ROAD TRIP!
Last weekend, Daniel and I took a nice little roadtrip to Lava Beds National Monument and Crater Lake National Park. PHOTOS AHEAD
DAY 1: Getting there
Before we got going, we had to polish off the leftovers. So. Spaghetti sandwich!
We were heading south through Washington down to Klamath Falls, OR. As we got into Oregon, we could see lots of mountains. At one random lonely spot on the road there's a mountain identifier. Stand on the bit in the middle and the arrows point out which mountain is which.
From left to right: Mts. Hood, St. Helens (not really visible), Adams, and Rainier (sort of behind Adams).
There were only three rest stops all the way through the state of Oregon along 97. The middle one is built next to this chasm in the earth which is spanned by three bridges: a railroad trestle, an old highway, and the new highway. It was pretty awesome because: 1) I love bridges 2) I love chasms and 3) I had no idea we were going to find it.
Apparently, this place is bad for dogs.
I was having an allergy attack on the way down and it sucked. I was able to function with a couple of pills, but I was not a happy camper. Still, we got to the hotel at a reasonable hour and were pleased to find that it was a totally respectable place.
DAY 2: Lava Bed
Thankfully, my allergy attack had passed by the next morning, as they tend to do. Plus, we woke up early, so we were on the road just a little after 8, heading about an hour south of Klamath Falls to Lava Beds National Monument. I'd discovered this park by looking at a map and been totally excited about it ever since. Because it has caves formed by lava flows. Caves you can go in. Caves you can go in by yourself that have no lights. Where does that ever happen?
The first cave is called Mushpot Cave - it's the intro cave and has lights on the floor and interpretive panels.
After visiting a cave called Indian Well, we went to one called Labyrinth. I thought that this sounded like a bad idea. The cave is described as strenuous, and I was not at all sure about a cave with an entrance like this:
But it turned out not to be such a maze after all. We went down two different tunnels. Both "ended" at spots that were too narrow for us to be willing to squeeze through. This was one of them:
The Labyrinth connects up with Lava Brook Cave at those points we didn't go through. And Lava Brook was much more mazelike, with a four way intersection at one point. The caves were strenuous - we did a fair amount of crouching and duck walking. It was a good time for lunch.
After lunch we hit several more caves.
Valentine Cave:
Golden Dome - the gold is caused by hydrophobic bacteria is and is amazing.
Hopkins Chocolate:
Sunshine, which was skylights and vegetation growing in it:
Sentinel Cave, which is over a half mile long and has two entrances. Also, it was where Daniel recorded the level of pure awesomeness with which I approached the day. Please note lumbar pack, "bump hat," and headlamp. Oh yeah.
Then we went to Heppe Cave, which is a couple miles down a dirt road and a little ways down a desert trail. It was a big hole in the ground, but opened up into this other enormous hole in the ground with multiple cave mouths. Here's Daniel in one of the cave mouths:
After that, we went to a couple of areas with Native American pictographs. They were amazing, but we had to walk a ways to them. And I didn't upload photos of them yet. And by this point I was totally exhausted. We drove to the other side of the park to a place called Petroglyph point which is a ridiculously long rockface carved with petroglyphs from one end to the other. Unfortunately, the rock is soft and heavily eroded in many places, but there's at least 100 feet of petroglyphs, telling a story. Totally fantastic.
And that was day one. We were done. Exhausted.
DAY THREE: Crater Lake
Crater Lake is still mostly in winter. Only one trail was officially open, and the drive around the lake is only half open. But it was an amazing day - clear and blue and just perfect. It was pretty much just stunning. Here's some photos.
The only trail officially open is the trail down to the lake. So we took it. First off, I have never encountered mosquitoes as bad as there were on that hike. Stop for a second and there's a cloud around you. Thank god I'd paid the $5 for the bug wipes at the gift shop. Even still, Daniel got some bites. But the experience at the lake was 100% worth it. We got down there, found a trail down among the rocks to the edge of the water.
I, of course, had to get my feet in the water.
The water is 38 degrees year round. I didn't stay in for very long. I did get out my knitting though. Because... that's how I roll.
And when I said it's mostly in winter... this is what I'm talking about:
Serious snow. But lots of melt going on. I'd love to come back in August someday.
