Planning – After putting Prem for first week in school camp,
he was asking where are we going in vacation. This is the first time he ever
asked, could it be peer pressure, do not know. I asked him, as where he wanted
to go. He mentioned Washington DC to see Lincoln Memorial, White House and
Washington Monument. He was not aware of Smithsonian museum. I asked him if he
wanted to go to Disney World in Florida, he didn’t. For last couple of years we
have been going to Southern California and couple of days trips to Yosemite. We
talked for few more weeks, and probably on seeing that there is no concrete
plan, he was ok to go anywhere, as long as he has to stay in hotel and monkey
around in the pool.
Ummm……coming from India, vacation primarily meant to go to
tourist/historical places. India has lot to offer in terms of geographical
diversity and cultural heritage. You try to cover as many places in the time/money
available. Generally, taking vacation used to be mission, planned couple of
months in advance, hotel/train booked. We had fun, but idea of relaxation and
chilling out never occurred. When first time in 1999, one of my colleague
shared their plan of vacation in US, I was surprised. Basically on asking
details in different ways, I found out, it was going to Bermudas, and staying 2
weeks in hotel, reading book near the swimming pool. Nothing else planned.
Now when Prem asked me to get out and stay in hotel/resort
some place for a week; I realized that he is more Westernized than I am in this
aspect. Promila’s schedule for summer was relatively freed up, and now onus was
on me to plan something. I knew going to Southern California was easy. I wanted
to go up north in Oregon and Washington, as it was difficult to enjoy these
states in winter rain/weather for us. I started looking up the US National Park
map. I want to spend 2-3 days in each National Park. It was apparent that 7
days are not going to be enough to cover Northern California, Oregon and
Washington National Parks (NP). I had to drop Washington for another day/week
in future.
I read AAA guide book to get some idea on Crater Lake,
Lassen Volcanic and Redwood NP. I did not get much. I started talking to people
who had been to these places. This helped quite a bit in solidifying the plan.
Thanks to Liz, Tapa and John Kim for sharing their experiences and
recommendations. And from our Yosemite and Joshua Tree NP, we knew we had to do
some Rangers programs hosted by the NP and Jr Ranger programs.
July 22, 2012 (Sunday): With relaxation as one of the goal
of this vacation, I kept all Saturday to chill out and start talking about plan
to Promila and Prem. Plan was to reach Lassen Volcanic National Park (LVNP)by
11, and do two small hikes, one guided by ranger. I had couple of back up hikes
in mind as well. With recent Berry Creek hike, I knew Prem and Promila were in
good shape and can do 4-5 hours 10 mile hikes. I was not sure if they could do
it every day. I have to remind myself, that one of major goal is to relax too
and I should not cram too many things.
In all, we wanted to cover LVNP, Lava Beds National
Monument, Crater Lake NP and Redwood NP. I was not sure about Lava Beds after
reading about it, there were no ranger programs midweek, and it was little bit
out of way. On discussing with Promila, it was clear, that we were not going to
do it, and instead spend more time in Crater Lake NP. It was good to have some
plan, but we were flexible to account for energy levels, ranger recommendations
etc. This flexible mindset helped us in enjoying the trip much more, as I did
not have to be pushing Promila/Prem and we allocated 2-3 days every NP.
We were taking our 13 year old Toyota Corolla, I wanted to
pack everything by night and leave by 6 AM in the morning. Generally, most of
the car trips, our start gets delayed by couple of hours (or more). It was very
pleasant to get out of house before 7 AM. We had 4 new tires in the car, and
got air checked, as I knew that we would climb up from 0 to 8000 ft, with lot
of ups and downs. New tires helped quite a bit throughout the 7 days trip on
high elevation curvy roads, and car held up quite well.
We reached before 11 AM to visitor center, and talked to
ranger about Ranger programs available for the day. We went to do Bumpass Hell
hike. This is our 2nd trip to LVNP. First time we tagged along with
another family, and did some site seeing but no ranger programs. Spending some
time (20-30 minutes) with ranger is highly recommended, as you get to know the
latest of what is happening, like bear/mountain lion activities in the park,
depending on time/strength/interest ranger could guide you as what to do. For
example, if we have interest in waterfalls or lake or snow play or reaching to
one of the peaks or looking at some active volcanoes. I did not realize that
LVNP has all 4 different type of volcanoes, and a lot of them are still
considered active.
 |
| Inside the somewhat active Volcano |
While doing, Bumpass Hell hike, I realized that we parked
our car in caldera ( huge hole made by mountain/volcano collapsing inwardly
after eruption), and then you are hiking down to center of volcano where it is
still somewhat active and you are watching multiple geo-thermal phenomena, like
boiling mud pots, sulfur streams/fumes, devil kitchen etc. And when you look
around and up, you get to see that surrounding peaks were walls of collapsed
volcano. I did not know most of these
details in my earlier trip here. Slowing down, reading ahead and talking to
rangers helped in taking in and appreciating the LVNP much more.
