Traveling the USA Part II

My allergies are really bothering me so we take our time getting packed this morning, but eventually we leave this quaint RV park near Crater Lake.

We travel around 250 miles today through Bend and on to Burns, Oregon . Most of the trip is through high desert scenery and it is raining again. Plus today we have some hail along with the rain. We see several groups of pronghorn antelope on the drive across Oregon. The rain stops by the time we get to Burns and we enjoy a relaxing evening in the trailer.

We pack up and make the short drive to Crater Lake RV Park in Fort Klamath, Oregon. We have a nice campsite beside the Fort Creek. Our cat finds a nice comfortable seat beside the back window:

We have a quick lunch and then head out to Crater Lake National Park. This park averages over 35 feet of snow in the winter, so most of the park is still closed due to snow. Most of the roads and all of the trails are still closed, but we're not going to be near this area in July when the roads finally open.

We drive to the visitors center and are surprised to see how much snow is still there. The ranger explains that the roads had an average of 35 feet of snow on them this winter and the cold spring has also delayed melting.

We then drive up to look at the lake. The road around the rim is closed, but we're able to drive up to Crater Lake Lodge area to at least look at the lake.

There is still a lot of snow in this area. All of the roads won't be open til sometime in July.

Joe is thrilled with all of the snow (he keeps throwing snowballs at his dad) and he brought his sled along to go sledding.

We drive back to the campground and Jere & Joe go canoeing while I take pics and make dinner.

After dinner Joe and I play ping pong and air hockey and we all watch an old Indiana Jones movie, Temple of Doom.

I told Jere we would do whatever he wanted today; I was too busy with other things to decide what to do. So of course we're heading back up to the cold, rainy mountains to a national monument. We leave the warm Redding valley and head up into the mountains. I'm tired of the cold, dreary high desert scenery:

We stop at a roadside rest for lunch and I try to improve my outlook with food: chocolate candy, chocolate brownie and hot chocolate. I get back in the car and the scenery still looks drab but now I'm probably 2 pounds heavier. However, after about ten minutes, the chocolate chemicals reach my brain and the scenery starts looking better!

Then we stop for diesel. We knew this day was coming, but it is still depressing: our first time to pay over $5/gallon for diesel. So I go inside and buy a mocha frappacino to try to keep my spirits up.

We reach our destination, Lava Beds National Monument, and I walk into the visitor center and find out that Jere has brought me to a park to walk through lava tube caves! Small, tubular caves without lights! For people who may not know me as well as others, I'm kindof scared of the dark (though I'm not as scared of the dark as I used to be when I was younger) and I just plain don't like confined places. Jere knows that I don't like caves, so he conveniently failed to mention what we would be doing at Lava Beds National Monument. Joe and Jere are anxious to explore these dark, long holes in the ground, so off we go. No amount of chocolate can make me think that this is going to be fun.

Jere gives me the largest flashlight and Joe gives me one of his flashlights (we have 6 flashlights between the three of us) and we head to explore the lava tubes.

There are very few people here at the park so we have the caves pretty much to ourselves, which is good since we're pulling the trailer and it's easy to find parking when there's no one else around. We climb down the ladder to the Golden Dome cave. The opening looks so narrow to me, I can't believe I'm doing this...I really do not like closed spaces.

So I get down into the cave and it's dark and there are no signs/arrows telling us which way to go and no smooth paths to follow. This is much closer to spelunking than I ever want to be. Spelunking is an activity that I never, ever want to do -- I will go skydiving or bungee-jumping before spelunking. I tell Jere and Joe that I will try one cave, so I shine my two flashlights to check for bats and creepy-crawling things and to see just what I've gotten myself into.

There are some low parts of the cave that are only about 4 feet high and there are some really rocky parts to the cave where it's hard to walk, but I am determined to get through this since Jere and Joe want to do this (and I really really want to get out of this place as quickly as possible). I am doing pretty good til we're about ten minutes into the cave and Jere says he's not sure which way is out. We seem to be walking in circles and everything looks the same to me. Joe says he knows the way out so we follow him and then Jere says he doesn't think we're going the right way. It's at this point that my chest tightens and I start having a hard time breathing--I do not like this! Joe is right and we see a light at the end of the cave and head out. I have an incredible headache by the time we're out.

