Summer Vacation Trip - Day 5

We got up at 0600 and Mollie wrote post cards to Grandpa Jim, Gaga and PawPaw, Cousin Bonnie and Erin & Brenna (I showed her how to address the letters). She also caught up on her trip notes. While eating breakfast (hotel), we talked about Summer Vacation options for the coming year. After checking out of our hotel (Holiday Inn Express), we left Klamath Falls (0700). In a nearby parking lot, we saw a Google Maps car as we were leaving town. One of my genealogy friends/relatives told us she had a niece who worked at the Lava Beds National Monument and we tried to coordinate a visit with her (it didn’t work out). We enjoyed another beautiful day of clear skies! It was another beautiful day but the forecast called for temps over 100 degrees in the Valley, so we sought cooler air at higher elevations. On the way to the Lava Beds, we enjoyed our drive through the area around Tule Lake (included the National Wildlife Refuge). We arrived before the park was open and were able to take short walks among a few volcanic formations (Fleener Chimneys, the entrance to Merrill Cave) with no other visitors. A highlight for me was a climb up to the top of Schonchin Butte - from there, it was possible to see for many miles in all directions (and there were info boards for major landmarks). Once I got back to the car (where Mollie was journaling the trip), we went to the Visitors Center and got another NPS Stamp. We also "screened" for cave exploration (and had to clean our shoes because of our visit to Oregon Caves). This allowed us to go into a few caves on the loop nearby (our favorite was the Hopkins Chocolate and the nearby Garden Bridges). After seeing everything in the main area of the park, we drove over to the Petroglyph Section, where we climbed the bluff, watched swallows flying to/from their nests in the holes on the bluff face, and saw a few of the interesting images left behind by early residents of the area. We looked for a post office nearby but all of them had closed early for a Saturday. Because of the huge distances between gas stations, we filled up in Tulelake (1145) before heading south on CA-139 (Volcanic Legacy Trail). The scenery was initially very flat and arid but eventually started getting hilly. We ate lunch (snacks) in the car and took a bathroom break at Modoc National Forest site (amazing alpine smells and warm sunny spots on beds of pine needles). Mollie became inquisitive when we had to drive through an Inspection (immigration?) Station. We also had some funny farm equipment encounters on the highway. In Adin, we switched to CA-299 and, later, CA-89. To be safe, I got gas again in the town of Bieber (1330). After several hours on roads in the northeastern corner of California (treated to amazing views of Shasta), we arrived at our next destination: Lassen Volcanic National Park. We had stayed under 70 degrees all day and it got even better as we climbed over 8500 feet of elevation, until we arrived at the base of the volcano. At the Visitors Center near Manzanita Lake, Mollie had figured out that she could get a free bandana (with a map of the park) if we completed three hikes during our visit. This, of course, required a whirlwind tour of the park - north to south on the main road - but we managed to get everything (Emigrant Trail, Devastated Area Trail and Paradise Meadows Trail). We arrived at the Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitors Center (southern end of the park) just before they closed (1655) and Mollie got her bandanna and some souvenirs. While there, one of the rangers seemed frantically distracted and she told us “they are evacuating”. It didn’t make much sense until, while driving back to the north (stopping at Sulphur Works, Bumpass Trailhead and Manzanita Lake) we saw the thin wisps of forest fire smoke to the south. We departed to the west from the north end of the park (near Manzanita Lake on CA-89). I’d initially considered exiting to the south but had already decided against it - that turned out to be good because the forest fire cloud was huge (almost an anvil) by the time we reached Redding (via CA-44). At that point, it was also over 100 degrees in the Sacramento River Valley (less than 1000 foot elevation). Luckily, we had planned to avoid the heat again (the following day) by driving towards the Coast. We ate dinner (snacks) in the room and spent the rest of the (scorching hot) evening watching TV and reading in our hotel room (Rodeway Inn). Went to bed at 2200. Another great day!