Even more snow and tunnel crawling

A short trip up the road finds us at Crater Lake.  We’re a bit smarter than we were a couple of weeks ago and looked ahead to 

Crater Lake Lodge

Crater Lake Lodge

check road and weather conditions so we knew the road was clear with a lot of snow and limited visibility.  We just weren’t quite expecting this much snow.  Wow!

Couldn’t see the lake at all and, after talking to one of the Rangers, decided to stay an extra night at Prospect and come up again the next day.  This is what happened:



Saturday

 


Sunday



 



Saturday



 

 



Sunday



 

 

 

 

 

Such a difference.  Just fantastic.  Decided to go on a Ranger-guided snowshoe hike.  The usual 1 hour hike took 2½ hours mostly due to the weather conditions but also due to this kind of activity.

Yee Haa!

 

Human bobsledding

 Great fun as you can see.  Reluctantly left the mountain and headed north.  We were going to stop at Bend but, of the two attractions we were going to visit, the lava tubes were closed until the end of April due to bat habitation and two of the ice caves had been vandalised.  Headed straight up to the Columbia River where we overnighted in a car park overlooking The Dalles Dam then spent all of the next day travelling just 110 miles into Portland.  With scenery like this can you blame us:


Road we drove up



Columbia River



Mosier Tunnels



Sue & Jean at Multnomah Falls



Vista House

Jean taking another awesome scenic photo

Had a shopping day in Portland then it was off to our next state – Washington.  First stop was a town named Cougar (no innuendo please) and a visit to the Ape Cave and Trail of Two Forests.  The Ape Cave is an old lava tube that is open to the public to walk through.  There is an easy hike to one end and a more difficult one, clambering over fallen rocks to the other.  We did both. 



Inside the lava tube - the rock above us is wedged tight in the gap. 
The ceiling is quite low here. In other parts of the tube you could
drive a truck through.

 

The Trail of Two Forests is a short boardwalk hike where you can see remnants of the forest that was destroyed in an eruption 2000 years ago 

Entrance to The Crawl

with the new forest that has subsequently arisen.  It also includes a section known as The Crawl where a tunnel has been created by a tree trunk that got incinerated by the 


There is light at the end of the tunnel

lava with the lava cooling before the trunk broke down.  Aptly named, it is a crawl.  And dark.  We both survived though, just a tad dirtier than when we started.





Jean emerging from The Crawl



More snow and lots of trees

All good things must come to an end so we left Yosemite and headed to Redding where we stayed for 3 nights.  Our first day trip was to the Lassen Volcanic National Park.  We were expecting volcanic or geothermal activity and got SNOW!  So much snow that the road was closed just past the Rangers Station.  We weren’t disappointed though … more snowball fights!  It started to snow while we bravely ate our lunch from the cab of our pick up.  No outside picnic in the snow today.

Yee Haa!  More snow!

 

Sue making a quick phone call
 

Our next day trip included a visit to the Shasta Caverns.  Lots of stalactites and stalagmites – all those things you expect in caves really.  Trip included a short boat ride across the lake and a bus ride into the hills.  Beats walking.  Visited Old Shasta ruins and drove over a couple of dams in the area but didn’t linger as it was raining … a lot.  Wimps that we are. 

Heading to those hills yonder

Shasta Caverns

 

This sign we drove by applicable in some ways but not in others.

The Whiskeytown dam has a glory hole but with water levels right down didn’t get to see the spillway in action.

What we saw

Glory hole in action.  The first time I saw this photo
I thought it was photoshopped for sure



Cathedral Tree. Some people get
married beneath this tree

Leaving Redding behind we headed out towards the Pacific Coast, Highway 101 and the Redwoods.  Such beautiful countryside we are driving (and hiking) through.  The weather has been a mix of cool sunshine, overcast days and rain.  Interestingly enough, the warmest days seem to be when 

Jean coming through a
natural tunnel

we are at the snow.  We drove to Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park just out of Crescent City on Hill Road.  It started out as a regular road but was soon down to a one lane wide track wending amongst the redwoods.  The potholes (along with the width of the track versus the width of our pickup) ensured our speed was a tourist-friendly 15mph. Fantastic.

