Photos


The total solar eclipse had finally arrived! Neither Miranda or I had ever seen one and we were very excited. Miranda returned from a work trip to American Samoa late preceding the eclipse and we only got a few hours of sleep before getting up early to drive to Oregon so that we could be in the path of totality. We had heard news reports that there were massive traffic jams as crowds venturing to see the eclipse were overwhelming rural Oregon. There were also concerns of fuel shortages at gas stations and a lack of hotel rooms. We didn't know where we'd camp, but had borrowed a tent from a friend. In this case, leaving things until the last minute worked in our favor. The traffic jams were gone by the time we drove up and we stumbled onto Crooked River National Grassland and pitched our tent there. The US Forest Service, which Miranda works for, also manages some grasslands, including this one.

We attempted to set up the borrowed tent, but the poles didn't seem like the right length and the tent wouldn't fully stand upright. Luckily, we were able to crawl in to the deflated marshmallow of a structure and were able to sleep. The next morning, we poked our heads out of the tent with great anticipation to see the weather. There had been predictions of clouds, but it was blue sky. We walked up a nearby hill and felt like we had the entire grassland to ourselves. The eclipse was magical! It was amazing how much colder it got during totality. The birds stopped singing and it felt quite eerie, like an alien dusk. Then a few minutes later, everything reawoke and we were back on Earth.

Since we had driven all the way to Oregon, we took a few days off to explore. We visited Bend, where Miranda had lived previously, Crater Lake, and Mount Hood.