Lava Beds National Monument (10/8/24)

 I didn’t really think when we decided to check out Lava Beds NM that we were continuing with our volcano exploration, but we were. Lava Beds NM is home to Medicine Lake Volcano, which is actually the largest volcano, by volume ( there is always a caveat) in the cascade range. 

The difference is, its a shield volcano. It doesn’t have a tall cone shaped peak like a composite volcano (think Rainier, etc) it is actually shaped like a shield, and has numerous small cones. The island of Hawaii has shield volcanos.

We stopped at the visitor center first, to get our cave pass. Everyone is required to have a pass that shows they attended the orientation that talks about the bats and their safety.

Nearby is Mushpot Cave, the only cave that it permanently lit- all the others require you to bring your own flashlights (you can also borrow them from the visitor center)

Our plan to hike to the top of Schonchin Butte, a cinder cone, early in the day to beat the heat, was thwarted by 12 year olds. A bus load of kids is camping in the park and they arrived at the trail head at the same time as us. I love the fact that they are outdoors, learning, and the bus driver said they are on a 4 day trip- with no cell phones.

That doesn’t mean I want to hike with them, so we moved on to our next item, Black Crater. This area has a lot of dark lava, which makes it stand out.

From here we got our first good look at Mount Shasta in the distance. 

The monument itself has over 240 known lava tubes, or caves. Not all of them are accessible, and not all of the accessible ones are open all the time. It depends where the bats are- in fact, if you happen upon a bat in a cave, you are required to leave the cave.

Our first cave of the day was Boulevard Cave.  The accessible caves are categorized by their difficulty. From walking upright, to having to crawl in some areas, on to being on all fours for much of the journey. We mostly stuck with the easy ones, although Boulevard is listed as moderate. It was a short walk till we got to the moderate area and turned around.

The second cave, Valentine, is much bigger and looks totally different. It had several columns throughout, requiring us to make constant choices as to which way to go.

After a few turns, my paranoia reared its ugly head and I wanted to turn around. I get sort of claustrophobic when I go too far underground, in the dark. Picturing us getting lost in a massive cave soured me a little on caving, so Paul explored several other caves on his own.

The following day we were able to hike Schonchin Butte Trail. The trail, built by the CCC in the 1930s, leads to a fire tower, also built by the CCC.

The view of the surrounding area from the fire tower was worth the trip up the hill.

In the afternoon we did the short scenic drive which took us past several more caves we could explore.

We did check out a few of them (Paul more than me) and then decided we had seen enough and were ready to move on to our next destination.

In keeping with our Volcano “theme” we headed to Mt Shasta for a couple of days of exploring, staying in the small town of McCloud.

Mt. Shasta is a little more challenging to to explore, with no visitor center that we could find, and not too many hiking trails.

We did do a  couple of short hikes, and a drive up the mountain as far as we could- until we were told we were on private property(ski resort) and needed to leave.

The other hikes we found in the area were good, even if they weren’t on the mountain. The McCloud River Falls trail follows the McCloud river to several waterfalls.

 

We started at the lower falls, hiked past the middle falls, and turned around after we saw the upper falls.

All in all about 4 miles.

Our final hike in the area was a little bit out of town but gets great reviews. It is the Castle Dome trail in Castle Craig State Park.

The trail starts as a meander through the woods, with some steep sections. We were warned that the easy part ends once you leave the woods and start hiking on rock.

 

It definitely took some eye hand coordination in some areas, and some scrambling, but it was fun.

The further up the trail we got, the better the views were, of course. Unfortunately, after 3 miles and 1800 ft of gain, I started to not feel great.

I was lightheaded and nauseous, signs of dehydration/altitude sickness. As much as I hated to give up on the peak, I sent Paul on without me.

Although it was less than a half mile to the peak, it was another 250 feet of gain. We had cell signal, which made him more comfortable  ( I think he texted me 6 times.) leaving me behind.

Moving on from Shasta, our next stop was….you guessed it, another volcano.

Coastal Oregon (10/5/24)

 We FINALLY made it to the coastline, and the first thing I thought is that man, I miss the smell of the ocean. Being from Massachusetts, I grew up going to the beach, and also owned an ocean going boat for much of my adulthood.

When Paul and I got married, we both sold our boats and bought one comfortable enough for us and my two kids to spend weekends on, so they grew up boating as well.

The second thing I thought is that, man, the water out here is rough.

We never did see many boats, and of course the water is so cold, its not very inviting.

But I loved being back on the beach and hearing the waves.

The Oregon coast has a lot of "waysides" which are pulloffs along the ocean- some have picnic tables, and they all pretty much have a great view:

One of the first things we wanted to check out was something called Thor’s Well….its some kind of water phenomenon. We thought we were looking at it when we saw this spout, and watched it for a while. When a big wave came in, the water would spew high into the air.

Its a good thing we read the signs because just as we were leaving, we discovered the real “Thor’s Well”

You can see the well in the following pictures. The well is full in the first photo and empties over the next few photos:

                            

                           

I didn’t expect there to be much in the way of hiking trails along the coast but there actually are quite a few.

We started with a trail that began at the Cape Perpetua Visitor Center and ended at the scenic lookout. It was about 3.5 miles up 850 feet.  We saw this weird tree along the way.

You can actually drive up to the scenic lookout but that would be no fun. The structure at the top was built by the CCC in the 1930s.

We found out we have friends in the area and went about making plans to get together. Many years ago Paul did a jet boat tour up the Rogue River, and he wanted to do it again.

Our friends Liz and Randy were nearby and joined us. It was funny because at the last minute we found out our friends Steve and Susan are around as well. They tried to join us but they were moving to another RV park that day so they couldn’t. However, coincidently they were driving by the jet boat place just as we were getting ready to board, so we chatted for a bit and made plans for the next day.

The jet boat ride was a blast.

There were no rapids but we went about 45 minutes up the river, stopped at a restaurant where we had lunch and then headed back.

It was hot out so we were kinda glad we got soaked.

Our driver was very good at spinning the boat 360 degrees, and finding plenty of ways to throw spray up into the boat.

The following day we packed a lunch and met up with Randy and Liz and Susan and Steve. None of us had ever been to Trees of Mystery which is a kind of hokey tourist attraction but was fun nonetheless.

                                        

                                                    

There are old growth trees throughout the property and a tram that takes you up the side of the hill. There were actually all kinds of things to see and do here. It has displays about about lumberjacks- Paul Bunyon in particular.

My favorite part was the canopy trail.

                      

The Trail of Tall Tales had some huge wood carvings….

Once we had had enough, we found a gorgeous spot on the beach to have our picnic lunch before saying goodbye.

                                          

Our final hike in the area was a short two mile hike in Redwoods State Park called the Grove of Titans, which is a walk through an old growth redwood forest. Even the road to get there is through a dense forest.

                                            

Once again we got the maps out and changed our game plan. We were going to stay along the coast and head to see more redwood forests, but we decided we wanted to see Lava Beds National Monument, and that is inland. So, off we went. We had forgotten that we wanted to see the small botanical garden across the street from out rv park, so we stopped there with the camper on our way out of town.

This small park protects one plant- the Darlingtonia Californica. It resembles a cobra, and eats insects.

They are lured inside the bulb by the nectar and become confused because there are a lot of transparent areas on the bulb that look like exits. Eventually the insect tires, and falls into a small pool of liquid at the bottom, where it gets digested. Eew.