Easyish Hike at Ray Atkeson Loop Train at Sparks Lake in Bend, Oregon

We did this hike a week ago, but I didn't get around to blogging about it. We were looking for something around two miles that was relatively flat and this fit the bill. My Google search said that it was about 60 feet in elevation and 2.3 miles. We think it was longer and more elevation, but it was still relatively flat and close enough to 2.3 miles that we survived. This hike makes sort of a figure 8 loop so you have multiple options as far as how you want to walk it. The information I read, indicated that the best parts are on what I called the backside, but I wasn't really all that impressed with that side. It was mostly in the forest or in lava fields. There were times when we could see the mountains, but it was through the trees. It was also rather warm in most of this section. There was some snow on the ground still even in June.

This was my best shot from the backside part of the hike. 

It cooled off a bit once we got closer to the lake. The lake was ginormous and it was gorgeous! I could have taken more pics, but my battery was dying because I was also playing Pokemon Go as we walked. There were tons of Pokemon there. Most of them were Rock type Pokemon, but I'm not sure if that's because it was on a lava field or because the Rock type Pokemon event was going on at the time of our visit. There were a couple Pokestops in the parking lot, but I did not see any along the hike. I did not see any gyms.

I thought the layers of pollen looked really cool.

We did not see very many people during the hike. I think we saw one other group on the backside. We saw one group as we were approaching the center of the figure 8 part and we saw a couple groups as we got closer to the lake. There were a lot of people on the lake though.

Here's the map of the trail. The parking lot is on the right lower corner where it says toilet. We followed the solid line until the dotted line to left about an inch in. 

So my definition of the "backside" is the loop to the left. We started the hike and then took the first left. We did not take the shortcut. Then we hooked up with lake section of the loop and headed back to the car.

There was a vault type toilet there. It stunk sooooooooo bad! OMG people. You're supposed to put the lid down to help with that stench!