Saturday, July 31, 2010

Day 26 Summer 2010 Park to Park Road Trip

Shortly after we left our hotel in Klamath Falls OR, we crossed over the State Line into California.

1508 Welcome to California

Smoky the Bear tells us that the Fire Danger is Very High…

1513 Smoky the Bear near Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge CA

That is kind of obvious when you see the surrounding yellow dried out landscape.

1606 Between LBNM & Redding CA1607 Between LBNM & Redding CA

We saw a couple of deer as we were heading into the park.

1523 Deer at Lava Beds National Monument CA1524 Deer at Lava Beds National Monument CA

Today we are going to visit the Lava Beds National Monument.

1520 Lava Beds National Monument CA1525 Lava Beds National Monument CA

At Devils Homestead, I took this panoramic shot of the lava rocks that stretched almost to the horizon.

1547 Devils Homestead Lava Beds National Monument CA Stitch

Stopped at the Visitors Center and bought some postcards, but they did not have any hat pins. I will have to search for one online so that I can pin it on our map on the wall back home.

1582 Visitor Center Lava Beds National Monument CA1583 Visitor Center Lava Beds National Monument CA

There are 25 different lava tube caves that you can explore in this park, but Karen and I are too chicken to explore them on our own, they are dark, damp, full of bats, bugs and other creepy things. If you are into caving, this would be the spot for you to visit. We will just enjoy the above ground scenery in this park.

1568 Lava Beds National Monument CA1533 Lava Beds National Monument CA1575 Fleener Chimneys Lava Beds National Monument CA

Shortly after leaving the park, we spotted two deer grazing in a field by the road.

1590 Deer between LBNM & Redding CA1592 Deer between LBNM & Redding CA1595 Deer between LBNM & Redding CA

We headed for our hotel in Redding California. In Redding there is a famous bridge… The Sundial Bridge.

Billed as the “Worlds Largest Sundial”. It is big and between 10 am and 2pm, you can see the shadow of the arm on the sundial marking the time. The shadow moves 1 foot per minute so you can actually watch the movement as the earth rotates on its axis. Before 10am and after 2pm, the shadow moves off the plaza and is lost in the trees and water.

1609 Sundial Bridge Redding CA1610 Sundial Bridge Redding CA1611 Sundial Bridge Redding CA

The arm of the sundial is 217 feet tall. I had to stitch 4 photos together to get this one shot of the complete arm.

1621 Sundial Bridge Redding CA Stitch

To see all of the photos from today, you can see them by clicking on this link to my FLICKR site.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Day 25 Summer 2010 Park to Park Road Trip

We woke at 6:30am and had breakfast, packed the car and were on the road by 7:30am.

Today we are going to visit Crater Lake National Park but we have to make one stop first. We want to see Oregon’s longest covered bridge.

The Office Covered Bridge.

1310 Office Covered Bridge OR1305 Office Covered Bridge OR

After leaving the bridge, we entered the park at the North Entrance and showed our National Park Pass which lets us into any US National Park for 1 year.

1319 Crater Lake National Park OR

Crater Lake was once a large mountain that erupted and when the magma chamber underneath was depleted, the mountain collapsed leaving the crater. Rain and snow melt gradually filled the crater over thousands of years. The lake is 1943 feet deep, making it the deepest lake in the USA.

We are going to drive completely around the lake on Rim Road. This photo is our first view of the lake.

1326 Rim Road Crater Lake National Park OR

The lake is about 5 miles across and I took this panoramic shot to give a better perspective of the whole lake.

1328 Rim Road Crater Lake National Park OR Stitch

Karen and I at Crater Lake NP.

1340 Rim Road Crater Lake National Park OR1341 Rim Road Crater Lake National Park OR

There are two islands in the lake… this is Wizard Island. Named so because it is shaped like a wizards hat.