So we head for our second cave. There are places where the caves have collapsed and I can't help but wonder when they collapsed and how the park knows that the caves we're entering will not collapse. It is raining today and doesn't water help weaken the rocks??? So we just peek into this second cave and then head for our next cave. I'm starting to feel a little better til we're in this cave and Jere mentions that the rocks in the roof look like they're ready to fall down!!! I would yell at him, but I'm still having a hard time breathing and my chest is really tight. We get out of the cave and I am laughing hysterically. Joe asks me why I'm laughing and I explain that I'm about to have a nervous breakdown. Before we go in the next cave I tell them they are not allowed to talk about the cave collapsing and not to tell me if they don't know the way out of the cave.

We leave the park after exploring several caves. I never want to do that again ever. I do not want to go into dark, cold, damp holes in the ground; I can't understand why anyone would want to go exploring dark holes in the ground. However, Joe had a great time.

We drive through the rain towards our campground. This is the first time during the trip that we get lost. Jere neglected to bring maps of California or Oregon or an atlas on the trip, but we make some guesses as to which road to take and end up finding the campground without too many wrong turns.

Jere knows that I really want to see the season finale of the television show Lost tonight, so he makes sure that we are at a campground with cable tv (especially after the very stressful afternoon that I've had exploring dark holes in the ground). So we spend our eveing in front of the boob tube watching Lost.

Jere's next planned stop is another snow-covered, cold national park (Crater Lake); but I tell him that I need a day to enjoy warm weather and outdoor activities. So we drive 30 miles north to Redding, California. They have several nice bike trails here.

We set up, have lunch, and then take off for the Sacramento River Trail. We get to the trailhead and discover that Jere's one bike tire is flat, so back to the RV park to get the tire pump. Joe and I take off on the trail while Jere gets the pump, and then Jere catches up to us about 2 miles down the bike trail.

The trail is paved and follows the Sacramento River. We bike up the one side,

walk around the Keswick Dam and Reservoir near the end of the bid trail,

bike across the Ribbon Bridge

and then bike down the other side of the Sacramento River.

We start off on another bike trail to bike down to the Sundial Bridge in Redding when I get a flat tire. We walk the bike back to the truck, pump it up, but it's flat within 1/4 mile. We (that would be Jere and me, NOT Joe) are curious to see this Sundail Bridge so we decide to walk the two miles to the bridge.

The bridge is really different. It's a pedestrian bridge, a piece of artwork, and a working sundial (unfortunately it's cloudy so no time check today).

We walk over the bridge, get a snack at the Turtle Bay Cafe, look at the gardens at the end of the bridge and then walk the two miles back to the truck.

After a long day of biking and walking, we have dinner, relax a little and then Jere & I decide we want to go see the Sundial Bridge at night when it's lit up. Joe chooses to stay and play video games.

The bridge looks nice at night, but not very different from the daytime. It really is a beautiful and creative bridge. I'm amazed that a town of this size spent the money on such a wonderful piece of artwork.

It rained overnight, but this morning is simply overcast. We take our time getting ready and then leave for the 50 mile drive to Lassen Volcanic National Park.

The park is at high elevation with lots of snow and doesn't really fully open for the season til mid-June. We enjoy the scenery and Joe really enjoys all of the snow in the park.

There is no Visitor Center (they're building a new one) so our first stop is to read an informational sign (while Joe sleds down the side of the hill on his belly -- yep, no sled, he gets very wet with snow). Then we start the scenic drive through the park, first stopping at the sulphur springs. Smells like rotten eggs, lots of steam coming out of vents and some really fun-to-watch "mud pots" of bubbling mud:

There is still lots of snow in the park. Joe really enjoys all of the snow.

The only trail that is open is the nature trail at the Devestated Area. The clouds lift long enough that we get to see Mt. Lassen, which last erupted in 1915.

We drive home for dinner at the RV park, and then Jere washes the truck and trailer.

And then, as we're becoming all too familiar with, the rain begins again.