After Bumpass Hell, we came back to visitor center, and did
a Jr Ranger program. I learned quite a few things. Kids were divided into two
groups and given tasks. First one was that you are hiking in back country and
suddenly there was a storm and you have to create a shelter, how would you do
that. You have just a simple rope and a tarp. Idea was as how to keep yourself
dry by building hanging the tarp on a strong branch or on rope itself between
two trees, and then hold the corner of tarp with either stone. Further one can
collect dry twigs etc to make a good comfortable bed to rest on. Second task
was to create a fire in 10 minutes to help your hiking buddy who was soaked and
was very cold. Here, you had to find dry spot, not so windy, probably against
one big rock, find dry twigs and put stones around it. First try to make fire
with only very few things, and later on after starting small fire, put bigger
branches etc.
We took our lunch at visitor center, and it was 5 PM before
we decided to another hike. Ranger highly recommended Kings Creek Fall hike.
Since the days were long and we had a good break, we decided to do that hike.
It was around 5-6 miles round trip, with views of meadow, creek and Falls in
the end. Good thing that we had mosquito repellent. We initially thought it was
only 3 mile, and later found out that short cut shown on trail map was closed
because of rock slides, and we had to take a longer route to the falls.
Four hours drive, two hikes and a Jr Ranger program on first
day, we were done for the day. It was still over an hour ride back to hotel in
Redding. It was good that we had detailed maps of the areas, as phone and gps
did not work for most of the 7 days during this trip. Travelodge in Redding was
a great find, thanks to Tripadvisor.com. We all enjoyed a long bath, did not
set up any alarms for morning and slept well.
 |
| Shasta Dam |
July 23, 2012 – We decided to do the Shasta Dam tour first.
The guided tour, 1.5 hours long, was
very informative and highly recommended. I did not know that Shasta Dam was
twice as big as Hoover Dam, made by same Engineer who made Hoover, built couple
of months ahead of schedule and under budget, specifically in time of 2nd
World War, when most of the resources were steered towards war efforts. Tour
takes you inside the dam, where you see over 500 ft wide tunnels. These tunnels
are used by engineers to inspect on seepage, deeper you go in the dam, wider
these tunnels become. Kids had lot of fun doing echo experiment in the tunnel.
Primary purpose of the dam was to conserve water, flood control; and it also
helps meeting the peak electric demands. Dam was not built on any river, Shasta
Lake is there because of this dam which is primarily has rain water from the catchment area surrounding it.
Downstream of dam was the start of Sacramento river. Tour guide was passionate
employee and quite funny.
 |
| Shasta Caverns |
We reached Shasta Caverns site in afternoon, and did a boat,
bus and guided tour here too. We get to see few houseboats. Caverns had 8
flight of stair, and highlight of tour, which Prem remembered very well, even
after few weeks, was Opera sung by the tour guide. Tour was excellent, and she
told Snowwhite story in the Cathedral room, imagining different rock formations
into story characters.
We met Alexa, Maria and her mother at hotel. Prem was
looking forward to swim with Alexa in the hotel pool. It was hot and both were
trying to show off different skills. Alexa had a underwater camera, and asked
me to take picture of them. We discussed
next day program and decided to go back to LVNP. As per Ranger recommendations,
we wanted to do Cinder Cone Volcano (your typical volcano you see in cartoons
etc) on North East side of the park. I was excited that you get to hike an
active volcano and you get to go walk on rim of the volcano and can look
inside. It was 2-3 hours hike, however, since it was too hot, I was not sure if
Prem and Promila should come. This part of the park was not frequented by
visitors. I was checking on map and did not really see any roads for last 6
miles to the trailhead.
July 24 : This is one of few times, I was able to enjoy the
drive, soaking in the beauty of surrounding area, as roads here were not windy,
and you get through Old growth forest. Both Promila and I were trying to
compare LVNP with Yosemite, as we were gasping with serene beauty of forest,
with Mt Lassen in backdrop. LVNP may not have the same falls or granite rocks
as Yosemite, however, it has lot of other things to offer, like Volcanoes,
lakes, streams and very different scenery. Ranger told us that Yosemite has
around 4 million visitors every year, LVNP has only 400, 000. Finally, we
reached to Butte’s lake area, and started driving for Cinder Cone Volcano
trailhead. It was poorly maintained gravel road. Gravels were not compacted,
and our compact car was bouncing and rattling quite much. After 5 minutes, we
turned around, as there was no phone reception and we did not see anybody in
that area. Notes to self, bring a 4 wheel drive next time to do this hike. Not
that I needed another excuse to come here, it would be good to do this hike and
Mt Lassen Peak which opens only couple of days a month during full moon, as
they are repairing the trail currently.
