Lassen Peak

Sunday, June 10, 2012
After a leisurely breakfast of French toast, eggs and turkeyasouris sausage at our favorite place, the Roadside Inn, or maybe on this occasion it should be called the Campsite Inn, we made our way back down the dusty road to 44 and about 30 miles to the northwest park entrance station of Lassen Volcanic National Park. 

Before leaving the campground, we again stopped at the ranger station just to see if our luck had changed and there would be someone there. Nope, but here again came Ashley. She very kindly looked around once again for our stamp, but didn’t find anything. And for very good reason. When we entered the park at the northwest entrance station, we asked if they had any stamps, and lo and behold produced the Butte Lake stamp and the Summit Lake stamp! Both of those ranger stations are still closed, and lucky for us we asked for stamps at the right place!  

Now on a roll, we stopped just up the road at the VC and Loomis Museum, and got three more stamps. We also learned from the lady at the desk that we should stop at the Sundial Bridge in Redding on our way through. Wilma had read a little about it on line, but it looked like it was $14 each to get into the park. Here we learned there is no charge to walk across the bridge, and if there at night, the bridge deck is lit. Great information. She also gave Wilma a “limited edition” guide to the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway, now that we are at the end of it.

We were told at the entrance that the camp host had the Manzanita Lake stamp so we knocked on her door and asked about the stamp. She hesitated then said ”Oh yes, I think I do” and went back into her trailer to dig it out. We went out to her picnic table and she dug it out of the pouch it was in. She attempted to set the date, but the month wouldn’t move. Barney told her he had fixed them before and she gave it to him to set the date. She then accepted a piece of paper from Fred to test it on. It left no image. Fred and Barney were sure it had not been used this year. She put ink on the stamp pad and stamped Betty’s page, which Barney had. Fred worked the ink around in the pad and onto the stamp and got Wilma’s page and his sheets done. We agreed that the host would be a little better equipped to give the next person a stamp.

Wilma and Betty put together a small lunch and we took off in the Rubble-mobile headed to the southwest entrance to the park and the Kohm-Yah-mah-nee Visitor’s Center for a few more stamps. We stopped on the way at the Summit Lake Campground, which was closed, and ate our lunch. We made a few more stops on our way over the 8500’ summit and watched people ski and play in the snow, to smell the Sulphur Works and for photos. The snow at the summit was 6 to 8 feet high along the road. None of the side roads were open because of the remaining snow. The Sulphur Works consists of boiling mud pots, hot springs and gas vents. It smells as bad or worse than anything in Yellowstone. 
  At the VC we got our books stamped, wandered through the exhibits and watched the video about the park.
We returned to our campsites with a couple more stops on the way back. We checked out the showers thinking we would take one in the morning. Wilma put together some haystacks which we consumed with gusto. Now everyone has returned to their cave-mobiles tired and ready to relax for the night.
Our total trip mileage for the day was about 60 to 70 miles. Sounds like a tough day doesn’t it?
Good night.

Lava Beds to Lassen

Saturday, June 9, 2012

When we put the fire out last night and crawled into the rolling caves there were a few campsites left in the loop we were in. They filled up through the night with a chorus of car doors and trunk lids banging, however that didn’t seem to detract greatly from the amount of sleep we got.

When we left the Indian Well campground in Lava Beds National Monument, we checked at the VC to see if they had power, and yes, they did. So we went in to watch the video. It was very good. Usually you should see the movie before seeing the rest of the park, but this time we entered from the north, and the VC was at the south end. The road through the park was very good, but the road out the south end of the park was a little unusual. It is not a heavily traveled road – you could tell by the weeds growing up in the cracks near the edge of the black top and the lack of a center line. There was a sign not too far from the VC that said “road not maintained in the winter” and another a little farther on that said “rough road”. The picture was taken after we left the worst of the potholes behind, but you can see the weeds encroaching on both sides.

After 10 or 15 miles it intersected with route 139 which we took south to a shortcut to route 299. The shortcut was 91, and it was the best yet, probably because it wasn’t heavily traveled.

We had already passed the agricultural inspection station wondering what they would take, but it was closed, so we still have all the veggies and fruit.

When we came to the end of 91 and joined 299, we took a pit stop at a convenience store. Wilma was sitting innocently in the Flintstone mobile when a lady from the car next to us started pointing her fingers to and from her eyes, and wanted Wilma to watch her daughter in the car while she ran inside. It was funny because Wilma had no idea what she was trying to convey. Oh well, Wilma is just naive, but so was the lady for thinking she could trust total strangers. She really was never out of sight though.

  .As we traveled west on 299 we came around a curve that gave us a view of a wide open valley and Mt. Shasta proudly standing clear. It was just gorgeous.

