Another Holiday Weekend Trip

Northeastern California and Southern Oregon
September 1-3, 2001

A holiday weekend trip to northern California and southern Oregon to visit Lava Beds National Monument and Crater Lake National Park. On the way back, Karen and I also made some quick stops to other sites of interest.

Lava Beds National Monument, California
Day #1

We started the morning in Reno, and our first stop was to the top of California to Modoc County. This was my second time at the Lava Beds, and this time I had a partner and did not have to solo into the caves. A drive through the park and stops at the following attractions:

• Big Painted Cave / Symbol Bridge
• Merrill Ice Cave
• Schonchin Butte Fire Lookout
• Balcony Cave / Boulevard Cave
• Gillems Camp and the Canby Cross
• Captain Jacks Stronghold
• Petroglyph Point

We arrived at our stop for the night in Klamath Falls, Oregon just as night descended upon us.

View from the Schonchin Butte Fire Lookout

The start of the trail to Balcony and Boulevard Caves

Inside Captain Jack's Stronghold

Petroglyphs etched onto Petroglyph Point

Wizard Island

Crater Lake National Park, Oregon
Day #2

Our first stop after a lengthy drive was Rim Village. We then began our circumnavigation of the lake by car. Along our circular drive, we knew that we wanted to take a boat tour to Wizard Island and planned on stopping at the Cleetwood Cove parking lot.

Crater Lake

We saw the parking lot had lots of activity and went in quickly to check it out. We got what appeared to be the last open parking space at the end, walked back to Rim Road and saw lots and lots of people congregating in the area. We did not diddle-daddle quickly went down the Cleetwood Cove Trail to get our tickets. Success and a short wait and we were soon on the boat. The boat dropped us off at Wizard Island, and we began our explorations. We explored Wizard Island as time allowed (didn't have time to do the hike to the top of the island) and saw some great scenery of the lake from inside-out.


An hour or so later we were back at Rim Village and headed down the Rogue River to connect to Interstate 5 and our lodging for the night in Medord.

Rogue Valley, Oregon
Day #2

Mount Shasta, California
Day #3

When we passed Yreka, we picked up a hitch hiker that would accompany us for awhile. Their name was Mount Shasta, and it would continuously be in our view as we drove south on Interstate 5. We got to talking about whether either one of us has been to Shasta and hiked to the summit. The answer from both of us was no to both questions, but then we got an idea. Since we would be passing that way on our return to Reno, we decided to get as close to the summit of Mount Shasta, well, as close as we could get by car.

County Road A10 goes up the south face of the mountain and looked like it would be the best road to get us as high as we could on pavement. The road led us to the Panther Meadow Trailhead, and we felt compelled to do a little bit of hiking. A mile later, we were at the end of our hike, and the highest elevation we would climb on Mount Shasta: 8,500 feet above sea level.

Mount Shasta

The closest I got to the summit of Mount Shasta

Burney Falls, California
Day #3

A quick stop by McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park to check out one of the many cool waterfalls in California.

Subway Cave, Lassen National Forest, California
Day #3

Subway Cave is not what you typically picture when you think of a cave, and you can figure out why they call it a subway. It is really not a cave, but a lava tube with openings at both ends. I had been here before when I visited Lassen National Park in 1995, and since it would take less than a half hour to traverse the cave, I treated Karen to one last stop on our holiday weekend trip. A couple of hours later we were back in Reno.