Vacation or Stay-Cation?

My family and I went and did our vacation (or is it a stay cation??) from June 5-10th. We went to a "local" (meaning we stayed in state) lake and camped for 5 nights and 6 days. My husbands family has actually been visiting this area each year for the last 30 years. We had a wonderful time and I suggest a visit to these lakes for camping to anyone who enjoys the great outdoors. Paulina Lake and East lake are located in Newberry Volcanic National Monument outside of La Pine Oregon. So gorgeous!! We fished at both lakes and came away happy with the amount of fish we got, which my husband smoked and is oh so delish!!

The one day we had clouds the sunset was GORGEOUS!! Couldn't have asked for better!

You can hike all the way around Paulina lake. East lake doesn't have a route, which is a bummer, but we walked a small part of the route (while picking up other peoples trash, DONT get me started on the litter bugs. We made it a game for our 4 yr old and she was excited to leave the trail better then when we found it)  and enjoyed it!

For some reason Paulina Lake is always an aqua blue color to me (That's Paulina Peak in the background)

And East lake (below) is always a dark blue or green color. in all the years we have been going to these lakes, it never has changed. 

 Some more cloud formations which i thought looked really cool!

Both lakes have lodges where you can rent cabins, boats, canoes, and fishing poles (if you don't already own them.) We have rented the cabins before, while my daughter was young and they are pretty nice. Paulina lake is open almost year round, and in the winter they offer snowmobiles for you to get to the cabins you rent. We have done that one time for Christmas. I was scared spit-less we were gonna wreck, but my daughter had a blast. She loves to ride anything fast. LOL. So I highly recommend visiting these two lakes whether for the day or for an extended stay!

Found this lil guy while walking the lake beach.

The water wasn't the warmest but it didn't stop my daughter. If you are wondering as to the green stuff in the lake there was "lake weed" and the clouds of green swirly stuff was POLLEN!! From the trees. It was strange and cool to see at the same time. Didn't faze my girl at all.

All in all I highly recommend a trip to the great out doors! Get back to nature and enjoy some crisp clean air!