October 18, 2009
I am sure you are wondering why I called this California Adventure Abbreviated. Two years ago I took a 15 day road trip through California. I drove down California along the Sierras through Mt Lassen, Lakes Basin, Tahoe, Yosemite and Kings Canyon then onto San Diego for 5 days. I drove back along the coast stopping in Monterey Bay, driving though San Francisco , the Sonoma Coast and Redwoods before returning home. I took over 750 pictures with my SD600.
This trip was shorter and involved only Northern California. I had time restrictions. Started a new job this last Monday at Kaiser Sunnyside. Hope you enjoy the shots, I had a great time taking them. it was one of the best trips I have ever taken.
Day 1
I left Portland OR, drove down I5 and took Willamette Pass. At over 5000 ft, it is a high pass for Oregon. I hit my first amount of snow at the top of the pass, but the rest of the drive to Collier State Park was easy. Once on the other side of the mountains it was sunny and cold. I think the high was close to 50 degrees. The above picture is of a mannequin out side a general store in Chemult, Ore. I found it weirdly homoerotic and had to take a picture. And people say that Portland is weird. I drove onto Collier Memorial State Park which is a very nice, very clean park. I set up camp and then took a walk over to the museum. Along the way I captured this picture.
Day 2
Awoke to ice on the inside of the tent and a warm 24 degrees. I packed up as fast as I could, which wasn’t easy as my fingers with gloves on were hurting because it was so cold. The day quickly warmed up and I drove to Lava Beds in northeastern California. Mt Mcloughlin at 9495 is the southernmost volcano in the cascade range in Oregon. It was beautiful with the snow that had fallen the night before.
Lava Beds National Monument is an area of very interesting geology. It is a spot that lava erupted from the ground along faults in the earth. It has the most lava tubes in North America with over 500 known lava tubes. This is a shot from the inside on the most popular tube, which is lit for people. I traveled through the park backwards and spent more time in at the north end of the monument. The highest concentration of lava tubes is by the visitor center at the southern end of the monument. The tubes are very cool and anyone into caving should check it out. Once I had left I took some back road out of the park and drove on to McArthur Burney Memorial State park. I was going to camp there but I did not like how high the fire pits are at the campground. One drawback to camping in California is the fire pits, the other is the state does not have enough money to maintain the parks. I ended up camping about 15 miles south in a nice campground that did not have any water which sucked. It was much warmer got up to 70 degrees.
Day 3
There had been a bad forest fire that was close to the campground. I took this picture to capture the desolation of the place. I continued on to Mt Lassen National Volcanic Park. I spent the morning driving around the park visiting sites I had seen on my first trip. October is a great time to go. There were no crowds and I had Bumpass Hell to myself most of the two hours I spent there.
Once out of the park I drove onto Lakes Basin and stayed in this campground I found during my last trip. This campground had no water as well but it was because the campground was closed. After setting up camp I went for a hike to Grass Lake and a small waterfall.
Day 4
Took the best hike of the whole trip this morning! Hiked from the campground up to a ridge looking over Lakes Basin. Even hiked a short ways on the PCT then hiked back into Lakes Basin and hiked on a part that I had done on the first trip. In total I hiked almost 6 miles.
Once I got back, I packed up camp and started toward Lake Tahoe. On my way I was noticing white puffy clouds and though the weather might be changing. I drove for a while around the lake and came back to Tahoe City. I stayed at the Lake of the Sky Motor Inn. It was not the nicest motel, but it was clean and the people that owned it were very nice. Once settled I took a walk around the city. It is a cute little town with a population of over 2500. There were several restaurants and shops. After my trip I decided that if I was going to stay in Lake Tahoe again I would stay in either Kings Beach or Tahoe City.
Day 5
I was right about the change in the weather. I awoke to snow on the ground and this beautiful scene. I drove around the lake this day spending time in several different parks.
Three shots from the drive around the lake. Lake Tahoe is the 3rd deepest lake in North America. It was created about 2 million years ago when a lava flow dammed up the only outlet in the valley. The bottom of the lake is actually lower than Carson City at just over 4500 feet above sea level. The lake’s shores sit at just over 6200 feet above sea level. getting tired of being cold I decided to go to the Coast and drive but a small section of coast that I had never been on. but before I left I checked out Squaw Valley, USA.
Day 6
After driving from Tahoe to Guerneville, which is a small town north of San Francisco that is in wine country, I stayed the night at a place called the Highland Resort. Very cute cottage style resort. The service was excellent and the following morning I got recommendations for two wineries, a different drive to the coast and a place to eat lunch along the way. I drove up the coast that day and saw many beautiful sites.
This night was a highlight of the trip but not in a good way. After getting back from taking pictures of the sunset and seeing wild animals for the first time since I had left, I decided to camp one last night. I started my fire and and made some dinner. As I was making dinner I heard a sound that seemed quite close. I looked up and saw a raccoon that was quickly approaching my camp site. I started yelling and ran it off. I though that was the end of it. About 5 minutes later it came back. This time I picked up a stick and yelled some more. The yelling was quite interesting since I have had laryngitis and I could not yell very loud. I ended up having to run this raccoon off several times. Finally I got some piece and quiet until after I went to sleep. The raccoon got into my stuff and I knew this by the large crash when my stuff hit the ground. I then packed up my stuff and got the worse night sleep of the whole trip.
Day 7
Needless to say I was very tired and the next morning and decided to drive home. I was over camping and really just wanted my own bed. I finished the drive up the coast through the Redwood National and State Parks and continued on home to Portland.
This was the last shot of the trip. I was tired of being on vacation and tired of taking photos. Plus there was not much to shoot on the way home and not much time to take them.