We left Ashland Saturday morning and headed toward Medford. Our plan was to check out one of the two Table Rocks and spend some time hiking. We ended up choosing Upper Table Rock (they get their name based on the Rogue River that runs past both of them, Upper is up river and lower is down river). We drove to the trailhead for Upper Table Rock, changed into long pants (to protect from ticks and snakes...yikes!) and hit the trail. It was quite steep! Leila was not too pleased at the elevation incline, but after about twenty minutes, she realized she could do this. When we got to the top, she was thrilled that she had stuck with it! The views of the Rogue River and Rogue Valley were amazing! These pictures really don't do it much justice. The smoke from the forest fires was pretty thick in the valley, but we could still see for miles!
We picked a great spot to eat lunch...on the remains of volcanic rock that makes the Table Rock special. The Native Americans that lived in the Rogue Valley region regarded Upper and Lower Table Rocks as sacred and holy places. The emigrants traveling along the Applegate Trail used the Table Rocks as landmarks as they were heading through Oregon.
A few more looks before we hiked down.
On our way down, we almost stepped RIGHT on a snake. It was huge! He was stretched all the way across the trail. Thank goodness Chris spotted him before Leila took another step! Leila usually hikes in the middle of us, but she was ahead blazing the trail. Once she realized why her Dad calmly, but firmly, said "Whoa! Leila, back up. Back up." she burst into tears! All Chris and I could think was Thank God it was on the way down! If that had been on the ascent, the hike would have been over! We made it back to the car about mid-afternoon and continued north on I-5.
As we approached Grants Pass, we decided to pull off the freeway and try to make a jet boat ride. We had no idea if there would be any space available, but as we didn't have a schedule to adhere to, we gave it a go. We pulled into the ticket office at 1:30 and were able to purchase tickets for the 1:45 boat! We just barely had time to change our clothes and shoes before our boarding time. The next round of boats weren't set to head out until 5pm...talk about perfect timing! Chris was the only one of us that had been on the jet boats before. Oh my goodness, our ride was amazing!! Along with seeing countless herons along the Rogue River, we also got to see an osprey swoop down, grab a fish and fly RIGHT over our boat! We were so thankful that we pulled off the road!!
We spent the night just a little while north in Roseburg. The next morning, we drove to Dad and Holli's for lunch together. From there we headed to Mom and Jim's for swimming in their pool, dinner and much needed rest.
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