Fall at Valley of the Rogue State Park, OR

We spent the drive today researching where we want to stay Wed night (Redding) and during the next week and a half in the Beale area. 

We arrived at Valley of the Rogue State Park around noon. We were here about six weeks ago - fall beat us here this time.

 

The park was lovely last visit, but it SHINES this week.  The crowds are gone (we were previously here on Labor Day Weekend), the animals are out much more and the colors are beautiful.  After lunch everyone spread out to "welax."

Reading and drawing....

Finally able to make a big pile of leaves

 We hit on a sale of organic canned beans at Fred Myers a couple of stops ago. This was the chance to make a double batch of vegan chili. I froze 2/3's of it for later meals. Everyone may not want it as much as we move back into the heat. LOL

Adding states to our map

We put stickers on our blank map! This was more complicated than one  imagined. If we put all the places we've gone on  "family" trips,  we'd have from Kansas west, from MT to TX, AK and across to FL as well.  In other words we have yet to travel east of Kansas and the North East.....BUT the younger two weren't around for many of the trips....after much thought....we're starting over...but this is the LAST time we start over.

Stacia was disappointed they aren't doing the JR Ranger program here. We went on a walk along the River's Edge Trail......I wasn't able to walk last time as I'd injured my ankle the morning we drove down here.  A fall walk in such mild weather was a treat. We saw bunnies, squirrels, Canadian Geese, sparrows, a blue jay and what may have been a woodpecker....We saw no rattle snakes!

 

We weren't ready to go home yet. We decided to also walk  along the Greenway Trail. This is a great walk and goes all the way to Grants Pass.

I pointed out THIS beaver was the enemy of DUCKS....

This area is PERFECT...we're far enough south and inland to be out of the rain and still far enough north to be out of the heat. We were enjoying 65* today and noting it will be 85* tomorrow.  I guess we didn't NEED to pull out the fall clothes after all.  We're going to miss the beauty of the Pacific NW....but we'll find new things to explore in our old home.