Diamond Lake...Bust

Bust.  Not spectacular… except in the sense that you cannot see Mount Bailey across from Diamond Lake.  Never did see Mount Thielsen…coming in or leaving.  A large amount of heavy smoke so we spent the night and packed up first light to move north closer to Bend, OR.  Reports from others claim the smoke was less and the air much clearer.  We shall see.

On a positive note we camped at Diamond Lake free of charge.  Our arrival was a bit past 5:00 PM PCT…the attendant said she was” closed and to pick a site from the list and come see me in the morning”.  We did.  She wasn’t open at 8:00 AM…no self-paying area so we had no other choice but to leave.  It seemed strange not to have self-pay…most all of the other Forest Service campgrounds do self-pay rather than have a station manned.  Crater of the Moon had an excellent system with self-pay and a nice board so you can see what was an open site. 

Oh well one bust so far…great pizza by the lake and cherry Bordeaux ice cream so we made the most of our brief stay.