If you noticed the date above, you will see that a bit of time has passed since we sent out any journals. Well, I got a little lazy out at our friend Valda’s and didn’t dictate anything for a couple of months. We managed to get back on the road just at the end of June to see incredible things, places and people. Here we go again folks!
We headed for Lassen NP to just check it out for a possible return in a few weeks for a more intensive photo tour. The road through the park was closed due to snow anyway but we all decided that later in the month was better for camping and touring. So off we went to Yreka to visit some relatives of Cokie’s and to help her Aunt Bert celebrate her 80th birthday. Summed up, it was a great party, great food and really good people. But haven’t you noticed this family of hers just seems to know how to enjoy life? Just like Cokie!
Crescent City for the Fourth of July because we had heard that the locals drive up to Oregon and bring back truck-loads of fireworks which they set off on the beach; really quite spectacular. We drove way out on a road called Enderts which looks out over the entire bay, but we were actually too far away to really see individual displays. What we saw was the entire beach and peninsula lit up for nearly two hours, perhaps even as far away as Oregon! The most spectacular show however still always turns out to be Mother Nature herself with a sunset that puts any man-made thing to shame. It was all pretty fun and thankfully not too noisy. I don’t like the booms as it reminds me of when I got shot as a reckless young stud up on Cooper Road, but that’s another story!
We had chosen to stay out in the Redwood National Forest east of Crescent City so as to have a sort of central location to run around and sniff out different things in the area. Of course my favorites are those ancient grandmother trees. The wool thick quiet of the coastal redwood forests makes you hold your breath so as not to interfere with the silence. You find yourself staring at these behemoths, not really comprehending the sheer size and age of any of them. You have to get out among them, reverently walk, no stroll and try to understand what you are seeing. You have to open up all of your senses to try to take in the bounty around you. When I sniff the air, I am nearly overwhelmed by the richness of this moist, agelessness and when I bury my nose in the furriness of the mosses and ferns, I can nearly taste the eons.
There were a couple of Ranger Gals in the Six Rivers National Recreation Area who thought I was way too charming, so they wanted me to do a photo session with their statue of Smokey the Bear and join the Junior Fire Patrol. We did, I did and I promised them an autographed e-mail shot if they turned out.
On the way to Crater Lake we had to take some of the scenic byways and back ways through the Siskiyous, through Illinois Valley, along the Rogue River and up Hiways 238 and 62 into Crater Lake NP, Oregon. (Okay, so it’s not California. This is such a short visit over the border I decided to include it here rather than in another visit to Oregon coming up in the near future. So shoot me for not being a purist!)
“Few forget their first glimpse of Crater Lake on a clear summer’s day – 21 square miles of water so intensely blue it looks like ink, ringed by cliffs towering up to 2,000 feet above its surface. The mountain bluebird, Indian legend says, “was gray before dipping into Crater Lake’s waters” (Quoted from the National Geographic Guide to the National Parks of the United States, pg. 358.)
We arrived early evening to hear that some of the Rim Road around the crater and the lake tour boat to Wizard Island were not open due to snow and the general severity of the winter. We decided to do housekeeping things for a day, check out the visitors’ center and drive out as far as we could. The snow drifts were still incredible and it was wild to see people in swimsuits and shorts playing out on the snow fields.
Okay, a change of scenery for sure! We scooted down to Lava Beds National Monument near Tulelake, Ca. (Hah! See, I told you Oregon was a short trip!) We stopped on the way at Fort Klamath and learned some history of the Modoc, the Klamath and Yahooskin tribes. The Modoc Indian War ended here at the Fort with the execution of four of the principal suspects. It is another long and tragic story of the clash of cultures and beliefs, however, the country is still beautiful even if the history is not.
Lava Beds NM is the site of the last battle of the Modoc Indian war when a band of 60 Indians held off over 600 Army infantrymen for more than two months by just utilizing the terrain. This is weird and wonderful country with these really cool lava tubes - some are as cool as 42 degrees! Over 300 tubes have been cataloged within the Monument but only about 12 are open to the public. Cokie and Kae got to visit 4 or 5 of them, but I had to do my ‘chilling’ in the Pod, those National property rules, you know. As usual, when they came back and worked on editing all of the pictures they had taken, I got to sorta go on the trip with them, just like you do. The molten rock as it poured through the tunnels and tubes melted the walls and ceilings over and over so that sometimes they look like they are covered in melted chocolate or dripping vanilla ice cream or gold flakes.
