Wednesday Sep 13, 2023 - Lassen Volcanic National Park to Kino Camp

 

There were four of us in the parking lot in front of the Lassen Volcanic Visitor Center this morning. A car came in last night with one or two people sleeping in it and a cooler outside the passenger door. The cell service was almost non-existent and the WiFi was pretty poor. We called Jake and Nath in Tijuana last night and could just get a short conversation together. We did do Wordle this morning on the bench out front. 

Today we drove the road through the park which is actually S.R. (State Road) 89 and is very twisty and pretty long. We stopped and hiked into the Devastation Area, where they had big rocks that were blown from three miles away and freshly cooling in 1915. A photographer named Loomis took pictures in the days leading up to the big eruption, but he ran out of film (plates) before the big eruption on May 22. Great display to point out the awesome power of an erupting volcano. It’s 30 miles of twisty and beautiful road before you exit the park.

Then north on Rt 89, stopping for breakfast at the Blackberry Patch diner in Burney for a late breakfast of blackberry pancakes. A breakfast all day kind of joint. 

We had a lot of down time today waiting for flaggers and pace cars since they seem to be maintaining all of the roads up here. The scenery is changing as we go north. We are slowly getting out of the Dixie fire area and into more rolling forest land where every other truck is a logging truck. They seem to be cutting a lot of burned trees that are not going to live and hauling them off to the mill I presume. Workers are also cutting fire breaks at the same time so they’re in better shape next time there’s a fire. We read that because they worked the last 30 years on clearing fuel out of the national park forest, those areas didn’t fare nearly as bad. 

After breakfast we stopped for WiFi next door at McDonald's, and then filled up with gas ($5.49). Next stop was Mt Shasta with more construction on the way. We stopped at the Forest Service visitor center and got some maps, and then found the road that climbs Mt Shasta as far as we could take it, which is about 7500’ in elevation. We hiked into Panther Meadows (thanks to our friends Shirley and John for the idea), which is a mountainside alpine meadow with some water and lots of beautiful wild flowers growing everywhere. This mountain attracts a real spiritual element and we saw folks there soaking in the mountain’s energy.

Then down off the mountain and north on I-5 for a short stretch to Weed, CA where we picked up Rt 97 north. Deb found a free roadside sculpture park that was created by a Korean War Vet and it was very thoughtful and seemed well supported. A group of people were there in silent circles we assume paying respects to lost veterans.

Then Rt 97 where we crossed giant flat irrigated fields growing something?? The big mountains are now gone and we rolled across the border into Oregon and Deb found a nice campground belonging to a local power company next to a dam. Only us and one other RV here tonight so nice and quiet except for the chirping from the peepers near the Klamath River. This place has flush toilets and hot showers for $20. Dinner and bed.

Odo = 17233