Mountain Peaks Loom in the Distance

Mount Shasta in the Distance (her head above the clouds)

2019-10-01 (Tuesday) [Photos of mountains to follow- I have insufficient wifi ability currently)

We had a wonderful day today (how many blogs have I started like that for this trip?) We woke up on a crisp cold morning--it was bright and sunny, but the temperature was around 32 degrees. Knowing we were heading for a park with an even higher elevation (Lava Beds is at about 4,000 feet), I made the bed up into a complete sleeping bag. I forget the brand name of this bedding, but I bought it when we got Mo (our first RV) and didn’t have a real bed. It is basically a double sleeping bag, but it is lined with real sheets, which attach via velcro. One bag is labeled “summer” and one is “winter”, and they are different weights, so you can flip the bag depending on how cold the weather is.

Ever since we got Sam (our current RV, that is), I’ve used real sheets on the real queen sized bed, and we’ve used the bedspread/comforter when we need an extra layer at night. When we left New Jersey in August, it was so darn hot that we could hardly bear to have a sheet over us, and I would stash the comforter at night. We had the air conditioning running the entire night too! A few weeks into the trip, when it became consistently cooler at night (maybe when we were in the Black Hills?), I took down the summer-weight sleeping bag, and we’ve used that as a quilt on us, in addition to the comforter. This morning when I made the bed, I took out the winter-weight bag, zipped the two bags together with the sheets inside, and tonight, we’ll be snug as bugs in a rug! (Well, in a bag.)

We were able to leave before 10:00, which was good, because we stopped at a number of the exhibits and views in Lava Beds NM on our way out of the park. The most interesting was Captain Jack’s Stronghold, which is a natural fortress used by the Modoc Indians during the Modoc Wars. I mentioned this in yesterday’s blog, but we read a lot more about it today; we also stopped at Gillems Camp, which was the camp area of the American army. Captain Jack (as the chief was known to the white settlers), along with 60 Indian warriors as well as women and children, were able to hold off the troop of 600 soldiers for months. Finally the soldiers cut off the Indians’ water supply, and they left the the “fort” at night and took refuge in another part of the park. Joey and I thought of this area as the Indians’ Masada, since they’d been driven there from their hereditary lands in another area of the lava fields, because they didn’t want to be relocated to a reservation up north in Washington. The fundamental cause for the wars was, of course, because the white settlers wanted to take over the land, and it’s hard not to feel compassionate toward the Indians when you walk around this area. It seems so inhospitable in many ways, but they were forced to give it all up anyway.

Our final stop inside the park was at Petroglyph Rock. This is a huge cliff which originally was an island in Lake Tule. Now it’s located a little way from what is left of the lake, near the Wildlife Refuge. No one knows what the ancient petroglyphs mean or were intended for--the early residents of the area had to get to the walls of the cliffs in canoes to make the symbols. Of course there is a lot of modern graffiti also, sadly. But it’s interesting to contemplate what makes one set of carvings in the wall a cultural and archaeological artifact, and another one graffiti. Presumably in 1,000 years, the initials from the 20th century will be cultural artifacts too!

We left the park and headed south toward Lassen Volcanic National Park. The GPS said it would be about 2.5 hours drive, but I knew that basically we’d spend the afternoon driving. Luckily, the roads were almost deserted, which is what we enjoy, and some were very scenic. We stopped at about 1:15 at a town named Bieber, which was only a few blocks large. We pulled into a parking lot of a closed and dilapidated building and had some lunch. Across the road was a river, and I checked it out and decided we should do tashlich while we were there. So after lunch, we took a piece of bread and tossed our sins into the water. I looked at the map, and it was called the Pit River, which was pretty funny considering what we did there--threw our sins into the Pit! I was concerned because the river did not seem to flow very fast, and the bread representing our sins was not moving away from us very fast. I can only hope it finally got a move on. We saw the same river a little while later, when we stopped at a scenic overlook. We were expecting mountains, but it was an OVERlook, where we had to look DOWN, and there was a gorgeous waterfall! It was the same slow and casual Pit River. So if ducks didn’t get the breadcrumbs, I can’t believe our sins would survive that waterfall.

Not long after that, we came out to overlook a beautiful valley, and suddenly Joey said, “Look ahead!!!!”  And WOW!!  There was a HUGE mountain, just LOOMING over the other mountains in the distance. There were clouds about halfway up it, and it’s top was way above the clouds. It was Mount Shasta, which was one of the sights I’d hoped to see on this trip. We would have loved to stop and just stare, but we were on the inside of the road which was curving around the mountain, and there were no pullouts on our side. I had to get photos through the windows as we drove. But it was simply majestic. These enormous volcanoes-- Ranier, Hood, Shasta-- just dominate the landscape like you can’t believe unless you see them with your own eyes.

