The stars last night were incredible, there is very little artificial light at the campground so the night sky is amazing! So glad it’s warm enough to leave the fly off my tent and be able to see the sky from my sleeping bag.
After a lazy morning drinking coffee, reading and taking Javi for a walk on the river trail we headed out to Paulina Lake rocking out to John Cougar (Mellencamp? Cougar-Mellencamp? I can never remember) for a hike to the Hot Springs. Stopped for gas on the way and of course forgot that you can’t pump your own gas in Oregon, I think the attendant was used to that from cars with California plates 😝. The trail was a lovely shaded, relatively flat walk right next to the lake which was a gorgeous turquoise blue color and sooo clear. We encountered swarms of butterflies, it felt like we were in the butterfly house at the zoo! When I stopped to look at them one landed on my pinkie and stayed there for more than a minute tasting my skin.
The hot springs were so hot we could only dip our toes in briefly then had to head out into the lake to cool off. Javi had a blast swimming around while we read and ate lunch. On the way back we walked through the Paulina Lake lodge (a definite possibility for a future family reunion!) and I checked out the waterfall. Exhausted, we headed back to the campground.
It was my turn to cook dinner, and we had just enough energy to enjoy the meal and some fabulous wine (Craig’s Cab Sav from Hall winery – thank you to Craig Nevin for the bottle!) before heading to bed.
