Craters of the Moon National Park - 2021 & 2025

When I say “old” friends, I mean long-standing, not aged (Peyton was concerned about the interpretation).

October 15-22, 2025

Bend, OR, Picabo, ID and Salt Lake City, UT

Proverbs 3:6 “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

After leaving Crater Lake, we headed northeast to Bend, Oregon, a very cool mountain town with endless outdoor opportunities within easy reach. I ventured out on my own for some mountain biking while Peyton, Sadie, and Nate walked to a phenomenal city park just across the street from our campground. We also met up for meals with some great friends from Stanford and the Navy who now call Bend home (luckyyyy).

*Super fun climbing wall in a Bend municipal park. Peyton may have been checking Zillow on the other side of the wall…*

Great meals with great friends — Joe & Charlotte and Jim & Claire

Back into Idaho

From Bend, we continued east into southern Idaho near Ketchum on Silver Creek. It’s a world renowned fly-fishing spot and while I have a rod, we aren’t really set up for family fly-fishing and wading in the fall waters.

Instead, we went to a local fish hatchery that had a small but picturesque pond. We caught a few fish, but the pond seemed pretty fished out.

The next day we visited Craters of the Moon National Park. This was a repeat visit for us from our 2021 CA to VA cross-country RV trip and a place the kids have been excited to return to ever since.

With the government shutdown, the park was open, but the visitor center and any ranger-led activities were not. We were a little disappointed to miss touring the lava caves, but not overly so, considering that we had recently hiked a 3-mile lava tube near Mount St. Helens. So, instead we hiked out to a huge lava field.

The following day, on the advice from some friendly fishing guides at the nearby tackle shop, we went to a much larger reservoir about 30 minutes away from our campground. Maps showed a “shorter” route off of the highway that appeared more direct, so we took it. The road turned out to be a quite rocky 4x4 track. We had to drive very slowly and definitely didn’t save any time! The truck made it with no problems, but we were all happy to be at the reservoir after being bounced around.

*The “shortcut” road. See also “no other vehicles.”*

Almost as soon as we got to the reservoir and started fishing, it got very windy and down poured. Quickly, the kids elected to hang out in the truck, but Peyton and I fished on.

I caught a small Rainbow Trout, then a nice larger one, then Peyton pulled in an absolute monster! We fished for a while longer after that, but the fishing seemed to have turned off. We cleaned the fish, packed it up, and headed home. This time via the longer (but much smoother and faster) nicely graded gravel road that comfortably took us back to the highway.

Salt Lake City

We headed south from Idaho into Utah. Our first stop was Hill Air Force Base, just north of Salt Lake City. We saw some more Stanford friends and explored the Great Salt Lake.

*Stanford friends Kellie, Brett, and Felix hosted us for a lovely dinner.*

At the beginning of the trip, Nate said that the thing he was most excited about was swimming in the Great Salt Lake. I don’t know what his expectations were, but reality didn’t mesh with it. It was a cool day, the park’s showers were turned off for construction, and Nate didn’t end up swimming.

Sadie, however, took an unplanned plunge into the lake — or at least the mudflat of the lake in what used to be a marina. The Great Salt Lake has been rapidly receding for decades due to human water diversions for agriculture and development, combined with climate change and prolonged drought.

This was fun to clean up with only a water bottle ;)

*On our last evening, we had a blast meeting up with more Stanford friends: Sam, Misha, and their four adorable kids.*

Roberts on the Road

For those just finding us, hello! Inspired by the Year of Jubilee in Leviticus 25, our family is on a yearlong RV road trip in 2025-2026 to celebrate my husband’s retirement after 20 years in Naval Special Warfare, as well as our 24 years together during the ups and downs of it all.

With our 12-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son in tow, this trip to explore America’s national parks and beautiful places is intended to help our family reflect and reset as civilian life begins.

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For background info on who we are and where we’re traveling, we’d love for you to read the intro post. The full list of road trip blog posts can be found here. Thanks for stopping by!