 |
| Burney Falls |
We started heading back and did Lava Tubes or Subway Cave,
created by lava flow 2000 years ago. It was pitch dark, and we were prepared
with flash light and a light jacket as temperature drops down considerably. It
was around 20 minutes walk to see various points inside the cave. And from
there we headed to Burney Falls (also known as MacArthur Burney Falls). After
hanging out at visitor center, and watching local picture on falls’ history, we
did a loop hike of falls, and hiked down, 10 minutes, to see 135 ft tall falls.
We spent some time there, and headed back and came to know the loop was a part
of Pacific Crest Trail.
We still have a lot of time, so we headed back to LVNP and
did Lake Manzanita hike, and surprisingly ran into Dave, running buddy, who was
there with kids for a week, camping in a big group. It was motivational to know that he was managing to run while he
was out there. We did another small hike
on Lake reflection, and headed back, and did dinner at Janya Thai restaurant
near the hotel.
 |
| Sun Dial Bridge |
July 25 : After doing breakfast, we went to see Sundial
Bridge, another little gem in Redding. From there we headed north to Crater
Lake, Oregon. We stopped near base of Mt Shasta, drove around the small town.
Next stop was Klamath in Oregon, just 40 miles south of Crater Lake NP. Lava
Bed National Monument was only 40 miles south from there. We decided to eat in
Klamath and spend more time in Crater Lake. By the time, we reached it was
already 6 PM, we checked in the Crater Lake Lodge; another great place to stay,
right on rim of caldera (7700 years ago, volcano erupted, and spewed ash for
many years. Ash becomes so heavy that a big portion of this volcanic Mt Mazama
collapsed on itself, making Crater Lake, which is 4 mile wide and 6 miles long.
There is a rim drive, 33 mile long, with lot of Vista points and small hikes to
access various interesting point.
 |
Wizard Island Volcano from
Watchman Peak |
Promila looked at ranger program and found out quickly that
there was a sunset hike to Watchman peak at 7:30 PM. This was on west side of
lake and goes up around 700 ft, for 1.1 mile. They had a tower, initially
created to monitor the fires in earlier days. It was another very entertaining
and informative talk from the ranger, explaining the Clark nutcracker and it
symbiotic relation with the local white pine tree. There was lot of snow on the
trail. I had brought gloves, so kids were having fun in snow while hiking up.
It helps to have both Alexa and Prem, as they create their own fun game, and
they were strong enough to keep up with the rest of the group.
July 26 : We drove around the crater and covered most of the
remaining Vista Points. And then headed down for the highly recommended boat
trip in the Crater lake. Hike down was 1.1 mile, and you get to see one of the
cleanest deep blue water. Water literally looked like dark ink blue color at
some places, and immediately next to it, it appeared sky blue. Guide explained
that where there was more depth, water is dark blue. Apparently, there was
experiment done few years ago, where they lowered a person in the lake, in a
water craft, 2000 deep, and from bottom, water was so clear, this person could
see the boat floating on top.
 |
| Crater Lake from the Lodge |
We saw two more volcanoes inside the Crater Lake during our
boat ride. The prominent one, which looked like an Island is called Wizard
Island and is typical Cinder Cone Volcano inside the Crater Lake. Other volcano
was ancient volcano, which is now known as Phantom Ship Island, as it sometimes
hard to see and seemed disappeared. Earlier in morning, I hiked the highest
point on Crater Lake, known as Mt Scott, elevation 8934 ft. This used to be
another volcano, and one can view all of Crater lake from here. Prem and Promila
enjoyed the food at Crater Lake Lodge specially the Rainbow Trout and Stuffed French
Toast. Food was really well done and both of them kept talking about it for
months later. Prem wanted to become fisherman and catch fish to supply at
Crater Lake Lodge. Most photos came really good, area was pristine and serene.
And I was glad that I was able to get out beyond Yosemite and enjoyed other
National Parks.
July 27 & 28: For next two days, we drove through
Redwoods national park, which is has four different state park covered in it. I
could never get enough of Redwoods. Fern Canyon was great, and part of Jurassic
Park movie was shot here. We saw Elks in meadows here too. This was a big park
and there are 4 main scenic drive, we covered 3 of them. We stopped over on
almost every vista point. We took our car inside the two Redwood trees, Klamath
Tour Through Tree and Chandelier Tree. It was apparent, that we needed to spend
more time there. There was so much to
see and treasure.
