Road Trip

Kristen and I took a road trip this last week to Oregon and Northern California. We enjoyed visiting and listening to music and generally relaxing because we both needed it. Our plan was to go to Crater Lake National Park, Mount Lassen National Park, Redwood National Park, and then go up the Oregon coast to see all the lighthouses. Our trip was successful because we saw and did everything that we set out to do. Kristen and I arrived home today refreshed and ready to take on life again.
When we were on the road to Crater Lake we came upon this really neat covered bridge. We found that Oregon has a lot of covered bridges. This was the Lowell Bridge. It is not in use anymore so is used as a museum to covered bridges.

We took our hiking shoes with us so that we could take some short day hikes in the National Parks. Crater Lake was beautiful but we found that the drive to the park was longer than we thought so we had to drop our plan to go out in a boat to Wizard Island and climb to the top of the cone. Instead we took a hike around the lake for a few miles after listening to a ranger talk about the history of Crater Lake and the men involved in making it a National Park. Kristen was a trooper and carried the backpack on all the hikes with the first aid supplies for my blisters and the water bottles. She wouldn't let me carry it even though I offered a few times.

We stayed in Kalamath Falls that night and then drove to Mount Lassen. When we arrived we stopped at the visitors center and the store to stock up on supplies. We decided to take three hikes that day that were short. The first hike was to some beautiful falls and when we parked the car a downpour started. I had an umbrella. As we were getting out of the car a ranger drove by with the lights flashing. We wondered what was happening and were to find out later in the day. As we began our hike it began thundering and hailing. I was glad I had an umbrella at that point. When we returned and were driving up the mountain the rain stopped and Kristen took some pictures of a helicopter hovering over Mount Lassen. We parked our car at the trail head to go up the mountain and noticed that the ranger vehicle was parked there and the trial was blocked with orange cones. Some hikers nearby looked like they were in shock.

I asked the ranger when the trail would be open and found that a family had been caught in a tragedy on the mountain. A nine-year old boy had been killed, his 13-year old sister had a head injury, and the five-year old was scratched up. The helicopters were bringing them off the mountain. We later read in the news that the children had been caught in a rock slide on the trail. What a tragedy!

We went about 500 feet down the mountain to the next hike that we had planned and found two helicopters parked across from the parking lot and people with telescopes watching the events unfold on the mountain. There was little we could do so Kristen and I hiked to the fumerole for Mount Lassen. If you didn't know already Lassen is an active volcano. Our three mile hike ended in some paint pots, boiling pools of water, and steam vents. There were board walks around the trail and it smelled strongly of sulfur. The hike was worth going to see and we were glad that the ranger at the visitor's center recommended it. He also recommended that we be careful on the Mt. Lassen trail because of the storm. I was glad we delayed our trip and stopped for a few minutes or we could have been caught in it too.

Kerry called to say that it was 107 degrees in Vancouver that day and was very hot. He was suffering because of the heat and was glad to have air conditioning. Because we were in the mountains it was in the mid 80's and very pleasant. As we drove to Redding California, we watched the temperature gauge go up in the car as we came out of the mountains. By the time we reached the city it was 102 degrees. I got out of the car and it felt great. I love the heat.

The next day we drove to Redwood National Park where Kristen fell in love with the big trees and became a tree hugger. We enjoyed hiking through the forest and went on a couple of short day hikes. I loved the old growth forests that we drove through and enjoyed the wildlife, waterfalls, and spending time with Kristen there. There was a mist in the forest that touched the tops of the trees but was dry where we were. We stopped at the information center and asked about the hikes again. The rangers directed us to some great walks.

On our last leg of the journey we stopped at lighthouses on the Oregon Coast. There were nine on the coast but we visited seven because the one off Ecola State Park is a mile off shore on an island and is a place where people store their ashes. The other one was off limits to the public and run by the Coast Guard. We took lots of pictures and enjoyed the tours that were given at the light houses. It was an informative trip and we arrived home with great memories.

Image via Wikipedia