2015 Road Trip (Car Camping)
I have not tent camped for 30 years and it was on my bucket list. In 2014, I went to Salem, Oregon, via Amtrak (another bucket list item), and this year, I made a similar 3-week grand circle trip in 2015 by camping going north and camping coming south. I purchased a long and wide cot that kept me off the uncomfortable ground, much too heavy for backpacking, but perfect for car camping. These are a sample of the hundred photos taken. DOUBLE-CLICK on each photo to enlarge it.
Hat Creek (National Forest Service) - Cave Campground: Pleasant summer daytime temps but 40 degree mornings! I packed for summer. Large lava tube called Subway Cave across the street. Located between Mt.Lassen National Park and McArthur-Burnie Falls State Park. Despite remote area, heavy weekday logging truck traffic with tent site near roadway.
Hat Creek (National Forest Service) - Cave Campground: Pleasant summer daytime temps but 40 degree mornings! I packed for summer. Large lava tube called Subway Cave across the street. Located between Mt.Lassen National Park and McArthur-Burnie Falls State Park. Despite remote area, heavy weekday logging truck traffic with tent site near roadway.
Fall River Mills, California - Fort Crook Museum: Various buildings moved onto property related to the Civil War fort and the timber industry. Like the Kern County Museum in Bakersfield, artifacts were arranged in-situ as if owner left on an errand.
Dunsmuir, California - Castle Crags State Park. I tented at Railroad Park Resort, bicycled to Dunsmuir for church and to visit LLNL friends, else most of area too steep to bike. Three hour hike up dome trail at 20% grade at times, but bailed at the 1.7 mile marker at Indian Springs instead. I hiked with two of the crew on the south shore of Lake Siskiyou to its dam.
Rogue, Oregon - Valley of the Rogue State Park. There is several miles of riverfront paved bike/jogging trail from the Park to the city of Rogue. I swam in the ice cold Rogue River (upstream staying in place due to the current) and bicycled to Rogue for dinner. Found a hole-in-the-wall place that deserved the raves by the locals: Rogue Burritos (Think: TOGO's but only for Burritos). Sad event! After dinner, I had a flat tire, six miles from camp. After correctly repaired, it slowly leaked flat twice upon arrival back at camp. Finally wound up buying a new tube in Salem since my patches leaked undetected.
Stayed with the Hegland's in Salem, visited the Wassei's in Newburg (not knowing that was their city ... I have two other friends in Newburg but had no time allocated), bicycled on new paved trails on Mento-Brown Island, toured both the Art Museum and Deepwood Mansion (completing the five 'must-visit' sites in Salem started last year). In the evenings, we struggled and complained about a "simple" puzzle of blues, dark grays, and blacks. We were NOT going to give in!
On the trip south, I completed a 35 year promise to locate my parent's farm in Mapleton, Oregon. Anne and I could not find it in 1980. All the 1956 buildings were gone and landmarks overgrown. Met the current owner who lived there since 1959 and whom my mother had photos of back then! He recommended the newly opened Sweet Creek Falls which I hiked to both.
Gas in Florence and south to Umpqua Lighthouse State Park, Oregon - I had reserved the remaining tent spot. Added a tent cover for rain late that night. Pleasant temps. I tried to bike but the hills were far too steep to go beyond the lighthouse.
Visited the Cooks in Grants Pass (Bill was my former LLNL supervisor). Oregon Caves NP felt like the 1981 ZORK-I text adventure! (A maze of twisty little passages! You are in a forest with an iron grate nearby.) I had the Grayback NFS campground almost fully to myself for two nights. An adjacent bubbly creek provided water using my new Sawyer filter. The sky was so DARK at night (no camp lighting) that full moon woke me up briefly when it found a gap in the tree canopy.
Crescent City and California Coast drive. I walked downshore for this photo below of Haystack rocks in the sandy crescent bay. The banner on this page shows the scene from the top of the hill on US101. A five-star rest stop at Trinidad (only southbound 101) had superior glade of picnic benches on a secluded forest trail with views of two other haystacks at sea.
Albee Creek, Humboldt Redwoods SP with three gigantic trees on a 3-mile hike. Remote one-lane locale five miles west of Founder's Grove. Worth a longer stay. Includes untended 1800's apple orchard with a family of deer. The buck stayed watchful only two trees away. Back at freeway, I walked the Founder's Grove loop. I felt like another week of camping but drove home by 3pm. I wandered around home mumbling the "E.T." movie lines: "Home... Home... E.T. Phone Home".