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1 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Firefighting near Crater Lake closes park's north entrance ... California woman charged with assault, DUII after crash near Ashland injures children ... Barbershop-style singers help local schools ... Firefighting near Crater Lake closes park's north entrance ... California woman charged with assault, DUII after crash near Ashland injures children ... Barbershop-style singers help local schools ... CONTINUING COVERAGE: WILDFIRES Playing with fire: Stalwarts wait it out at Diamond Lake as flames march closer Stalwarts wait it out at Diamond Lake as Crescent fire marches closer Comment By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Posted Aug. 14, 2015 at 6:02 PM Updated Aug 14, 2015 at 6:13 PM Some ODOT video of the National Creek complex fires approaching HIghway 230. By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Posted Aug. 14, 2015 at 6:02 PM Updated Aug 14, 2015 at 6:13 PM » RELATED CONTENT • Wildfires close Highway 230, some Diamond Lake campgrounds • Business booming at Prospect Hotel • National Creek fire complex » Social News While driving west on Highway 138 late Thursday from Bend en route to a family get-together at Diamond Lake, the Nordstroms couldn't help but notice the large and growing plume of smoke rising menacingly from the woods before them. "It looked like we were driving right into the center of it," Donna Nordstrom says. It didn't help when they drove past a fire crew clearing downed trees and logs to fortify the highway into a fire break. But it took far too many gyrations to get 16 family members from Bend, Portland and San Francisco in one place for a long weekend to let a wildfire raging just a few miles away mess with their day. "We had a hard enough time getting together that we couldn't let this ruin it," she says. "We're not going to let it stop us. We won't leave until they tell us to leave." The Nordstrom crowd and others are playing with fire this weekend at Diamond Lake, completing their summer camping season by recreating as best they can in and around this eastern Douglas County lake while nearby woods are aflame. Despite moments of thick smoke, road blocks, shuttered campgrounds, campfire bans and closed trails because of the nearby National Creek complex of wildfires, vacationers are still pitching tents and parking trailers at what remains open around the lake. Flames from the Crescent fire, which is part of the nearly 5,000-acre complex, jumped Highway 230 late Thursday and was burning Friday just a few miles from the Nordstroms' Mount Thielsen View Campground on the lake's western side. The Umpqua National Forest area around the popular lake quickly has become camping's no-wimp zone. Those with longstanding reservations and the necessary fortitude can camp and visitors can come stay for the day, but no new reservations or impromptu campers will be allowed until the nearby blaze gets under control, forest officials say. That leaves just the bold or the uninformed to pitch a tent knowing they are one shift of the wind away from bolting under a full evacuation order. "This is about as close as you can get to the fire, legally," says John Jonesburg at the Diamond Lake Resort, which is fielding as many calls for new reservations as it is for cancellations. "You're going to lose the ones who are a little skittish," Jonesburg says. "But you'll gain the ones who want the adrenaline rush of being so close to the fire." Erring on the skittish side, the fire bosses Friday closed off the road from Highway 62 to Highway 138. The Umpqua Forest chose to close its South Boat Ramp and its adjacent 119-site Broken Arrow Campground on the lake's south side, shuffling campers who want to stick it out to the forest's nearby Diamond Lake Campground. "That's the closest to the fire," Umpqua Forest spokeswoman Cheryl Caplan says of Broken Arrow. "If we needed to move people out quickly there, it would be challenging." It can be a challenge just to get to the lake these days. Visitors from the Rogue Valley who normally motor up Highway 62 to Highway 230 at Union Creek en route to Diamond Lake instead are getting diverted through Crater Lake National Park. Officials there have offered a National Park Service rarity. The service is waiving the $15 vehicle fee and giving drive-through motorists a free pass, but it's good for one hour and comes with a ranger's admonishment not to stop at any of the rim's pullouts to play tourista or face a ticket. "This is done on rare occasion," says Marsha McCabe, the parks' chief of interpretation, who adds that hundreds have taken the service up on the offer. Brian Beltran and friends Chris Saire and Rachel Hansson happily took the free pass through Crater Lake, the last leg of their 12-hour bomb up Interstate 5 Friday from Orange County, Calif., for three days of Southern Oregon exploration. When they arrived, they discovered the campground would be more aptly named Visualizing a Mount Thielsen View Campground. When a Douglas County sheriff's deputy filled them in on the smoke and nearby flames, Beltran transformed from one of the uninformed to one of the bold, sort of. "I'm one of those people who has to see it to be scared of it, and right now I don't see it," says Beltran, 29. "But then again, that may be a stupid approach to fires. "But after three tanks of gas to get here, we're staying," Beltran says. "Now we just will try not to think about it." They took the Highway 230 closing pretty hard, considering their well-choreographed long weekend focused on a series of hikes into waterfalls along that route. "I planned this a month ago and if we knew Highway 230 was closed, we definitely wouldn't have come," says Saire, 32. "It's kind of a bummer." Almost as big a bummer as the no-campfires restriction. "We don't have a stove," says Saire, nursing Friday's first camp beer. "We were going to cook on the fire. But we have stuff for sandwiches." Saying that last word aloud quickly led to a planned date with the lakeside pizza parlor, which joins the resort, the RV park and the horse-riding livery as open Friday. At the Nordstrom compound, it is camping almost as usual. Southern relatives wore twice as many clothes as the Oregonians in the smoky air, a full 30 degrees cooler than the Rogue Valley. A pack of cousins confidently chased chipmunks over downed logs while the adults sat in a ring around the campfire pit. The only thing missing was the campfire. "We put the lantern in it and we're visualizing a fire," Nordstrom says. They, too, got the you-might-need-to-bug-out speech from the deputy and realized they need a village of Sherpas to schlep out the gear, tools and toys that have taken over their site should the alarm sound. "But I'd say we're not too worried," Nordstrom says. "Are we?" Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470 or [email protected] . Follow him at www.twitter.com/MTwriterFreeman . By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Posted Aug. 14, 2015 at 6:02 PM Updated Aug 14, 2015 at 6:13 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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