Finally, Redwoods

Well, we didn`t quite get to the redwoods in a day. We found a perfectly delightful campground just a few miles down the road from Oregon Cave National Monument. So we ended up taking a bit of a vacation from our vacation. Of course I can’t visit a cave without trying once again to get a good cave picture. Failed again. The cave itself is pretty cool, though not nearly as spectacular as some we’ve visited. This one was discovered around 1870 by a hunter, Elijah Davidson, whose dog chased a bear into it. He chased his dog inside with his only light a few matches in his pocket. He ended up having to immerse himself in a stream which ran through the cave for a few hours following it downstream in total darkness. The dog? He was waiting for Elijah outside the cave. Took him years to get up the nerve to go back in, but he mentioned it to a local schoolteacher. Not too many years later it was a tourist attraction and later a national monument.

Grayback Creek campground is very quiet and secluded, enough of a secret where we were able to snap up the only full hookup on the property. For a total of 20 bucks for 4 nights! No phone or even a TV signal, which might not have been that bad of a thing. Nice deli just ten miles down the road in Grant’s Pass, called Taylor’s, apparently part of a family chain. We rented a couple of movies, found the local swimming hole and generally kicked back for a few days.

 

Audrey, our cute-as-a-button cave guide

Draperies in the cave.



I inflict on you a few more cave pics



Not to mention another happy couple pic



This is kind of significant. That break in color shows a fault running through the cave.

A couple of my favorite subjects together

A cute couple, Miranda and Paul, met at the swimming hole.
She's a singer, fashion model and actress in NBC show (which one?) in L.A., he just completed smoke jumper training.

Them, they're just retired

 

 

On Saturday we took an easy (narrow, winding, but only a hundred miles) drive into Redwood country. Not far over the California border the big trees just start appearing. Larger in diameter than anything we’ve ever seen, they were just the small ones on the edge. After checking into a nice Escapee campground ($22 a night to members, here that’s a bargain.) in Crescent City we immediately headed out to Jedediah Smith state park and Stout’s Grove. Wow! One can read the statistics, more than 6 feet diameter, over 300 feet high, and kind of appreciate it, but nothing like standing next to one of these things and looking way up there. Then you come across one of the big ones! Heck, just check out the pictures, even though the scale really doesn’t do them justice.

It's tough to transmit the size of these things

That's a little better for scale. This tree is just average. Now go back and look at the upper pictures.

Do these pics help?

How about this one?

A 20 foot root ball

Yes, that's better. Note that isn't the whole trunk you see.

This Blue Jay teased me all down the path. Finally got a good picture of him.

Thou shalt not walk on the breakwater.
 Crescent City suffered a tsunami in 1964 and still hasn't gotten over it.

Grounds of the lighthouse in Crescent City

Low tide tidal pool.

Liz here. Located in our campground is the all too common site of Class A (very large and 4-5mpg) motorhomes with a Prius in tow. An overwhelming comment on public perception and a stack up of domestic economic failure. We are really glad to share our days with our Chevy truck.  

Crater Lake

We've been wandering Oregon for a week now .Scenery on Coastal Highway 101 is really something.  Mountains to the left of us, ocean to the right of us. Liz kept leaning out the window with the camera but there's just no way to actually capture it. Not that we won't keep trying. We spent a couple of days dry camping in the Tahkenitch Forest Service sand dune area, taking a unique hike from deep forest over sand dunes to the ocean. Think Sleeping Bear dunes, only a bit bigger, just as hard to get up and down.

Through the windshield shots of the Oregon Coast.

Reminds me of the Lake Michigan dunes

 

We found an SKP (aka Escapee, yet another RV camp organization, a member owned co-op, membership gives us access to some exclusive campsites and discounts in others.)  campsite in Sutherlin, Oregon.  A nice place to kick back for the evening and enjoy full electric power, empty and refill the appropriate waste and water tanks, some 30 or so miles inland. We also let our maildrop know we were here to forward mail. One night and off to Crater Lake.

