Trip to Kahneeta Hot Springs

Hi there!  Want to join us on a fun trip to Kahneeta Hot Springs?  It's located on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in central Oregon.  Dayle, our two grandsons Hayden and Caleb, and I headed out to pick up my blog friend Gracie at her house and then headed East over Mt. Hood and through the high desert to our destination.  We stopped at Government Camp and had lunch at the Huckleberry Inn to fortify us for a long afternoon of swimming in the sunshine.  We drove over Mt. Hood and through the desert and down into the canyon where Kahneeta awaited us and we quickly changed into our suits and entered the warm mineral waters.  Ahhhhhh.. lovely.  Dayle is in the hat and Hayden is to the left and back and Caleb is swimming towards the edge.  Both boys are wearing their swim vests of blue and lime green.

This is the whole pool, the deep end furthest in this photo.  That is where Gracie and I did our swimming exercise.  There are 3 slides, our guys aren't tall enough for the two big ones, but they loved the little one.

What is fabulous about this place is the fresh fragrant air and the view of the hills around the canyon pool.  They use the fresh cool water and blend in the hot spring water to make it warm.  

One of the wonderful parts of the pool are the three bear sculptures holding fish that squirt water through the air into the pool.  

Grandpa and the boys.

The guys.  OK, then I put away my camera and Gracie and I got in the pool.. oh my it was so warm!  

We were so intent on getting to and in the pool that we saved our photographing until we left the pool, all clean and refreshed and tired and happy.  This is the beautiful river that flows through the canyon and by the pool.

Once in the car we drove around so I could show Gracie the campground and teepee village.  You can rent these teepees and there is a fire pit in the center of each one.  

Each one is decorated beautifully, this one with visions of Buffalo roaming along.

Beautiful, isn't it?

Then we left the pool and headed up out of the canyon - I love the craggy rock formations that we pass beside.  If these rocks could only tell their story.

You drive along big curves until you reach the canyon rim - you can see for miles and miles.  Don't you love the red patches of dirt?

As you drive along the desert you are treated to incredible panoramas - this is Mt. Jefferson.  Mt. Hood is what you see when you turn your head to the right!  The desert was abloom with wildflowers.

I wanted to show you the desert meadows and the hardy small pines.

Zooming in on Mt. Jefferson.  :-)

Across the meadow..

We then got to the halfway point of the desert drive - the little Indian town called Simnasho, on the Warm Springs Reservation.  There is a sweet little old church that is being left to waste away.  Someday I will come by and it will be a pile of rubble.  Sad.

I drove down a road behind the church and got this shot and of the old pastor's house nearby.  

On down the road we spied a neat shot of Mt. Hood with a herd of wild Indian ponies and mustangs grazing in the meadow.  They run wild here, it's just wonderful.

On our drive back over Mt. Hood we would come around a corner and be greeted by this.. the majestic Mt. Hood.  I pulled over several times to try to get a good shot and this was the best of them.  What do you think?  :-D

Dayle snapped this shot of one of the many wild Rhododendrons on the side of the road.  

I hope you enjoyed coming along with us.  We stopped to fill up the boys with pizza in Sandy, dropped Gracie off and then stopped and got the boys some ice cream.  When we got home at 9 pm they said goodnight and thank you and promptly fell into an exhausted sleep.  NOW.. we're leaving in 20 minutes to take the boys on the Sternwheeler Columbia Gorge.  Having all this fun is exhausting.. but oh well!  LOL!!  I hope you're making sure to enjoy your summer!  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)