The weather forecast was for rain for today, so a tour along the Avenue of the Giants through the Humboldt Redwoods State Park sounded like a good idea.  On the way we saw a sign for Ferndale, a Victorian village.  The streets are lined with small well maintained Victorian style homes, most decorated in period colors and style.  The business section has typical touristy style stores and shops as well as utilitarian stores, all in Victorian buildings.  Several churches are also in town.  A very nice spur of the moment turn off 101. 

We entered the redwood forest from the north.  Several guides point out major points of interest and special trees.  We stopped at all of them.  The trees are awe inspiring.  The sheer size is overwhelming, walking among them and realizing some of them are about 2500 years old is mind boggling.  Several sites had walking trails, and the Founder’s Grove  had and interpretive booklet to explain points of interest along the trail.  The road winds in and out of the park, so there are some small towns along the way, none very attractive.  Mostly they were a tourist souvenir shop with special attractions, like the Forever Tree House and the Shrine Drive-Through Tree, which the truck wouldn’t fit through.  We watched someone with a similar truck have to back out of the tree.  We took the advice of the ticket seller and didn’t try.  Yes, there is a charge to drive through a tree. 

The drive took all day so it was dinner time when we finished.  No lunch L.  Fortunately, Fortuna (a town) had a brew pub!  We were only gonna have a beer to check the local quality, but ended up with dinner also.  The beer (organic!) was good, the food OK. 

 Victorian store fronts in Ferndale

Dairy co-op entrance in Ferndale

 Mom in the root system of a blown down redwood

 All around us things are looking up

 "Shamrocks" on the forest floor

 Tourist trap "Eternal Tree House"

Natural "Eternal Tree House"

 Driving through the redwoods

 A huge live redwood

"Fallen Giant" redwood

 Another house in a tree - created by repeated forest fires over centuries

Another day of great change.  We left Volcano Country RV by Lassen Volcanic NP on Rt 36 at about 5000 feet in pine forest, and within an hour we were driving through lava boulder-strewn grasslands at 300 feet.  The trip down the mountain was fine, , but on some of the longer downhills there were signs advising “YIELD TO UPHILL TRAFFIC”.  I don’t understand – they have two lanes up, I have only one down.  Seems like everyone should stay on their own side.  Right now we’re on I 5 in the Sacremento River valley heading to Redding and Rt. 299 west to Eureka.  Well, the flat road ended pretty quickly as we got on 299.  We spent the next three hours on a road that followed the Trinity River through several National Forests.  Not really high in altitude, but up and down and following every bend in the river.  Very scenic with many 30 and 35 MPH corners at the bottom of 7% grades – love that exhaust brake.  There were lots of valleys and steep wooded hillsides with evidence of fire within the last year or two.  I’ll be looking for a Chevy dealer to get a new armrest for Mom’s side of the truck.  Mom got to drive the section that was under construction, so we waited for and followed a guide car for a couple of miles.  The twists and turns last almost to the coast, where we turned south on 101.  We saw the Pacific!  At least Arcata bay, the ocean tomorrow.  We went into Eureka for dinner.  Found a brew pub!  A fitting end for today’s drive.  By the way, this area has been experiencing a drought, but we brought rain.  It's supposed to rain for at least the next two days due to a very unseasonable and unusual weather event called an "Atmospheric River".  Yaaaaay.

Field strewn with volcanic boulders near Sacramento River

 volcano Country RV, store, motel, laundry, post office, and everything else in Mineral, CA

 Mom finds a way to go off-roading while hauling a camper

 Burn area

 lunch stop on Rt 299 along the Trinity River

 Flowers along the roadside

 The road follows the river, the Garmin follows the road, we follow the garmin

 Arcata Bay.  The coast at last.  4599.5 miles from home.

Dinner in Eureka

We left Reno after the mandatory trip to WalMart and drove through the now familiar desert heading north on Rt. 395.  Soon the desert sage brush range became interspersed with juniper, then some cedars, then irrigated fields of crops.  By the time we got to Susanville, CA (another WalMart stop) there were trees everywhere.  This is where we turned onto CA Rt. 36 toward Lassen Volcanic NP.  The evergreen forest enveloped us.  We had travelled through three different ecological areas in three hours.  We found our campground in Mineral, CA a few miles past south park entrance.  We’re camped among tall pines and cedars.  Smells wonderful. 

After dropping the camper we went to the park visitor center.  The park is located in the caldera of a volcano, so is surrounded by the remains of the cone.  Several peaks are within that area.  A road passes through the park and along the way there are various thermal features as well as breathtaking views of peaks and valleys.  Mom didn’t breathe for a part of the trip, so the road was breathtaking also.  Unfortunately the trail to the most prominent thermal features, called Bumpass Hell, was still closed because it is still snow covered.  The pictures just don’t do it justice.

 so many times, so many places

 fields in the valley between desert and pines

 Mt. Shasta in the distance

 Volcano Country RV

 Sulphur Works boiling mud

 first snow of 2013

 wildflowers and a view of a good part of the road

 and I wanted to haul the camper up this?

proof that hell has frozen over

 