We were getting views of Shasta for about 30 minutes before the angle of the road shifted, but we still were seeing lots of snow-covered mountains. We entered Lassen National Forest, and were thrilled when Mount Lassen suddenly appeared straight ahead of us. Lassen, at about 10,400 feet, is shorter than Shasta, which is well over 14,000 feet, but it is really a beautiful peak as well. Joe pulled over into a pullout, ordering me to jump out and take a photo. I did so, and then realized I heard water. LOUD water. Sure enough, just at our pullout, through a few bushes, there was an incredible rushing stream going over some rocks just at that point. I hollered to Joe to get out of the RV, because he loves mountain streams more than anything. The moment he got out he said, “I hear water!” We stayed there for about 15 minutes or so, just drinking in the smells and listening to the sound of the creek (it is called Hat Creek, and originates someplace up on Mount Lassen.)

Finally we figured we needed to get going, we still had 10 miles or so before the national park and our campground. We got into the park at 5:05, just too late to go into the visitors center and get maps etc. But I saw the ranger as she was heading to the parking lot, and she told me the campground was right around the corner, and to go to Loop B. So we did, and there were actually quite a few pull-through sites. Of course the campground is mostly empty, but the most noticable thing about it is--there is SNOW everywhere!!!!!  We saw snow in the trees on our way through the forest for about 15 miles before we got here, but gee! Many of the picnic tables have several inches! We were right to hold off getting here until today--obviously the rain we saw at lower elevations was snow here, as predicted. So we are going to really appreciate having the winter side up on our sleeping bag tonight. But we are expecting bright and sunny for the next few days, just like we had all day today.

We are planning to stay here for 2 nights. Tomorrow we will take the Jeep up the road through the park--it is NOT a place I’d want to take an RV, and is one good reason to have a Jeep with us. So now we’re going to have dinner, and make it an early evening. It’s either that or read a book--we are off the grid for a couple of days, no internet or phone. I am not complaining--this park is just gorgeous so far, and quiet. I suspect there will not be many folks on the road up the mountain tomorrow, and I’m really looking forward to it.

Alternative Rosh Hashanah

Cinder Cones on the Horizon

2019-09-30 Monday

Today was Rosh Hashanah. The only time I remember not being home on Rosh Hashanah for the past 35 years or so, was in 2007. That year was our first cross-country RV trip, and we spent Rosh Hashanah in Yosemite National Park. It was a wonderful experience, and we've never forgotten it. Today was memorable also, and a worthy addition to our "alternative Rosh Hashanah experiences".

The day started with us waking extra early and immediately checking our campground for snow--we'd heard it might snow an inch or so overnight. No such happening, however-- we'd had rain, but there was not a trace of snow. In fact, when I took Cassie out to walk, I thought it felt almost balmy, and the sky had signs of blue in it! But I did see when I looked at the mountains surrounding us that in fact, they did have a covering of white. It didn't seem to be threatening us, however, and we ignored it.

One thing we had discussed last night with Adam was whether there was any recycling center in Klamath Falls. We've been shlepping a lot of aluminum cans and plastic water bottles with us for weeks, unable to find anywhere to recycle them. Turned out there was something called the BottleDrop where we could bring our stuff. So that was our first stop--it was only 5 minutes away (all of Klamath Falls is less than 10 minutes from any other part of it-- it's not a large city.) We parked in the large parking lot of a Fred Meyer store right behind the BottleDrop, and dragged in two large bags of flattened plastic bottles, and a bag of squashed cans. Turned out the cans had deposits on them in Oregon, and we got $3.70 back for turning them in! What a deal--we'd have PAID to be able to drop this stuff off! We investigated and discovered they also took cardboard and glass, so back we went to the RV and brought in a lot of cardboard and a few glass containers. Voila! Suddenly our shower is not full of trash!

From there, we headed south to Lava Bed National Monument. It was only about an hour drive away, and to get there, we crossed the state line into California. It turns out that when you cross a state line on a back road, there's no colorful "Welcome to California" sign waiting for you :(  I thought that was very unfair. But soon I was distracted by unusual black mounds in the distance. They sure looked like volcano cones to me!