1352 Wizard Island Rim Road Crater Lake National Park OR1353 Wizard Island Rim Road Crater Lake National Park OR

The water is an amazing blue as shown in this shot with the trees and sky reflecting in the water.

1378 Rim Road Crater Lake National Park OR

Another panoramic shot of Crater Lake.

1386 Rim Road Crater Lake National Park OR Stitch

More blue water.

1399 Rim Road Crater Lake National Park OR1408 Rim Road Crater Lake National Park OR1410 Rim Road Crater Lake National Park OR

The rock cliffs are covered with a green lichen.

1402 Rim Road Crater Lake National Park OR

We saw some beautiful flowers along the side of the road.

1432 Rim Road Crater Lake National Park OR1434 Rim Road Crater Lake National Park OR1437 Rim Road Crater Lake National Park OR

And of course at this altitude, we are between 6000 and 7000 ft, we find some snow.

1440 Rim Road Crater Lake National Park OR

The other island in the lake is Phantom Ship Island. If it was misty, this would really look like a phantom ship.

1465 Phantom Ship Island Rim Road Crater Lake National Park OR1466 Phantom Ship Island Rim Road Crater Lake National Park OR

We took a short 7 mile side trip away from the rim road and visited The Pinnacles. We have never seen anything quite like this. They look like giant sand castles. These pinnacles, although it is hard to photograph them in perspective, range in size from 100 ft to 3oo ft tall.

1475 The Pinnacles CLNP OR1479 The Pinnacles CLNP OR1480 The Pinnacles CLNP OR

That completed our drive around the rim of Crater Lake and we headed towards our hotel. After dinner we topped off the evening by stopping at Baskin Robbins and enjoying a chocolate fudge ice cream in a chocolate waffle cone, dipped in chocolate.

1505a Baskin Robbins Ice Cream

To see all of our photos from today, you can click on this link to my FLICKR site.

Tomorrow we will leave Oregon behind us and enter into California.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Day 24 Summer 2010 Park to Park Road Trip

Nothing to tell you about today. We woke up, we had breakfast, we went to the grocery store and bought some supplies, we had lunch, we went and did the laundry. Today is just a day off from travelling and sightseeing.

We are back on the road in the morning, heading for Crater Lake National Park.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Day 23 Summer 2010 Park to Park Road Trip

Today we left the State of Washington and entered the State of Oregon. We are going to drive along the West Cascade Scenic Byway.

1260 Welcome to Oregon1265 West Cascade Oregon Scenic Byway OR

There was a river running along beside us as we drove along.

1268 West Cascade Oregon Scenic Byway OR

However there wasn’t much more than the river that was scenic. I suppose if this was the very first scenic byway that we had driven on, I might find this more scenic, but compared to the majority of the scenic byways we have driven on, this is rather dull. I guess we are too spoiled by our previous drives up and over mountain tops, sometimes driving in the clouds, seeing alpine lakes and drifts of snow, that this scenic drive is just not measuring up to those drives. I guess they all can’t be more scenic than the previous one, every so often you come across a dud.

Smoky The Bear says the fire danger is moderate.

1275 West Cascade Oregon Scenic Byway OR

Two exciting things did happen though. We spotted another Black Tailed Deer crossing the road.

1278 Black Tail Deer West Cascade Oregon Scenic Byway OR1279 Black Tail Deer West Cascade Oregon Scenic Byway OR1280 Black Tail Deer West Cascade Oregon Scenic Byway OR

And we spotted this birds nest on top of a hydro pole.

1290 Oregon Route 226 OR1292 Oregon Route 226 OR

We are still trying to figure out what kind of birds these are. If you know, please tell us.

So that is it, our first day in Oregon. Tomorrow we are staying put and relaxing, nothing planned except to do some laundry and some shopping. These two things promise a very exciting blog posting tomorrow so be sure to check back tomorrow and find out how the laundry and shopping turned out.

Till then… take care… oh yes, photos from today are on FLICKR.