Northern Trip
27 August 2005 - Saturday
0 Miles - Left Livermore CA
We had packed up the car the night before. My car was packed completely
full, and was very dirty (no rain for 3 months in California means the dust
just accumulates).
We woke at like 5am PDT. Early for me, not so early for Kristina who was
still on Eastern time, having only flown in from MD the day before.
We loaded the guinea pig into the car and then we were off.
We drove north on 680, paying $3 to cross the San Francisco Bay. Then on to
I-80. The hills were dry and yellow, with poor cows grazing on the steep
sides. We bypassed Sacramento on I-505 and then caught I-5 north.
We drove through Olive Country
near Corning, CA. Alas we did not stop to buy
any olives.
We also passed over Shasta Lake, which was very pretty. But we did not
stop. Along the road we passed a cinder-cone:
We got off the interstate in Weed, CA and headed toward Oregon on
US-97. US-97 was barren and desert-like.
352 Miles - Arrive Oregon
We arrived in Oregon, my first visit to that state.
We traveled up through Klamath Falls, and along Upper Klamath Lake which had
a weird 20 foot high (apparently) electrified fence surrounding it
[Kristina hypothesized that it was there to protect us from the gigantic
crayfish that the local Indians had thought defended Crater Lake from
intruders].
Oregon is like New Jersey in that all gas stations are full service.
It takes some getting used to.
Finally we arrived at our destination,
Crater Lake National Park. We drove into the park from the South, and
up to the Rim Road, stopping briefly at Vidae Falls.
The lake is a fantastic blue color:
The paths were all fine dust, and Kristina's shoes unfortunately kept
kicking the dust right into my face.
Crater Lake formed in the crater of an old volcano. It is the deepest
lake in North America.
Here is a picture of the lake and a rock formation known as the Phantom Ship.
The little white dot to the left of it is a large tour boat:
The above views were from the Sun Notch. We drove some more of the rim trail,
and then away and downhill for 7 miles to view the Pinnacles area. This
area has formations of rock fused by volcanic gasses. A small stream has
eroded away the surrounding soft soil, leaving the fused rock
exposed as pinnacles:
We drove around more of the rim trail. We stopped and took the Cleetwood
Trail to the level of the lake. This path had a huge number of switchbacks
and took you 700 feet straight down to the level of the lake:
This area was where the boat tours left from. We looked around a bit,
then did the strenuous climb back up to where we left the car.
Here is one last view of the lake, including Wizard Island:
We drove on, out through the Pumice Desert and then out the North Entrance
of the park. We got back on US-97 toward Bend. We passed right near
Newberry Crater National Volcanic Monument but unfortunately it was
right at 5pm so all of the interesting sites had closed.
Near Bend we saw what looked like the beginnings of a Forest Fire, and as we
traveled onward we saw many firetrucks racing in the other direction.
Luckily we left that behind.
Finally we arrived at our final destination, Redmond OR (not to be confused
with the more famous Redmond WA which is the home of Microsoft). We
stopped at the Motel 6, which was extremely fancy and even had a Spa
and free wireless internet.
585 Miles - Arrived Redmond OR
Day 1 - 585 Miles Traveled, 585 Miles Total
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