DAY 4: The return
We drove home from Klamath Falls to Ellensburg. The only really notable thing is that we did it on one tank of gas.
THE END
DAY 1: Getting there
Before we got going, we had to polish off the leftovers. So. Spaghetti sandwich!
We were heading south through Washington down to Klamath Falls, OR. As we got into Oregon, we could see lots of mountains. At one random lonely spot on the road there's a mountain identifier. Stand on the bit in the middle and the arrows point out which mountain is which.
From left to right: Mts. Hood, St. Helens (not really visible), Adams, and Rainier (sort of behind Adams).
There were only three rest stops all the way through the state of Oregon along 97. The middle one is built next to this chasm in the earth which is spanned by three bridges: a railroad trestle, an old highway, and the new highway. It was pretty awesome because: 1) I love bridges 2) I love chasms and 3) I had no idea we were going to find it.
Apparently, this place is bad for dogs.
I was having an allergy attack on the way down and it sucked. I was able to function with a couple of pills, but I was not a happy camper. Still, we got to the hotel at a reasonable hour and were pleased to find that it was a totally respectable place.
DAY 2: Lava Bed
Thankfully, my allergy attack had passed by the next morning, as they tend to do. Plus, we woke up early, so we were on the road just a little after 8, heading about an hour south of Klamath Falls to Lava Beds National Monument. I'd discovered this park by looking at a map and been totally excited about it ever since. Because it has caves formed by lava flows. Caves you can go in. Caves you can go in by yourself that have no lights. Where does that ever happen?
The first cave is called Mushpot Cave - it's the intro cave and has lights on the floor and interpretive panels.
After visiting a cave called Indian Well, we went to one called Labyrinth. I thought that this sounded like a bad idea. The cave is described as strenuous, and I was not at all sure about a cave with an entrance like this:
But it turned out not to be such a maze after all. We went down two different tunnels. Both "ended" at spots that were too narrow for us to be willing to squeeze through. This was one of them:
The Labyrinth connects up with Lava Brook Cave at those points we didn't go through. And Lava Brook was much more mazelike, with a four way intersection at one point. The caves were strenuous - we did a fair amount of crouching and duck walking. It was a good time for lunch.
After lunch we hit several more caves.
Valentine Cave:
Golden Dome - the gold is caused by hydrophobic bacteria is and is amazing.
Hopkins Chocolate:
Sunshine, which was skylights and vegetation growing in it:
Sentinel Cave, which is over a half mile long and has two entrances. Also, it was where Daniel recorded the level of pure awesomeness with which I approached the day. Please note lumbar pack, "bump hat," and headlamp. Oh yeah.
Then we went to Heppe Cave, which is a couple miles down a dirt road and a little ways down a desert trail. It was a big hole in the ground, but opened up into this other enormous hole in the ground with multiple cave mouths. Here's Daniel in one of the cave mouths:
After that, we went to a couple of areas with Native American pictographs. They were amazing, but we had to walk a ways to them. And I didn't upload photos of them yet. And by this point I was totally exhausted. We drove to the other side of the park to a place called Petroglyph point which is a ridiculously long rockface carved with petroglyphs from one end to the other. Unfortunately, the rock is soft and heavily eroded in many places, but there's at least 100 feet of petroglyphs, telling a story. Totally fantastic.
And that was day one. We were done. Exhausted.
DAY THREE: Crater Lake
Crater Lake is still mostly in winter. Only one trail was officially open, and the drive around the lake is only half open. But it was an amazing day - clear and blue and just perfect. It was pretty much just stunning. Here's some photos.
The only trail officially open is the trail down to the lake. So we took it. First off, I have never encountered mosquitoes as bad as there were on that hike. Stop for a second and there's a cloud around you. Thank god I'd paid the $5 for the bug wipes at the gift shop. Even still, Daniel got some bites. But the experience at the lake was 100% worth it. We got down there, found a trail down among the rocks to the edge of the water.
I, of course, had to get my feet in the water.
The water is 38 degrees year round. I didn't stay in for very long. I did get out my knitting though. Because... that's how I roll.
And when I said it's mostly in winter... this is what I'm talking about:
Serious snow. But lots of melt going on. I'd love to come back in August someday.
DAY 4: The return
We drove home from Klamath Falls to Ellensburg. The only really notable thing is that we did it on one tank of gas.
THE END