Memorial Weekend - Road Trip - 2

Day 2

The next day we woke up early again, we were all set for breakfast by 7AM. The lady was there in the kitchen, making breakfast for us. There was a huge doggie outside on the patio. He was Brick. And he was c-u-t-e. I mean handsome cute. He was huge, like a wolf, but was very well mannered. All pets in this country are so well mannered, they are trained so well, its amazing. So Brick, though he would stand a foot from the entrance door, would not come in to the house, he knew the rules. I slowly petted him, on the head and he snuggled upto me, as if asking me to pet some more. I spent some time stroking his neck, giving him a rub. He was so cute, he would just stand there and enjoy himself. When breakfast came, he looked so forlorn, with a sad face, I couldnt help but put a bit of my super delicious French toast for him to eat. Here again he knew the rules. He didnt jump up at the food on the table, but once he saw the food in my hands and he knew it was for him, he just jumped to my hand, almost snapping the food off my hands. On my god, I just forgot how adorable and faithful dogs were.

We learnt that the lady had 23 dogs. 23 dogs! She has a dog sled team and trains the dogs for dog sledding competitions in Alaska. Wow! I was impressed. The lodge itself had a lot of dog-related things, and pets were more than welcome in the lodge, unlike other places. I was amazed at how she can even know one dog from another, care for them, and give attention to each one of them. All the creepiness we felt earlier melted away. We started liking everything about the place.

So we set off at around 8AM towards Crater Lake National Park. We drove through meadows, with cows grazing the fields, the field was surrounded by mountains on almost all sides. We drove to the north, following directions was easy. The parks in this country are so huge. They span miles and miles and miles. They give a park map at the entrance and it is up to us to drive along and visit the points of our interest. We reached the park pretty early. As always, there was a creek flowing down, as we climbed uphill. It was called Annie Creek. Lame name I think. The view got better and more picturesque as we climbed up. And the inches of snow on the sides kept increasing. I knew we would be driving on the Rim of the lake, so anytime we drove along a mountain side, I imagined the lake on the otherside. The expectation was growing and growing. I had seen many many pictures of the lake on the internet. But the real thing did not fail to amaze me.



May be because we were there so early, and there werent too many people around, I thought the lake had a very wild quality to it. Untouched beauty, cold and foggy, mountains covered with snow, a pristine deep blue lake, calm and peaceful. It was beautiful. The Lake was apparently formed about 4000 years ago. Mt Mazama stood over a mile high at the very place where the lake was, started erupting, lost its balance, and collapsed on its weight, to form a caldera that is the Crater Lake. The Lake was formed by all the snow on the mammoth mountain. I had read about the history of the lake over the past week, and for a second I imagined the whole disaster happening in front of my eyes. It was amazing. I know I am running out of words, so here are some pictures.





We started driving along the W Rim drive. Only a part of the Rim Drive was open, obviously due to snow. We stopped at many observation points, to take pictures of the huge lake at different angles. We could not cover the whole lake in one picture it was too huge, about 6 miles in diameter. From the rim, it was about 2000 feet fall to the water level. The sides of the crater had conifer trees growing. The water color has been in discussion by many people. It is a distinctive deep electric blue. All the water in the lake is due to precipitation, the snow in the mountains melting in summer into the lake. So it is supposed to be very pure.



The Wizard Island, which is referred to as the volcano inside a volcano, in the middle of the lake, was covered with conifer trees and snow as well. We couldnt see the Phatom Ship as that part of the road was still closed. May be the park would have been more accessible when we had come later in Summer, but the beauty of the place lay in the snow covering the place. So it was well worth it.

All the hiking trails were closed as expected. Anyway it was too cold for a hike. We drove out to the North entrance of the lake, where we saw the Pumice Desert, which is also a by product of the eruption.



We returned the way we came back, this time I admired the other side of the road, the mountain side and meadows, snow covered. The roads had been cleaned and snow was piled up several feet high on the side of the road. Ah! Thats why they charge the $10 fee at the entrance. The snow piled looked like snow walls. DH came up with the idea of capturing our drive on the camcorder. I recorded our drive with the camcorder jutting outside off our moon roof. It was fun! I wish I could put that video clip out here too.









