Tumalo Falls

 

Tumalo Falls is one of the most popular hiking trail near Bend, Oregon.  It is a very large waterfalls that people can see directly from the viewpoint.  Through out the trail, there are even more waterfalls to see.  The Tumalo Falls trail itself is about 4 miles long and goes all the way to Happy Valley.  Most people hike to the Double Falls, which is about 1 mile from the parking lot.

We got to Tumalo Falls around 8AM in the morning.  There were only 3 other cars there.  The trail requires permit which can be purchased with $5.  Northwest Forest pass is valid as well.  When we got off the car, it was actually snowing from the sky in June!  It was crazy!  After about 5 minutes, the snow stopped and we walked to the viewpoint to see the waterfall.  The viewpoint was at the top of the cliff, but the view was obstructed by the trees.  So we walked down and found a small trail that goes to the river side and we could see the waterfall from below.  It was a much better view here.

We then decided to do the Tumalo Falls hike to Happy Valley.  We first got to Double Falls.  This waterfall is not as tall as Tumalo Falls, but we had a great view of it from the top of the rock.  We then proceed further and got to Middle Tumalo Falls.

When we hiked further and crossed the wooden bridge, it started to snow again.  It was snowing so hard this time.  The snow fake was huge!  It did not feel very cold and the forest was beautiful with snow falling off the sky.

We continued on and got to see even more waterfalls.  When we got to the last waterfall at North Fork Tumalo Falls, the snow was just getting too heavy and we were getting wet.  We were about 0.5 miles away from Happy Valley but we decided to turn back.

When we got back to the parking lot, there was so many people.  It was so crowded.  Tumalo Falls was definitely an amazing place to visit and the hike did not disappoint.  Since it is a popular place, it is recommended to get there as early as possible.

Kanji Ramen Noodle & Izakaya

 

Kanji Ramen Noodle & Izakaya is a Japanese Ramen restaurant located in Bend.  The restaurant specializes in Tonkatsu Ramen, which includes pork bone broth soup.  It also offers variety of Japanese alcohol drink options.

After a long day of hike, we went to Kanji Ramen for a good lunch.  We got to the restaurant right around noon and we were the second table of customer.  There was only 1 server at the restaurant at that time.

We placed the order very quickly since we were very hungry.  We got a Tonkatsu Ramen and a Kanji Ramen, since it was the restaurant's signature dish.  As we were waiting for our food, there were 2 large group of people came in.  The total number of people among these 2 groups are almost 20 people, we were quite shocked.

After about 5 minutes, our food is here.  The Tonkatsu Ramen was the classic with pork, bamboo shoot, green onion, soft boiled egg and corn on top of the noodle.  We liked the soup broth since it was fresh and not too salty.  The soft boiled egg seemed to be marinated with soy sauce and had good taste to it.

The Kanji Ramen did not come with pork but came with Japanese Fry Chicken.  There were 4 pieces of fry chicken nuggets served on a separate plate.  The chicken was ok but a bit on the dry side.  We would prefer to have the pork instead.

Overall, Kanji Ramen was ok but the price of Ramen was on the high side.  The cheapest bowl of ramen cost $17.  We would probably look for other options in the future.

Victorian Cafe

 

Victorian Cafe is a very popular brunch location in Bend, Oregon.  It is located not far from Old Town Bend and it is located right at the corner of a roundabout.  The parking space at Victorian Cafe is limited but there is street parking available around the restaurant.  Other than just offering brunch menu, it also offers a wide variety of alcohol drinks from its bar, which many people enjoy.

We got to Victorian Cafe around 11:30 in the morning and there was already a lot of people waiting outside.  We walked into the restaurant to put our name down on the wait list and we were told that the wait time is 1.5 hours.  We were quite shocked because we didn't see that many people outside.  We put our name down anyway since we really wanted to try this restaurant.  While waiting, we walked around the neighbourhood to explore other surrounding restaurants.

We came back and sat on the porch to wait for our table to be ready.  While waiting, we noticed that Victorian Cafe was slow at clearing tables and thus the wait time was longer than what we expected.  After about an hour and 10 minutes, our table was ready and we got a porch seat.

After we sat down, it took the server a while to come by to give us glasses of water and take our order.  We ordered a Strawberry Lemonade, Sandra Marie Omelet, and Caramel Apple French Toast.

The Strawberry Lemonade had a strong strawberry taste and was quite refreshing. We did really enjoy the drink.  The Sandra Marie Omelet comes with a scone.  The scone was extremely fresh and had a strong cinnamon taste to it.  We really like the scone!

The Sandra Marie Omelet used a lot of fresh ingredients such as mushrooms, zucchini, spinach, and squash.  It was so fresh that we thought we were eating salad.  On top of the omelet, it was covered with pesto sauce.  The Caramel Apple Fresh Toast was the best of the meal.  The fresh toast on the plate was a smaller size toast, but it was cooked perfectly.  The apple was served as thin slices placed in between the toast.  The fresh toast was probaby the best we have ever had.

We really enjoyed the food at Victorian Cafe.  It was definitely a great experience with its unique taste.  The biggest down side was the wait time at the restaurant.  Hopefully it will improve over time.

King Mountain

 

King Mountain is a very popular trail near Portland metro area.  It is known for its steepness and difficulty of the trail.  The trail is about 2.3 miles long with elevation gain of about 2500 feet, which is quite significant.  The King Mountain trail is also often associated with Elk Mountain trail due to the fact that these mountain trails are linked.  People can choose to do both King Mountain and Elk Mountain at the same time if time allows.

We got to King Mountain trail head around 7:30 AM in the morning.  There were only 2 other cars in the parking lot.  The parking space can hold around 15-20 cars in total.  The weather is a bit chilly in the morning but it gets hot when the sun comes out.

The trail is mostly covered under foliage with lot of ferns on the ground.  The trail started with some incline and we were making very good pace in the beginning.  The first half of the trail was not difficult at all and just with some elevation gain.  After 1 mile in, the trail started to climb steeply.

The steep climb of the trail was still not bad and we could handle.  However, after about 1.5 miles in, there was a lot of large rocks on the steep trail.  This really made the climb difficult and exhausting since we had to make large strides.  When we ere almost at the top of the summit there was a lot of lose gravels on the trail which made the hike a bit slippery.

After about 1.5 hours, we finally made it to the top of the King Mountain Summit.  The view was amazing and we could see the entire Tillamook forest below us.  At the summit, there was a tube in the box that contains a booklet where people signed their names after making to the top of the summit.  We signed our names of course!

Overall, it was a great work out for hiking King Mountain.  Going up to the summit was hard, but coming down was not easy either.  We had to make sure we don't slip due to the steepness of the trail.  We did not use any hiking poles but hiking poles are recommended if you have them.