Wednesday June 19

Leaving the Black Canyon behind we headed for Capitol Reef NP,  I wasn’t sure what we would find but expected something like Arches since that is nearby, along with Bryce Canyon.  Rt. 24 is the route, and it follows the Freemont River west into the park and beyond.  Every turn and hill presented new and different views and formations of rock.  The variety is amazing, the color variation and intensity surprising.  The pictures really don’t capture it.  From the arid desert the Freemont Valley is striking with green fields between the rocks.  The park encompasses part of a geologic formation known as the Waterpocket Fold, a high valley formed by the collision of tectonic plates.  This valley captures water and forms the Freemont River.  Not quite the Hudson.  We attended a ranger program at the petroglyph site and learned the valley had been occupied by Freemont Indians.  The range of the tribe encompassed most of Utah at one time.  Later the area was settled by Mormons.  They established the town of Fruita where they grew fruit, among other crops.  This area is preserved in the park.  We drove the scenic drive and saw many more rock formations.  In the evening we attended a night sky talk, learning about constellations.  We viewed Saturn and the moon through a telescope and saw the space station and a couple of other satellites pass over.  The camground is very nice.  We’re camped under trees at the base of a pink cliff.  In the evening a mule deer came to eat the berries from the tree next to our site.  It’s a very relaxing park, off the beaten track, well cared for, quiet.  Like the Sedona area without the people, electricity, or cell service.

 Capitol Reef NP Capitol Dome

 Petroglyphs

 Capitol Reef N P

 Capitol Reef N P

 Our Campsite - # 59!

 Leaving Capitol Reef  N P

Thursday, June 20

I really didn’t want to leave Capitol Reef, but we’re on the way to Great Basin NP.  The west side of Capitol Reef is quite a contrast to the east side.  There were a couple of not very successful villages on the east.  The west side has several towns with RV parks and motels and other services, including cell service.  We crossed another summit at 9300 feet or so and dopped a couple of thousand feet to farmland and ranches as well as oil fields.  A short stint on the interstate and we’re back on Rt. 50 through flat desert, some grass, sage brush, and juniper with more mountains in the distance.  Mom’s looking forward to going around a curve.  I can see 10 miles, and I don’t see a curve.  On the left the sage brush gives way to a dry lake that stretches to the mountains.

We arrived at the park and got a beautiful campsite.  There are only 11 sites, no hookups, but we feel lucky to get one.  After dropping the trailer we went to the Lehman Cave Visitor Center to sign up for a cave tour.  The tour lasted 90 minutes, this cave is more natural than others we’ve been in.  In many places you have to duck and walk single file to get from room to room.  The cave isn’t as colorful as some, but the number of formations and rooms is amazing.  This cave has shield formations and stalactites that have a ball part way down the formation, things not found elsewhere.  Tonight we went to an astronomy talk.  They had two telescopes set up, and we got to look at Saturn, a double star, an exploded star, and a cluster of old stars

 Dry Lake

 US 50 decending into a basin

 How many ways can you say it?

 Lehman cave formations

 Some passages got narrow too

 Cave Shields

 Great Basin N P campsite

Friday June 21

Another “I don’t want to leave” park.  Headed west the first town is Ely, NV.  This is where the Laundromat is and the closest shopping is.  It’s 61 miles from the park.  They do have casinos.  We passed a wind farm and went over several passes.  It’s rather incongruous to see CHAIN UP AREA signs in the middle of the desert, but there is a lot of snow on the peaks.  Many of the passes have surveillance cameras at the top.  Rt 50 is named “the loneliest road” in Nevada.  It’s a close race for that title given some of the areas we’ve been through.  We came across another Forest Service petroglyph area along the highway and drove down a short dirt road to it.  A self – guided tour took us to several petroglyph panels and a vista of the valley.  It was also a good lunch stop.  We stopped at Cold Springs Pony Express station, both because of the name and the Pony Express connection.  I missed a picture of the sign for the town of Ruth, location of the largest open pit copper mine in the US.  We didn’t visit it.  As we got nearer Fallon, NV things got greener and we got better cell service.  Civilization!  We’re camped in Reno at the Grand Sierra  Resort, I think it’s the old Bally’s where we stayed in 1990.  The laundry is in right now, tonight we’ll go to the casino for dinner and Mom will win the funds to pay for the rest of the trip.  Right after checking in we noticed (? Couldn’t miss!) a verrrry unique individual.  Several people were trying to push a very unique trailer into a travel trailer.  The owner, a singer, serenaded us, both with an acoustic guitar and with the Cadillac with SOUND system.  In contrast, from the back window we look out on a babbling brook again, though somewhat larger and known as the Truckee River.  Very nice, especially since we’re in downtown Reno.

 Oh sure, 1500 feet down a 2000 foot drop at 7% grade!

 Ghost!

 Turkey buzzard surveying the valley at the petroglyphs

 Mountain goat

 A petroglyph

 Rt 50, The Lonliest Road somewhere in Nevada

 Sand dunes in the desert?  First one we've seen

 Stones along the shoulder.  What to do in the desert. - Texting without cell service?

 Free concert in the campground

 A different kind of trailer

View out the back window of the Truckee River in Reno