We could also see Lassen Peak to our left. We soon came to a view point, and thought it would be wonderful views of both mountains, but turned out to be a  waterfall. The viewpoint was high above the falls, and a pretty good distance, but you could clearly hear the roar. Another very nice stop.

 

299 took us through Fall River Mills, CA then we turned south on 89 and on to the turn off on route 44 to Butte Lake in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Route 44 is actually outside the park. We stopped at a viewpoint that gave us clear pictures of Lassen Peak, then continued on to the campground, the final six miles on a washboard gravel road.  

The campground is a forest service unit at 6100’ and has 101 campsites in 2 loops, complete with flush toilets and bear-proof food storage boxes and trash containers. We found nice camp spots and you can see the bear box beside the Rubblemobile. Not a problem for us, but there are lots of tenters here who have to store all their food in them.

After we settled in to adjacent sites we started looking for the passport stamp that was supposed to be in the camp hosts bear box or in the ranger station. Unwittingly, Ashley, a young ranger came through checking the restrooms and collecting the trash. She was accosted by Wilma and Betty with questions about the stamp. Ashley told them she would look for it in the ranger station and report back to them. The only stamp she was able to locate was one that said “Lassen Volcanic National Park Butte Lake Campground”, which was stamped in the books. She wasn’t sure if that was the “official” stamp tor Butte Lake and that we should ask a ranger with a Smokey Bear Hat when we see one. Ashley was a very nice and helpful young lady.

We walked down to see the lake. We could only see a small part of it, but behind the tall mounds of lava rock off to the right, the lake extends quite a way.

We spent a nice afternoon just relaxing, then built a nice fire to roast our delicious turkeyceritops hot dogs for dinner.

We have all retired to our rolling caves for the night for a good night’s rest.

We hope you have one of the same. Good night.

 

Crater Lake Snow to Lava Beds Desert

Friday, June 8, 2012

Congratulations Christopher and Ann Shirley! Cute proposal picture. Bet you didn’t know you had an audience!

The electric hookup did it’s job overnight. It was quite warm in the cavemobiles, and didn’t get as cold as predicted outside.  When first checking this morning, it appeared quite clear and looked like it would be a glorious day. Pretty soon it was snowing and blowing! 

After breakfast (we actually got scones this morning) we loaded up and stopped at the dump station to offload the contents of our waste tanks, then headed for the showers. We had four minutes for 75 cents, and were prepared to load more money, but just barely finished in that time! It felt good!

 

We stopped on the way up at the Information Center to check on another stamp. It couldn’t be located yesterday so we thought we would try again today. Different people were on the desk and when Fred asked for the anniversary stamp, it materialized out of a drawer as if by magic. The stamp was applied to its proper location in the passport books and, once again we headed for the top and Crater Lake.

We drove in falling snow all the way up to Crater Lake Lodge. Inside the lodge we oohed and aahed at the beautiful wood floors, the pine columns, the wood slab paneling with bark intact, and the magnificent stone fireplaces. It is really a beautiful building. We all stepped out on the deck overlooking the lake. Much of the lake and the island were shrouded by the wind-blown snow. The patterns of the snow moved with the wind would show an area of the lake then fade it out like a picture going in and out of focus. It was really pretty, but we were glad that we had gotten more detailed photos yesterday.

We did make a couple of photo stops on the way out of the park to look at Annie Creek Falls and the canyon in which it flows, and then headed south on 62 toward Klamath Falls, Oregon. The route took us through a very large pretty valley at Fort Klamath, then alongside Klamath Lake for a while. As we came around the lake we had an excellent view of Mt. Shasta in California.

In Klamath Falls, OR, Fred Meyer took a pocketful of change to fill our diesel tanks, and then KFC served up lunch for us since we know Betty’s fondness for fried pterodactyl.  We picked up route 39 and Hill Road headed south toward the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge with today’s destination the Lava Beds National Monument.

We stopped at the campground first to get a place saved, and then took the Rubble-mobile to the VC where we were able to get 3 stamps for the passport books. A profitable day for stamps.  They were without power for some unknown reason, so we couldn’t see the video, but had a nice conversation with the ranger on duty. He went into some of the history of the Tule Lake Relocation camp that is also under their wing.  We hadn’t planned to stop at the relocation camp, so the information was good to hear.

Back at the campground, we enjoyed sitting around in the sunshine for a while, then started a roaring fire, and as soon as it slowed down a little we threw foil wrapped potatoes on to bake. We started them on the grate, but soon had them directly in the coals. They were excellent about an hour later along with a great salad Betty made, and we enjoyed the warmth of the coals for a while before getting settled in for the evening in the cavemobiles. It has been another great day. Hope yours was too.

