Cottage Grove Dam

After leaving Silver Falls, we had no reservation for three nights.  I had found a first come-first served campground on the coast, so that's where we headed.  Got there at 1:35, it was full.  1:00 is checkout time.  EVERYWHERE was full.  We drove, and drove, and drove, but there were no campsites to be found.  The kids were so excited to camp on the coast, too.  So sad.  Finally, at 7:30 that night, we pulled into a campsite at Pine Meadows Campground on Cottage Grove Lake.  God was looking out for us, because the site was reserved but had been abandoned.  What a long, difficult day.  Thank goodness we had pie for breakfast (again) to sustain us!   To make up for the yuck that was Friday, K told us we needed to go on the dam tour.  Only 15 are allowed on the tour, so Bill hustled over to the hosts and signed all seven of us up.  When we arrived at the appointed time, we ended up being the only ones to go on the tour other than volunteers and the ranger!  The ranger, by the way, was the same ranger from the night before who had to turn us away from another campground.  The two are Army Corp of Engineers campgrounds, and she splits her time at the two.  She was surprised to see we had actually gotten a site, since they're normally booked!  

The tour came complete with a look at their gigantic tools for working on the dam machinery.  They have, I think, 13 dams in the area they're responsible for, with this one and two others being monitored remotely from another location.              

The star of the tour.  Snakes find their way into the dam building, but don't like the cold.  So Ranger Christie picked him up and carried him up all the stairs to set him free.  Inside, at the bottom floor, the temperature was probably 60ish, the outside temperature was 90ish.  I preferred it inside.  When we headed back inside to finish up the tour, we found another snake on the stairs, but he had to remain cuz we were on our way down, and it was inconvenient.  Oh well.