It was almost lunch time when we were outside the park, stopping to see Annie Falls on the way down.



After lunch, with some information from the Lodge lady we set out to hike on a trail close to the lodge. Close for driving but a little far for walking. We walked on the road a bit, it was fun, as I have never done it before. The road was so empty, every once in a while a vehicle would pass by, driving almost on the other side of the road.

The trail was a bit scary. It was gravel road, and then we had to take a diversion into the forest area. By the way our lodge was in Winema National Forest, it was really a forest! It was tall trees and shrubs and grass. And thumbis[what are they called in English?]. And mosquitoes. We crossed a couple of creeks, Cherry Creek and Nannie Creek. It was beautiful, yes, but it was scary too. Had it been me a year or so back I wouldnt have even ventured into such a hike, where noone else was there, the trail was not marked. But I guess I have become bolder or something, or may be I have more faith in DH, ;--), I looked down, listening to the crunching of the twigs under our shoes, ears constantly looking for some extra noises, and finished the whole trail. I was so glad to see gravel road on the other side, I almost jumped with joy. When we reached the Lodge, we had walked over 5 miles. I kept telling DH my legs were not aching. But of course they started aching the moment I sat down.

Evening we went to the only Casino around the area, lost some money, picked up dinner and returned back to the Lodge. We had not explored the area around the lodge, there was a small river and canoe rentals. We watched some TV, played cards, read a book on Crater Lake and its history and retired for the night. Another couple from the Bay Area were also staying there, and the girl said she wasnt impressed with the lake. She said it was just a lake. Again I had to pity her, for not being able to appreciate nature.

Day 3

The next day morning we asked the lady to show us her dogs. We walked over to where the kennels were and immediately we heard like a thunder the barking of the dogs. 23 dogs barking at the same time, sure is loud. They were all Alaskan Huskies, bred for improved performance for long distance running. She told us about how she trains each of the dogs individually, and in groups to prepare for contests. She is travelling to Anchorage Alaska for a dog-sled contest in March. She is driving, that too, all across Canada. I cannot even imagine something like that.



We had yummy yummy breakfast of casseroles and home baked plain cake. It was sumptuous. I saved some food for Brick, who happily gobbled the food, his tail wagging rapidly.

The drive back was uneventful. The picturesque route gave way to drab dry plain valley, as we returned home safe.

Overall, it was a great trip. We thoroughly enjoyed staying at the lodge, it had a cosy feeling to it. The place was not as much touched by tourism and tourists, which was great.
It was relaxing, overwhelming, another tryst with nature, another opportunity to be awed and amazed with nature's works and realize humans dont stand a chance against nature.

Memorial Weekend - Road Trip - 1

For the Memorial Weekend we went up North to Oregon, discovering and relishing the Volcanic Legacy of US (apparently, we saw the sign all the way), the Cascade Mountain Range.

Talking of road trips, I love it. And I am really glad that DH enjoys them too. I know a few who dont enjoy road trips. DH's brother and friends drove to Niagra Falls and bil said he was tired driving for 3 hours only. I know a couple who dont enjoy driving. I think they are missing a lot of fun. Unlike the long and dry I-5 down South, the North route was pretty scenic. And thankfully not too much long weekend traffic. This was primarily because most of the places are still under snow. I couldnt believe that its May and there was still multiple feet of snow where we were headed. These places were so exotic, its a pity they are open only 3 months of the year. But also, I guess these places are beautiful only because they are untampered by humans 9 months in a year.

Day 1



We started at 8:30AM on Saturday which was pretty early by our standards, given that I packed lemon rice for our trip also in the morning. On our first stop at a rest area, we realized we forgot to bring our drinks, two Gatorades and two Sobe Leans. By noon, we were on CA-36, the road from I-5 into the mountains leading to Lassen Volcanic National Park. We passed a place called Mineral, with a population of 90, I didnt miss any zeroes. As we climbed up the mountains slowly, the view changed from dry brown to lush green and sunny. The snow level was about 6500 feet, which was most of the park itself. We saw patches of ice and snow on the mountains, still it was not chilly.