Lap of Luxury

Thursday 7 June 2012

We spent the night in the Pauline Lake Campground. It clouded up during the night and rained on us a couple of times. It’s kind of difficult to sleep with the rain drops pattering on the cave-mobile roof. At any rate we were up and about at 7:30 this morning and while Betty fixed us some breakfast, Fred and Wilma were busy picturing and posting the blog. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, hash browns and biscuits with raspberry preserves. It’s a wonder we don’t waste away to nothing while we are on the road. However cave-mobile cooking is not all that bad.

We had seen a dump station yesterday on the way in to Pauline Lake and thought we might take care of that little task before getting back on the road. Betty and Barney drove through, looked at the sign stating the dump fee was $10.00 and kept on going. There are 7 or 8 Forest Service campgrounds in the area and there seems to be only one dump station? $10.00 Come on!

We drove north on route 97, back to the Lava Land VC of the Newberry National Volcanic Monument where we got our passport books stamped. Then we headed south on 97 toward Crater Lake.

At Diamond Lake Junction we saw the sign stating that the “north entrance to Crater Lake is closed” and “the south entrance is open”. We thought that might be the case. We continued south on 97 to Chiloquin then turned north on route 62 to Crater Lake National Park. There was very little snow on the ground when we entered the park boundary. However by the time we got to the park entrance pay station there was lots of snow.

We checked in at the Mazama Village Campground around 2 pm. Fred asked for 2 adjacent campsites. Then he asked if they had any sites with hookups. The campground is not completely open until July the first. Loop F, the loop with a goodly number of hookups is not open yet. The lady who checked us in said there are a very limited number of hookups available but contacted the maintenance crew to check on a specific site in loop B and one in loop C. She was told that they had about a half hour of cleanup to do then those sites would be ready. Her computer was running pretty slow, so by the time we got checked in and paid, the sites were ready.  We are really living it up with electric hookup, and it will raise the average cost per night through the roof, but the cold weather wins! So we will have our lap of luxury tonight. Actually at 14.50 each, that wasn’t too bad, but still double what we’ve paid so far! Aren’t we the skinflints.

After we were situated and had a lunch of salad and French Dip sandwiches, we all jumped in the Rubble-mobile and drove up to the Information Center where the passport book stamping took place. As we drove on up the hill to Crater Lake we were rained on and got a little popcorn snow along with it. When we arrived at the lake it was partially shrouded in mist. We spent some time in the gift shop where Fred and Betty located a penny smasher, which they promptly put to work.

While we were in the gift shop the clouds broke up a little, allowing flashes of sunshine on the lake and the mist was gone. We got some good photos of the lake with the wind swirling patterns on the surface. It really turned out to be a Kodak Moment.

We are now back in camp and pretty much settled in for the night. Betty is cooking up some minestrone soup which we will have pretty soon. The electric heaters are running and the caves are nice and warm. (It’s supposed to get below 20 degrees tonight) We’ll bank up the electric fires for the night and chisel more tomorrow.

The Bedrock Bunch

The Midnight Summons, and Stunning

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Into bed early last evening, we were set for a great night of sleeping. At midnight Fred’s alarm went off! It’s really easy to push the wrong button when you pick up the little clock, so we were startled awake with the alarm. When Wilma crawled back into bed after using the facility, she noticed a light on in the cab and looked to see that the Garmin had been left on. Not wanting to have dead batteries in the morning, Fred was “encouraged”  to go take care of it! He was more than willing – NOT!  Then they finished a good night of rest.  Turned out Barney could have taken care of it since he read until midnight!

We really lazed around this morning in camp. It was chilly and the warmth of the campers felt good.  We had a leisurely breakfast that Wilma put together of scones, eggs, turkey sausage and hash browns.There was a slight mishap and one item “fell” from the breakfast menu, however, Wilma will have to explain the juggling act.-- I mixed up a batch of scones, but when taking them out of the oven my hand got a little close to the pan! The instant sting of a burn startled me and I dropped the pan. Scones splattered all over the floor, and no scone was left uncrumbled! Luckily most was contained on a throw rug and readily scooped up and the broom took care of the rest. By the time Betty and Barney came in, they didn’t know the difference except that breakfast was kind of meager! Oh well.

Finally getting around and leaving the campground, Wilma worked on getting the blog edited with input from Barney and pictures from Betty. It was posted just as we were coming into Prineville, OR, for a fuel stop. Upon leaving Prineville, the whole eastern side of the Oregon Cascades opened up bright and clear. It was stunning!  The sky was clear, no haze, and all the mountains stood out so pretty. The only problem we had with the scenery was trying to take pictures of it as we drove along. Every time we got ready to snap a pix, power lines, poles, traffic or a not so good looking fence would be right in front of our target. And no place to pull off!  It was a gorgeous morning.

