Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway

Oregon is home to many National Scenic Byways. The National Scenic Byways Program is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. It's a grass-roots collaborative effort established to help recognize, preserve and enhance selected roads throughout the United States. Since 1992, the National Scenic Byways Program has funded 2,181 projects for state and nationally designated byway routes in 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. The U.S. Secretary of Transportation recognizes certain roads as All-American Roads or National Scenic Byways based on one or more archeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational and scenic qualities.

We spent the day exploring the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway, by car and on foot. Although the brochure we found indicated you could enjoy the entire byway in a day - we covered about a third. Truth be told, most folks never get out of their cars; and if they do, they walk about 100 yards to whatever scenic thing is closest, take a peak, then leave. In our travels we find that once we venture beyond the first 1/4 mile, we pretty much never see a soul.

We hiked the mile trail along Devils Lake:

We strolled along Sparks Lake, where we really wished we had a tandem kayak or canoe!
Todd Lake was super close to the parking area, so we saw the most people here!
The highlight of the day was our 3 mile hike at Dutchman Flats - straight up to the amazing views of Mt. Bachelor.