Travels with Murray: Ashland / Midland / Crater Lake

Ashland / Rogue River / Crater Lake Oregon

May 11 - 23, 2025

We decided to head inland to the Ashland area to visit Crater Lake which is a National Park. We first booked a RV park right near Crater Lake... then we checked the weather and saw that they still have loads of snow! So we changed to a park near Ashland. First stop after we got set up was to buy some award winning blue cheese said to have been rated the best in the world(1). We also got some lovely cheddar, bourbon peach jam (gross) crackers and sausage. San Diegans can buy Rogue Creamery cheese at Ventissimo Cheese locations. You must buy some immediately!

Pretty rad charcuterie board
we made with the blue.

Tick Count - same score. No ticks here!

Bird(s) of the week.This week it's the Wild Turkey (seen in this pic chilling on Sue's hiking path in Lithia Park) and the Canadian Jay we spotted at Crater Lake.

I'm a Canadian Jay eh.

The RV park was on a small lake complex and was well-maintained. It included the obligatory feral cats! Our site was ok - not great. Lets just say that our neighbors at the campground had a Lazy Boy chair at their campsite - that should give you the vibe. The park abuts Bear Creek Greenway which is a multi-use, paved trail that runs for 20 miles or so. This meant that we could ride a lot of places on our bikes. So often we have been on small two lane roads that were a bit sketchy to ride on.

Notice the Asian Touches

Ashland is famous for its Oregon Shakespeare Festival. It turns out it's actually not a festival but a location featuring multiple playhouses. We bought tickets to Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" for a Sunday matinee. Neither of us had seen an Oscar Wilde play before. The play was well acted and fantastically silly with lots of Wildean one liners like “To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.” and “Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can’t get into it do that.” The play was reimagined taking place in Malaysia (instead of London) and

featured a predominately Asian cast. It was was an excellent choice and worked well.

In addition to its theater fame, Ashland has a combination of arts, shopping, and natural beauty. My friend Bonnie used to live there and gave us lots of tips for our visit. [Bonnie is an HR Director at Harvard so please say a little prayer for her]

For Sunday dinner, inspired by leftover peanuts from our drive (plus the amazing Trader Joes Argentinian Shrimp we had in the freezer,) we decided to make Shrimp Pad Thai. Was pretty decent but recipe needs work.

On Monday Sue checked out Ashland some more. Walked in Lithia Park, enjoyed buffalo cauliflower and a sour ale alongside the Ashland Creek. Very lovely homes adjacent to Lithia Park which Bonnie claims were purchased by "rich Californians" (Bonnie herself was a Californian and is now a rich Massachusetts resident.) Tuesday found Sue hiking Upper Table Rock which has a lot of volcanic rocks along the way and enjoys a view of Table Rock (and tons of Turkey Vultures). Tuesday we did ribeye with some of our Rogue Creamery blue cheese. Yum! (we are not eating a healthy diet right now and need to adjust that)

Ashland Creek

Ribeye with Rogue Blue

Wednesday was the biggest dog day for Sue as the woman who waxed her eyebrows recommended the Japanese Garden in Ashland - so back to Ashland to locate the very difficult to find garden that it turns out was incredibly small tedious. Happily she also recommended Clyde's Corner which as a very fun outdoor venue serving pizza and imaginative salads. It was hot enough at 6:30 ish for us to ask for a shaded table.

I wish photos could do this justice

On Thursday, we went to Crater Lake National Park. Talk about a weather contrast! All we can say is WOW! Simply stunning. The snow buildup was huge but they had cleared enough road to get to the rim. Crater Lake apparently is the snowiest place in the US(2). The dogs got to romp in the snow and had the best day ever! Klaus ran in circles bouncing through the drifts and Murray looked like a teenage poodle instead of a stately senior. Aside from the Canadian Jay we saw a Marmot. For dinner Thursday we used up the last of Denis' spaghetti sauce with sausage which we had frozen in three batches. Denis has making sauce on his list...

On the drive to the lake, we stopped by the Rogue River for a photo Op.

Rogue River

Murray in action!

Murray's job: As an all black dog firm, Murray's HR company, whose home office is in La Mesa, wished to enhance its diversity profile so it hired a small white poodle (Klaus). When orders on high came down recently, to remove all DEI initiatives, Murray was presented with a difficult choice. But - luckily, since he had a history of firing Klaus on a daily basis, he could lean on precedent to continue.

View from Upper Table trail featuring this glimpse of McLoughlin Mtn.

Rocking my Women in the Wild bandana.

Murray summited this peak without supplementary oxygen.

Volcanic rock on Upper Table Hike.

Lil' lizard dude on Upper Table hike.

I think this is the "table" on Upper Table Hike. Assorted wildflowers below.

Number one tip to avoid being injured / killed by a mountain lion: hike a trail that about 1 million third graders are hiking for a field trip. For sure they're gonna go for the little dudes before me!