unfortunately, there was a nude couple in there and it's a very small pool, so we gave them their privacy. This spring is situated in a very scenic spot, right along the river. We plan to check it out again next time we're in the area! The hot spring is located on the right side of the image, just under the fallen tree branch.
Next stop; Tamolitch Blue Pool! We had been here back in 2017, so it was nice to add this to the list of daily activities. This one is about a 4 mile hike with very light elevation change. The hike is mostly foresty with the river by your side. Once you arrive to the pool, you will find out why it is named the "blue" pool (hint: it's very blue). p.s. I promise it looks way more blue than it does in the photo below 😂. p.p.s. if that was you in the pic, let me know!
The last stop was to see Sahalie Falls. When we got here, the rain had really picked back up and we waited in the car for about 15 minutes before even getting out. At this point in the day, it was about 4pm and we were going to look for a campsite after this. We were going to hike from Sahalie to Koosah Falls (we had also done this back in 2017), but we had lost the motivation, as it had been a long day and the we were tired of getting wet! I ended up getting out of the truck to check out Sahalie!
Okay, as I mentioned - that was it for the plans for the day. It was close to 5pm and time to find a campsite. Fortunately, we found something within 10 minutes north of Sahalie Falls and it had JUST stopped raining! What a delight. That night, we heated up some food (nothing too special), drank some Trail Toddy's (not sponsored), perfect for a cold night, and then of course, it started raining. We watched a movie on my tablet up in the rooftop tent, and called it a night!
Sunday Camping
09.20.21 - I know what you're thinking...Monday hiking? Yes, Monday hiking. In case you don't already know this - I am a home health physical therapist, so I scheduled 1 patient to see (in Portland) that afternoon! That leaves time for a hike before heading back!!
This time, we couldn't sleep in. With the alarm set for 5:30, that enabled us to make coffee, get to the trailhead parking lot, make breakfast, an get started with our hike by 7am! Which hike did we do, you might ask? The Patjens Lakes Loop, which is about 7 miles with under 1,000' total elevation gain. At the time we started, it was cold and the lighting was perfect with a nice bit of fog. It stayed fairly cool throughout. We took the loop counter-clockwise and my 2 favorite images from the hike were one of the soft light from the beginning and the view of the hike was at the end, as the trail caught up with Big Lake.
Patjens Lakes Loops Trail
We weren't in a rush, but we definitely couldn't take our time, knowing I had to get up to Portland for work. We finished the hike before 10, made a quick bite, and then took off with plenty of time to spare!
We ran into a ton of traffic due to tree-work associated with last years fires and ended up losing an hour 😭😭, but I still made it on time!
As always, thank you so much for taking the time to check out the blog. Please leave a comment below or feel free to reach out to me on Instagram, @traveltrachs!!!