We just planned to drive around the park for a while, take a hike and go our way. By 12:30 we were inside the park.

Our first stop was near Sulfur Works. We distinctly smelt sulfur as we passed. There was this huge hole, ash colored on the outside, making eerie noises, as hot water splashed inside, fuming on the outside. On the other side of the road we saw a mound coated in yellow which was sulfur, and fumes emanating from them. Only a few feet by the side was snow. Its really weird I tell you. Volcano is heat from underground and snow is cold, I dont know how the two can mingle. Those were the only geothermal things we saw, unfortunately since Bumpass Hell, and Boiling Springs Lake were all closed due to snow.





We drove along the park road, it was b-e-a-utiful. Snow is beautiful to look at. But to see snow you have to drive in the bitter cold in snow. The best part here was, there was snow all over and still the temperature was in the 70s, and very sunny and the roads werecleaned up and hazardless. Ideal I would say.

We reached the other end of the park after an hour or so, which was longer than we expected. On the way we saw Hot Rock, which was a huge rock that was spewed out from Mt Lassen when it erupted in 1915, and had travelled over 5miles to its current location. The magnitude of an eruption enthralled me. We drove past Devastated Area, which as the name suggests was the area devastated when the volcano erupted. We reached Manzanita Lake. It was a little disappointing. It was too small. We had our lunch there, and started hiking around the lake. There were a lot of mosquitoes by the lake, and like everything else here, they were huge. Mt Lassen looked picturesque with patches of snow all over it.

I tried to capture the mountain's reflection on the lake, it would have come out better if not for the ripples in the water due to the wind. The hike took longer than we thought it would as the lake was bigger than we thought it was. There were folks fishing all along the lake, kids canoeing, couples romancing.



It was about 4PM when we left the park to drive towards Klamath Falls in Oregon. We drove past Shasta Lake and Mt Shasta. The place was a little too crowded. The route became very beautiful from then on. DH made multiple attempts to capture Mt Shasta as we were driving, and finally managed to get something.

The drive on the mountains was like driving in a video game, with the road winding sleekly but dangerously, with umpteen trailers chugging along the upslope. We were driving into Oregon for the first time.

Our little Lodge was not to be found in the GPS. The directions from the lodge website was long, very descriptive. We wanted to reached the lodge before it got dark. Route 97 was too empty. No vehicles in the front, no vehicles behind us. I got a little paranoid, as we neared our lodge. Of course, various horrid movie scenes flashed in my mind, it was almost dark, when a lone pair of lights showed up behind us. We had about 7 miles to go, and I was prodding DH to drive faster, so we can get to the lodge before the lights came closer to us. The Lodge was eerie too, we had to drive a quarter mile from the entrance, to the lodge, on a gravel road. There was no other car in sight in front of the lodge. Creepy it was.

Nowadays we have all these chains of reliable hotels we can stay in, like Holiday Inn, Comfort Inn, Hilton Garden, etc etc, the uniformness is what makes us feel secured.. and safe. But there is no personal touch in any of these places. This lodge had only 7 rooms. Yes. It was run by a lady, who also looked creepy to me at first, but turned out to be really sweet. No keys for the room!, we had to just leave the door closed. The lady said it was pretty safe around here. No TV in the room. The room was miniscule. No AC in the room too. There was a small window, which when left open, small midgets come through, the lady said, we kept it closed through out our stay. She gave a fan for us to use in case it got too warm. When we enquired about dinner, she said most places closed by 8, the one that was open late was over 20miles from there. We ate leftover lemon rice and slept on a super creeky bed. In the middle of the night, we heard a sound of something crashing on the floor above us. For all we knew we were on the topmost floor. There was may be an attic above, we pacified ourselves and slept. The next day we would realize that it was the fan that fell off the top of the chest and had been running upside down all night.

Thus ended the first day.