An Amazing Mountaintop Experience

I discovered today you don’t have to take an airplane ride to get up over the clouds. Even with the fair weather here in Southern Oregon, it has been cool enough that I haven’t ventured to far from home. Mostly my excursions take me to the grocery store or visiting family members. Every now and then I splurge and go get my hair or nails done.

I was getting a bit of cabin fever, so my hubby suggested taking a short road trip. We started out to explore one of the touristy towns close by and ended up driving to the top of the world instead. Well maybe not the top of the world, but it sure felt like it.

While this particular excursion didn’t end with what we had envisioned when we started out, what we received was totally awesome. The little town I had thought of visiting, was one we had passed through last summer on our way to one of our fishing spots. Hauling a boat through narrow streets makes it pretty hard to stop and see the sights. I had thought we might take time to explore the treasures in this little burg, but when we arrived, it being a weekend, nothing was open that I wanted to browse through. Maybe when the weather warms up we will try to check it out again.

Not being familiar with this area yet, we have a tendency to take roads that look interesting just to see what may be at the end. We have found some really neat sites and we have sometimes found ourselves getting lost and having to back track to a spot we could remember to get back on track.

Passing through the little town, we continued to journey on going through more small towns and into the countryside, dotted with vineyards, dairies and residential areas. We turned onto a road which looked like it would take us to higher elevation. After a few miles the road began to narrow, even though it was still paved. It began to curve up the mountain, narrowing more the higher we climbed. I was beginning to wonder if we would encounter another vehicle coming down the mountain. Luckily it was a weekend and the road was deserted, so my fears were not realized.

On the way up the mountain we were entertained with viewing a flock of wild turkeys feeding in one of the meadows. A small herd of deer composed of two doe and three fawns were grazing in a hayfield and a flock of quail, some flying and others running along side the road. I was surprised as the weather became warmer the higher we climbed.

“Wow!” my hubby exclaimed, as we came through another curve and the trees began to be a little more sparse, “the sun is out up here.” This observation gave us an excuse to stop at one of the pullouts along the side of the road. The scene before us was absolutely gorgeous. The sun was shining on the treetops in the valley we were overlooking. We could see the little stream flowing in the bottom, little birds were flying around landing in the branches of the trees and singing there songs.

Getting back in the car we drove further up the mountain. Coming out on top we pulled into a clear cut area. I could not believe how warm the day was on the mountain top compared to the coolness on the valley floor when we left home.

The view from the mountaintop explained the coolness below. We ventured out of the car, walking to the edge of the mountain ridge, our feet crunching the sawdust and wood chips. Surveying our surroundings, we could see the area where we live. Just over the top of that area was a cloud bank. At first glance we thought it was a snow covered mountain we were seeing, but on closer inspection we discovered it was a cloud bank.

The clouds hovered over the lower elevated mountains, filling the ridges and flowing down like a waterfall to dissipate into the trees. As we stood there on the mountaintop taking pictures, which we hoped would capture the view, we watched the sun warming up the clouds, turning them from white to gray. To me it was a totally amazing sight. I am not a fan of airplane rides, so this little excursion in a car being able to experience such a view, suited me just fine. I am looking forward to exploring more of this part of the country.