 

Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park

 

On our return to Kamp Klamath RV Park we called in at a drive through redwood at Klamath, the Tour Thru Tree.  The gap looked very, very narrow and surely was not designed for modern vehicles the size of Ford F250’s but we decided to line it up and have a go.  Jean jumped out to take some photos, decided an inch or two either side is enough and guided Sue through.  She later told Sue that she had a vision of Sue getting halfway through and getting stuck – unable to go forward or backward.  Hmmm.

 

 

Slowly does it

 

 



Arch Rock, Oregon Coast

It was a long, slow haul up the 101 once we crossed into Oregon for no other reason than we were constantly pulling off the road to check out the spectacular coastline.

 

T-Rex at Prehistoric Gardens



Found an interesting spot to have lunch – Prehistoric Gardens at Port Orford.





Comes complete with dinosaurs.  Eventually we made the decision to turn inland again and finished up at a truck stop at Roseburg.





Give us a quiet Walmart’s any day.

 

Next stop was Cave Junction.  On the way we stopped at a gallery called It’s a Burl.  Fantastic artwork and quirky sculptures. 

It's a Burl gallery

Spot the monkey

 

Our final stop at Cave Junction was the Out N About Tree House Resort with, you guessed it, tree houses.  They come with names such as Majestree, Elementee and Pleasantree (shades of Bulls in NZ).



Serendipitree



Treezeebo

Not a tree from the resort.
This one was next door.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Avoiding a storm and reverse parking for the first time

We’ve been RVers for over a week now and learnt a few lessons on the way.  The most important one being to make sure you are on level ground although it is quite entertaining chasing your wine glass round the table.  Not quite as much fun for the person in the bunk room where there is a tendency to roll out of bed.

Wooden sidewalks at Virginia City

From Bonneville we drove across the top of Nevada towards Reno.  Bypassed Reno and headed towards the historical town of Virginia City.  What an amazing place.  Wooden sidewalks, old saloons, toothless characters (and I suspect just a wee bit under the influence).  Had a beer at the Ponderosa Saloon then went on a short underground mine tour from the back of the bar. 

What do you plumbers think of this spouting?

Also took in a quick tour of Virginia City by way of an old tram.  Chatting with the operator who, when we told him of our intention to go to Yosemite, told us to hurry on our way, there’s a huge storm coming and very likely that Tioga Pass through Yosemite will be closed if it wasn’t already (it was).  He gave

Beers at the Ponderosa Saloon

 

us an alternative route to Jackson, a town he thought would be low enough not to get into trouble with the fifth wheel, but that road was closed as well so we did a rethink and did manage to miss most of the storm, arriving at Jackson about 8.30 that night.  Yay, night time driving, rain and narrow roads – just what every novice Fifth Wheel operator wants.  Drove through South Lake Tahoe area on the way.  Very pretty area but must get crowded with tourists.  It snowed lightly driving through Tahoe but after that it mostly rained – the first rain of our trip.


Remembered at the last minute we were 12'6 so scooted to the middle of the tunnel. In case you can't read it, the height on the right (where we are driving) is 12'4

 Stayed at an RV park on the outskirts of Yosemite.  No laundry, no Wi-Fi and, worst of all, no pull-through parks.  Sue had to reverse the 5W for the very first time.  The park owner did give us the easiest park to reverse into for which Sue will be eternally grateful.  Took a bit of to-ing and fro-ing but she did it and was straight.

Half Dome at Yosemite

Yosemite Falls

Jean & Sue at Yosemite National Park

Then there is Yosemite Park itself.  There are not enough superlatives in the English language to describe this park and we were only in a very small corner of park competing for the views with hundreds of other tourists.  Just beautiful.  Two days of hiking (yes, I’ll admit, they were short hikes and not overly strenuous, but they were still hikes and enough to get sore feet both days anyway).  Jean is missing her spa pool terribly and wants to find a way to include one.  Sue will settle for the wine that Jean used to drink while relaxing in the said pool.

Lunch in the snow at Mariposa Grove, Yosemite

Contemplating which local brew to have next