We continued on to Redmond and then Bend, OR where we turned south on route 97 looking for the Newberry National Volcanic Monument and, of course, a stamp for our passport books. We stopped at the Lava Lands VC and would you believe, it’s closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. We milled about in the parking lot for a few minutes then headed back to Bend where Betty had spied out a Trader Joe’s food store. After a short stop there we were back on the route 97 south and again we stopped at the Lava Lands VC where we ate lunch in the parking lot.

From the VC we headed south again and in about 15 miles we came to the turn off for Pauline Lake and East Lake which are still in the Newberry National Volcanic Monument. We found a couple of sites in the Pauline Lake Campground, which is a national forest campground, and we decided to spend the night.  After trying several different camp sites, we finally settled in and relaxed for a while. We had wanted to camp in a couple of spots that had a lake view, but after walking around a bit could see why others were camped back away from the lake. The mosquito population at the lake was enormous, and we haven’t found them around the back woods sites.

Barney and Betty sponsored a tour up the road to see the other lake, campgrounds, and the Big Obsidian Flow. The flow and trails were still covered with snow, so we could only get a glimpse. This area is probably very popular a little later in the year. Lots of camping, fishing, and very pretty. I’m sure the mosquito population flourishes until late in the summer!  The lakes in the caldera are gorgeous, and according to Barney’s findings contain a couple of kinds of trout, kokanee, and East Lake has Atlantic salmon. Lots of boats around.

We have traveled a total of something like 70 miles of our planned trip today, even though our total mileage for the day was about 120 miles. Isn’t it strange that we manage to do that on a fairly regular basis?

We are back in the mobile caves for the night, and will chisel out more tomorrow.

Thanks for joining us, The Bedrock Bunch.

Fighting our way against the Head Winds!

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

We had 60 mph winds last evening, so the Rubbles had rubble in the yard that had to be cleaned up before we could leave this morning. And half of Oregon was plastered to our trucks and windshields, so called for a hose down. But around the planned departure time, we were ready to depart! So off we headed into whatever part of Oregon that wasn’t already with us, heading west on route 26 through Vale, OR.

Almost as soon as we got under way this morning we met head winds, and struggled against them all day. It does claim the mpg, but we had a good day anyway.

Our first destination was the small mining town of Sumpter, Oregon. It is a state heritage area, and I think the population is about 200. During the summer months you can take the self-guided tour of the five story Sumpter Dredge that is grounded where it stopped operating in 1954. The brochure says it is one of the nation’s oldest surviving gold-digging types of dredges, and that it was used to plow up most of what was once pasture and open meadow along the Powder River, leaving tailings that are now being reclaimed by wildlife and wetlands. There is also a six mile trip you can do on the narrow gauge railroad with a steam locomotive.

Well, as usual, our plans didn’t pan out! It was quite cool and windy, with some rain showers thrown in, and as we got up to the 5,000 ft elevation, we hit snow flurries. Enough weather that we decided it wasn’t a good day to be traipsing around the Sumpter area, so we skipped it and continued on to John Day. It was lunch time and we were on the lookout for a fast food place. Not seeing one, we opted for a city park and pulled in to fix our soup and sandwich lunch. It “just happened” to be at the Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site where there is a restored building that contains a representation of the contents from the general store, pharmacy, doctor’s office, community center, and home of “Doc” Hay and Lung On who operated the site during the gold rush in eastern Oregon. John Day had the third largest population of Chinese workers in the U.S.during that time. We couldn’t take the guided tour of the building because another group was coming in, but did go across the street to an interpretive center and enjoyed the small museum area there, watched a short film, and chatted with the very helpful and talkative ladies on duty. Although they did not have a passport stamp, they did stamp our books with their address stamp.

Back to fighting the headwinds, we chugged on down the road to the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, stopping first at an overlook where we didn’t know what we were seeing, but about got blown away, and then we continued on to the Visitor Center at the Sheep Rock unit. Of course the first thing on the agenda was stamps for our books, then the movie and a look around the fossil exhibits. There are lots of examples of leaf and other things embedded in rock, but also a lot of animal remains found in a widespread area of eastern Oregon. There are lots of jawbones and some of them were impressive size.

Supposedly some from animals no longer known to us.    We talked to the ranger on duty, and he was very informative. He encouraged us to stop at the Painted Hills unit of the Monument, but said it was iffy whether we would find the ranger there to get our stamp. He said that unit was off the highway about six miles down a dirt road. As we drove in we had to wonder if he had ever been there. The six miles was paved, and only turned to dirt as you entered the park. Although it was as he said about the ranger, and we didn’t find him or get our stamp there. The painted hills were very pretty, and on the six mile drive back out to the highway, we had a tail wind! Lot of good six miles will do for our mpg.

About 15 more miles down the road we stopped at a National Forest Service campground, Ochoco Divide, and are spending the night here.

 

 

We’ve had a very enjoyable first day back on the road.