Hard hats and flash lights can make even kids brave enough to go exploring and I really wanted to go with this one friendly group I met.
I did get to go for a really good run when they went out to see the Indian petroglyphs carved into the side of a huge sandstone cliff by the ancient Modoc Indians when Tulelake was about six times larger than it is now. They rowed their reed boats out to this place to stand up and carve their stories in stone. These are the largest display of Indian petroglyphs in California. The Ladies photographed and I memorized the traces and tracks of all the wildlife in the area because they let me off leash – free, free, free!
Tulelake has been changed dramatically in the past hundred years by the farmers and the Government so that now it is much smaller but is surrounded by rich wetlands that are the resting and feeding grounds for millions of birds during the migratory seasons. We got a few shots of some of the birds but we didn’t see as many as I had hoped for. This is really rich, varied country but the whole time we could see our next destination looming on the horizon – Mt. Shasta.
We took an unpaved road out of Lava Beds NM and out through the Modoc National Forest looking for a sweet spot called Medicine Lake, which our campground hosts, Rachel and Earle, over in Lassen, had told us about. What a beauty! Very good fishing spot and the campgrounds were full of every kind of fisherman and their assortments of gear.
We stayed four days and even managed to talk a couple of avid trout guys into sharing some brookies and rainbows with us. I could really get to like fish if it is this fresh and mild every time. We got in good walks everyday down to Little Medicine Lake where I could chase sticks and swim to my heart’s content without disturbing too many fish or fishermen!
We drove on through the Modoc NF to McCloud River Recreation area on our way toward Mt. Shasta. This river has been carving its way through lava flows which makes for great pools and fine trout fishing. There are 3 waterfalls in succession with the Middle Falls being the most spectacular. Lower Falls is sweet with a large pool the Atsugewi Indians fished for generations because the salmon could come up stream that far, thus their name for the falls translates as “place where the salmon stop.”
Since Mt. Shasta is one of the Volcanoes of the Cascades and is certainly in your view 100 miles in every direction, we just had to try to camp a few days on its flanks. We found a small and quiet campground called McBride Springs and yes, the spring water is cold and clear and sweet. I hear there is supposed to be an ancient race of aliens living inside the mountains called ‘Lemurians”. I wanted to try to sniff them out since I am equipped with such a terrific sense of smell, but alas, I have nothing to report except some ‘woo-woo’ types and some way different smelling shops in downtown Mt. Shasta City!
Next on the volcano tour was a return to Mt. Lassen NP. Our objective was to video some of the thermal areas like Bumpass Hell and Sulfur Works for the Touch User Interactive book series. Wouldn’t ya know the hiking trail down the canyon to Bumpass Hell is still covered in snow, so it was no go for the photos. They did go to the Sulfur Works for both still and video shots but frankly, compared to places like Yellowstone and Mt. St. Helens, this is a volcanic whisper. Mt. Lassen is resting right now since its last ‘blow’ in 1915-1921 so it doesn’t have much happening underground or above ground. I can happily live with that but it doesn’t make for very good pictures. The drive through the park did get us some pretty spectacular views of mountains, snow fields and quiet lakes. We really did see PINK snow and ice blue lakes! The pink is caused by blooming algae that lives only briefly in ½” of the melt water on top of the snow and the deep blue in the lake is because of the deep coldness of the snow melt. Fun for everyone!
Here’s an addendum to this journal, folks. Just as we were leaving on this beautiful Sunday, our campground hosts, Rachel and Earle stopped by and let us know that the Rangers just opened the trail down to Bumpass Hell even though there was still some snow on it. Well, needless to say the Ladies just had to go. After all, these mud pots, steam vents and pools were one of the primary reasons for coming back here to Lassen. Off we went, or rather off they went and I got to do my chill thing in the Pod. Heard them say afterwards that it was worth it, but if they had a choice in the future to go again, it would be without the snow - tough trekkin’ for two old girls.
So see ya in the next Journal as we head back to Crater Lake NP.