The landscape changed, and we found ourselves driving along a gorgeous lake, Lake Tule, which signs told us was a wildlife preserve. There were a lot of birds on the lake--I even saw some pelicans! On the other side of the road, the rocks were rising up around us. Soon the lake side turned to cultivated land, but the rocks became even more jagged and unusual. And then suddenly, as we arrived at Lava Beds National Monument, all we saw were black rocks of lava all around us.

The landscape reminded us very much of Craters of the Moon, which we visited in 2011. But it's very different in some ways. Craters of the Moon had much less vegetation growing on the surface--we saw a lot of sage, and especially beautiful Juniper trees (which are all loaded with berries right now.) And the volcanoes are visible on the surface--we climbed up one of the cinder cones. The volcano which created this area was a different kind than the other. The area was formed by the Medicine Lake Volcano. Rather than erupting in explosions, it was "gentler", and erupted through vents in the surface, causing the lava to flow and form what they say is a "shield-like profile.)

I had a hard time understanding the surface convolutions, but what I did understand was that the lava created tunnels as it came out, and those acted like "arteries" to guide the lava as it left the interior. The walls of the tunnels cooled first, creating a sort of "tube" where the lava continued to flow. When it stopped flowing, the walls were still there and they are now caves which open up on the surface. There are more than 700 lava tube caves in the Monument, and a couple of dozen have been opened up to access by the public.

Joey reading an information panel in Mushpot Cave

 We stopped at the visitor's center, where I got a pin for my new collection, and talked to the ranger. He gave me a map, a list of which caves were the easy ones (they are divided based on level of difficulty to explore), and a cave permit. The small interpretive area was very interesting, to say the least, also (more about that in a minute.) It was already about 3:00, so we were anxious to go into one of the caves. We chose the Mushpot Cave, which is the easiest-- it is lit, and has a concrete floor, and interpretive panels to show you features of the cave as you walk through it. Nevertheless, it was exciting and fascinating, not least because Joe and I were literally the only ones in the entire cave! We read about the different types of lava flow, the different markings on the walls and ceilings, and the animals which live in the cave (pack rats, bats, and icky things like centipedes and scorpions.) We brought extra flashlights (recommended), but we still both managed to hit our heads in one particularly low area. We loved it, and I would have liked to try another cave, but Joe was ready to call it a day. It was pretty late, so that made sense.

Looking Down through Mushpot Cave

Another thing which made the area in general so interesting was its settlement history. Originally the area was the territory of the Modoc Indians. When we were driving in, we stopped at an overlook which also marked the spot of the final battle between the Indians the the US Army, which was trying to move them out of the area. The war lasted a number of months, because the Indians knew the land so well that they could avoid the army. The end came when the Indians themselves became divided, and one group guided the army to the stronghold where the Indians were encamped. There were fewer than 200 left in the end, and they were relocated to Oklahoma and their culture was mostly lost. ("Another proud moment in American history," was my husband's wry comment.)

Juniper Tree with Berries

 In the interpretive center, we learned that much of the parks infrastructure had been built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, which lived at Gillem's Camp (which was near the National Monument entrance.) Sadly, during World War II, the camp was used as an interment camp for Japanese civilians. We also learned about that cultivated land we'd seen next to Lake Tule as we drove in. After WWI and WWII, the government had offered parcels of land to army veterans for farmland. The parcels were given out via lottery--which was held by drawing names of winners out of a large pickle jar! There was a replica of that in the interpretive center, along with other information about the settlement of the area around the National Monument. Much of that land had been wetlands, which were drained to create the farmland.

We decided to spend the night here, because it was too late to leave to drive toward Lassen National Volcanic Park, our next destination. Yes, we really are seeing a lot of volcanoes on this trip! The most interesting thing we learned-- until Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, the Medicine Lake Volcano erupted most recently of any in the lower 48 states-- it last erupted only 900 years ago! That's modern history! Scientists study the regrowth and changes at Lava Beds National Monument to learn what may happen in the future around Mount St. Helens. So each of these volcanoes is an ongoing learning experience.

Cassie contemplating the volcanic horizon

 Our Alternative Rosh Hashanah proved to be very interesting--we did not expect so much from this site. But we wished, in the end, that we'd gotten an early start to our day and gotten here earlier. There is a lot to see, and we plan to see a couple of more things on our way out tomorrow. Meanwhile, the campground is beautiful, with views of the surrounding area, and cost us a grand amount of $5.00. So you can't beat that for a lovely end to a lovely day.