Crater Lake is one of those bucket list things. I’d heard from other RVers everything from “a nice place to see, kind of like Meteor Crater” to “I’d spend the entire summer there if I could”. My own feeling? For sure it’s worth seeing. If you’re deeply into long distance hiking you could spend weeks there without hitting the same trail twice. We spent three days and a couple more wouldn’t have hurt. The National Park is dry camping only - no electricity, no water, not even showers. This automatically limits the time you can spend.

Of course, it is a unique thing. Only 7,700 years ago a magma pocket under a 12,000 foot mountain built up enough pressure to erupt. This was the biggest volcanic eruption on the continent since the latest Yellowstone eruption 640,000 years ago, covering a 5 state area along with part of Canada with ash from 8 inches to 60 feet. After it had vented itself out, it left a deep empty pocket that ate the upper 5,000 feet of the mountain. It actually continued venting for another few hundred years, building up a 2,500 foot ash cone that is now known as Wizard Island. Since the caldera (NOT crater, no meteor involved) had no outlets and a pretty watertight bottom, snowmelt and rain just plain collected and made a lake. A really big lake, 5 miles across and 2,000 feet deep, deeper than any of the Great Lakes. That’s 5 trillion gallons of pure fresh water, the clearest and cleanest in the world. It loses 34 or so billion gallons a year to evaporation and seepage and then gains it back in the winter with up to 44 feet of snowfall. You can only get around the lake on the road for a few months – early July to mid September – any other time and you’ll be blocked by the snow. It’s all they can do to keep the visitor center open year round to accommodate skiers and snowshoe hikers, no snowmobiles allowed.  This July there are still pockets of snow in many places and last season’s snowfall was one of the smallest on record – a mere 24 feet. Yet the lake has only been observed to freeze twice despite a 38 degree average temperature and complete absence of currents due to its huge volume.  Partially because of the rough country surrounding the lake, nearly the entire 183,000 acres of the park was not logged and is thus one of our few pockets of old-growth forest. Due to the extreme weather the trees in the park are not especially large but are up to 400 years old. Okay, enough science, on with the pictures.

 

Deep, deep blue

Clark's Nutcracker, found mostly on the rim, lives mostly on White Pine nuts.

The first night there we took a little (uphill, of course) hike up to Watchman Peak to see the sunset. Sorry, the sunset pictures didn’t work out too well but the old Forest Fire Tower lookout photographs nicely.  Our first full day there we treated ourselves to the bus ride on the 33 mile road around the lake, 22 bucks each but with great commentary by a volunteer guide and several stops at scenic turnouts. Of course we took advantage of a ranger talk, this one about the events of creation of the lake. Topped it off with an evening talk on how it came to be a national park. Day two was a little more freestyle, morning Liz biked the 4 miles to the park headquarters (she claims it was 7 miles there and 1 mile back) while I lounged at our VERY desirable campsite. If you’re ever there, loop B, site 7 has a wonderful view of Annie Creek, just a couple of hundred feet down, along with the obligatory chipmunks and bluejays. After lunch we took another ranger hike to Plaikni Falls then continued down that road to the Pinnacles. These pillars were formed at the same time as the volcano. The magma pocket vented all over the mountain and the hard lava cooled in the vents. Then a later river carved a deep valley through the soft tuff the mountain is mostly made of, leaving the hard lava in the vents exposed. Leaves a weird landscape. Evening and yet another ranger talk, this one about the animals in the park.

Plaikni Falls

Forest ranger station on Watchman Peak

Liz luxuriating in our back yard

It's tough to get a good sunset. Sigh.

Lady of the Woods, an unfinished sculpture from the 1920's in native rock.

Really cool park benches on the trail to Plaikni Waterfall.

Pinnacles. Somewhere down there is a river.

Trees, pinnacles

This is part of the gate at the old entrance, now on Pinnacle Trail.

How's that for a backyard view. Remember Loop B, Site 7.

