We made a quick exit from California and headed for Klamath Falls.  Although it was described as a “butt scab” we found the downtown very quaint and interesting with nice old buildings, a view of the lake, and some open businesses.  The place seems like its in recovery after the recession.  We were looking for a Mexican food joint I found on yelp, but it no longer existed at the address I had.  Justin saved the day and found a brewery a few blocks away: Klamath Basin Brewing Company in the Creamery building.

The servers were friendly and N eventually found a suitable table.  They had 7-8 beers on tap and had not tried any before so we ordered a sampler to share.  Boy were we pleased!  The Hefeweisen (a summer favorite of mine) was crisp and refreshing, not too sweet.  They had a very drinkable Lager, a delicious Blond, a Red, Amber, Pale Ale, IPA, and a Vanilla Porter.

All excellent and with a sale on 22’s by the case, we walked away with a mixed case of Blond, Porter, IPA, Red for $36.  The food was pretty tasty too.  B ate all of the beans out of my taco salad plus another bonus bowl, and the sweet potato fries that came with Justin’s turkey bacon sandwich were sprinkled with brown sugar (wow!).  For the kids it was a roulette of fried foods, we landed on deep fried mac a cheese wedges but asked for a bowl of shredded carrots which N chowed down on.

We drove up the side of Upper Klamath Lake towards Crater Lake on the Volcanic Scenic Byway.  Justin found some saddening facts about the Lake and how humans have degraded it and the nearby marshlands. We had a nice tour along the west rim of the lake.  Its an impressive feat of nature; the deepest lake in the world at 1,986 feet or so and a crazy bright Klein blue.

We exited the park and took a long, strait road back to highway 97 and north a smidgen to Dawson House Lodge in Chemult, OR.  Chemult is a small town with a couple of hotels and a restaurant or two.  the hotel had great amenities: a veranda overlooking the highway, a microwave, fridge, DVDs, AC, cable TV and a swinging chair on the porch.  We ordered a pizza and had dinner on the veranda with a bottle of wine then watched a movie.  Not too shabby.  Off to Bend the next day!