Cove Palisades State Park, Oregon

Since we have been in Oregon most of our in state RVing has been along the coast so we decided to go somewhere inland in the Eastern Desert. Scrabble Queen looked up Cove Palisades State Park. It's off of Highway 97 north of Redmond, Oregon.

On the drive just nine miles north of Redmond we came to the Peter Skene Ogden overlook. The overlook has three bridges that cross the Crooked River over a 300 foot deep gorge. In this picture you can see the retired highway bridge left open as a pedestrian viewpoint. The new highway bridge is directly behind the old bridge and you can easily see it's shadow.

From the pedestrian bridge I took this picture of the new highway 97 bridge.


This is the rail way bridge to the west of the other two bridges.


We took off of highway 97 at Culver, Oregon and saw two huge buildings for the Round Butte Seed Company. Here is an excerpt from their web site:

"Oregonians have had a reputation for self-reliance and agricultural savvy since the first overland settlers arrived in the Oregon Territory. In keeping with that tradition, 39 years ago a group of Culver, Oregon families founded Round Butte Seed Growers to market the crops they and their neighbors grew"

Well we arrived at Cove Palisades State Park and started looking for a campsite we liked. We started at the A,B & C sites on the west side of the lake but decided to to go to the east side and the "E" campground. On the way back we stopped to take some geology shots for Mattman.


We even found this petroglyph that was relocated to this wayside and place facing south.

The Cove Palisades was once a place where Native
Americans traveling along the rivers could rest and
visit with each other. One of these Native Americans
was Billy Chinook, a local Wasco Indian who guided
John C. Fremont, a famous pioneer, through the
area in 1843. In 1878, Clark Green Rogers, one of
the first settlers in the area, named a refreshing
swimming hole on the Crooked River “The Cove.”
The name stuck and in 1940 became part of the
park’s official name.

There are steep cliffs all around Lake Billy Chinook.


The road through the park goes over Lake Billy Chinook along a long narrow bridge that crosses at a narrow section of this very long lake.

The cliffs are pretty cool with all kinds of geological features like this star burst of rock.

The lake, as I said is very long and a beautiful blue.

We ended up on the Eastern side of the park in campground "E" and had a great view of Mount Jefferson.

"Mount Jefferson is an inactive stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc, the Cascade Range and is the second-highest mountain in Oregon. Many people consider Jefferson's craggy, deeply glacially-scarred appearance to be especially beautiful and photogenic." - Source Wikipedia

"Mt. Jefferson was named in honor of US President Thomas Jefferson by the Lewis and Clark Expedition (this was the only High Cascade mountain they named). The expedition, who were sponsored by President Jefferson, first saw the peak from the mouth of the Willamette River in March 1806." Source Wikipedia

So beautiful even as the sun sets.


We did take our bikes and got some good riding in while there.


At the campsite there was this shrub. I'm not sure what it was but it looked like string beans.


Then behind the RV was this exposed root that looked like a python swimming in a grass pond.


This is a view of the lakes rim from the campsite we called home for two days.

This was the view to the southwest.

The park rangers were around every day at least 3 times making sure the camping stay was a good one and also to make sure it was paid for.

This was taken in the field behind the RV, it's nothing special just a weed in dried grass, but I liked the shot.

We rode the bikes to this spot on the west side of the lake at the entrance to the park and recreation area.

This rock formation may have another name but I like to think of it as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir of Rocks.

This waterfall was flowing strong when we first arrived but pretty much had dried up when we came by on our bikes.

It's an awesome view of Lake Billy Chinook.


This was a wonderful place to come and I'm sure we will be back again.

Scrabble score Scrabble Queen 298 - The Contender 315 (She won the previous 4 nights)

Quote of the Day -

"What breadth, what beauty and power of human nature and development there must be in a woman to get over all the palisades, all the fences, within which she is held captive!" - Alexander Herzen was a populist writer as he supported the common person's interest and fought against corrupt elites.