As if I weren't even there.

Phantom Ship, looks tiny but is in fact 150 or so feet high.

I'm reminded by the Pinnacle Rock picture: on our bus ride we were treated to the sight of The Old Man, an old hemlock log about 50 feet long floating vertically in the lake with 4 or 5 feet sticking up out of the water. Doesn't photograph worth a darn. It's been there for at least the last 100 years. It floats pretty much all over the lake. Park rangers were in the habit of boating out to it and climbing and standing at the top. Some time in the 1920's they talked the park director into trying, then abandoned him to swim back to shore. Since then it's been illegal to approach the log.

Sunday morning, we reluctantly headed back to Sutherlin. Time for laundry, a shower and pick up the mail. Woke up Monday morning to a flock of turkey wandering around. Longtime residents pay them almost no attention, just a daily occurrence. The newsletter mentioned a couple of residents witnessing the birth of twin fawns in their back yard. Talk about laid back! Yesterday we used our air conditioner for the first time since last October. The difference from the mountains and the coast to here is a good 20 degrees.
 

Truly good size turkeys. I keep thinking Thanksgiving!

Tomorrow, off to see the redwoods

 

Liz here. 

We're staying in Dimond and visiting Yosemite from Aug 4 - 18.   If it's anything like Crater Lake, communications will be limited or nonexistent.

FYI – From Sept 6 to Sep 13, we’ll be at a 5-star resort in Sparks, Nevada near Reno. We’ll have way more room than we need. If you think you can get there, let us know and we’ll be happy to share.

 

From Victoria into Washington

We finally got an internet connection! First one since Canada. So it's time to catch up.

Our last full day in Victoria we again biked around this great little town. Of course, this was the day of the local Gay Pride parade. I expected a small quiet march of a few dozen folks. Would you believe thousands in the parade and more thousands spectating? All (almost) very tasteful without too much flaunting of transgender behavior and not very much public display of affection. All in all, a helluva show.

The parade was several blocks long.

This was about as rowdy as the Gay Pride parade got.

 

 

As a parting gift from Victoria, this river otter and her two youngsters showed up on the dock below us the day we left.

 

Time for another expensive ferry ride. I've almost grown blasé about entrusting my home to a floating hole in the water. Tight turns, snuggling up to a semi, ramps that jiggle under the weight of my rig? No problem. Telling the truth, or even remembering what forbidden fruits or meats are in the refrigerator? Maybe a little sweating and stammering there. We ended up eating half a dozen Southeast Asian leechee rather than have them confiscated.

We headed back to the Escapee's RV park in Chimacum and spent a few days just kicking back. Well, they had a couple of pool tables and a squad of geriatric pool sharks. We also fell a little bit for Fort Townsend, located on the northeast corner of the Olympic Peninsula. Definitely on the list for long term summer settle-down spot should we ever get to that phase.

Not often you see a sailboat blocking the street.

A former co-worker, Rick Marsh, was once a park ranger in the Olympic National Park and often told about the temperate rain forest. I had to see it. Well worth it. Like the rest of the peninsula, it's cool during the day and nearly cold at night. Oh, did I mention that Washington is undergoing it's annual July-August drought? Sunshine, very few clouds, nice. We're on our way to see the redwoods and sequoias but they'll have to be pretty spectacular to beat the moss draped monster we saw Hoh River area. Throw in a close-up of a bull-elk just for fun.

Typical windshield view

 

 

These trees are all in a row. Hundreds of years ago, a tree fell, gathered moss and nurtured all these trees with its remains.

 

This tree is just typical, nothing special. The lady is something special.

Moss covered most of the large trees

Isn't he a beauty?

Just that close

Just now we're right at the southwestern edge of Washington state, getting ready to tour Highway 101 along the Oregon Coast. Spent the day touring Fort Clatsop, where Lewis and Clark wintered in 1805. Nice reproduction, especially the woodworker who invited me to use a drawshave, first time I've done any woodworking in years.