As you can imagine, as exciting as a year-long adventure in a trailer around the country can be, it’s not without some stress. So Stephen and I have borrowed the risk of wildfires color code chart: green = low to no stress, cool and calm, blue = moderate stress, yellow = high stress, orange = very high stress, and red = extreme stress. We’ve been staying in the green/blue range.

Yesterday we visited Crater Lake and took a walk up the road that was still closed to cars due to snow still blocking the north entrance of the park. They had cleared at least 5 miles of the road when we were there, but we only walked about a mile up with the kids. The kids enjoyed making snowmen and placing them on the road hoping they would still be there when we hiked back down (they were not). Stephen received more than a few snowballs thrown at his neck, head, and backpack. My kind husband iced my arms and took my hand with snowballs in his hand just to cool me off. I remember one being thrown at my chest.

Crater Lake was incredibly beautiful. It was a warm (low 70s), sunny, blue sky day with a few clouds. My stress level was bordering on yellow as we walked and viewed the lake because there are no guardrails on the road and the ranger had told us the day before a man had walked out onto the snow and fell 800 feet. Miraculously he survived. I was just glad we all got out alive.

Today we visited Badger Run Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Klamath Falls. Stephen will share some photos from our trip there in another blog post. Tomorrow we pack up again and drive 2 hours north to Bend, Oregon.