6-23-2026

As usual, we woke up, and the same routine for traveling day, and today we are leaving the Mt. Adams Reservation area for the Deschutes National Forest, which will be roughly a 3ish hours, but that isn't so bad considering we'll be going through some of the most beautiful landscapes in the Pacific Northwest, and ending up at the Craine Pairie Campgrounds. Which is near a lake, or more technically, a reservoir, and we'll be here until Saturday. As previously mentioned, the ride was beautiful, and as you cross into Oregon, you can see basalt cliffs, river canyons, and rolling plains. Eventually, the landscape becomes more mountainous again as the trip approaches the Deschutes National Forest. Located near Bend, Oregon, Deschutes National Forest is known for its volcanic scenery, lakes, lava fields, and large ponderosa pine forests. I based this on common sense, driving through it, and what the rest of the trip looked like for us over the next few days.  Before I get ahead of myself, we started the day out by heading to Hood River to fuel up and get any snacks we wanted. For most of the day were on the road, and we only stopped three times. 


The second time was a stop at the Warm Springs Museum, and have a little talk with some of the elders, and other local tour guides.  It was a nice stop. The museum was smaller than the one on the Umatilla reservation, but it was still nice. Before we got the chance to go inside, Luis Pitt and his wife, Alysia, gave us a little last-minute talk about being proud of who you are, the importance of tradition, and the land. They were followed up with Elki Littleleaf and his wife, who own this business that provides tours, and gave insight into their upbringing, and explained they were self-taught. Afterwards, we had to wait about an hour for them to open again because they were on lunch, so we took that chance to eat ours, and we just ate outside on their picnic, and headed in afterwards. Overall, though, I think my favorite part was the art gallery they had in there. It’s filled with a lot of work by Lillian Pitt, mostly just paintings, ceramic stuff, which were really good. I also like the last room in the actual museum, which I think was called “Where Natives are Today,” where they had a theater room playing some older stories from the local elders, and around the screen, they had cutouts of their people today.  It was a cool little video they had playing. It was basically just about the elders talking about the importance for the young people today to prioritize learning the traditions of our people because the elders aren't always going to be here to teach you the songs or the practices of the culture.




The third time was to get some more groceries for the next few days at Safeway, and we were there for about an hour. The stop gave me a chance to get Starbucks…. It was so cute that they were giving out these mini samples of mango frapachino with strawberry purée, and I was tempted to get one, but I just stuck with my usual, which is mango passionfruit refresher with lemonade.


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