Take a drive with us through the Redwood forest!
July 21 - 22 Redwoods, California
We left our campground at Crater Lakes, elevation around 7,000 feet, and drove 160 miles to California. The first town we got to there said the elevation was 320 feet. No wonder my ears were screaming from the pressure change!
Just about as soon as we got into California, we were in a Redwood Forest. These massive trees are found in a band about 20 miles wide just a little inland from the Northern California coast, from about the Oregon border south to San Francisco. The area where we were is part State Park and part National Park. The trees need to be inland as salt water is not good for them, but they need the moisture provided by the coast. A single redwood may consume up to 500 gallons of water in a day. This area of California receives 60-80 inches of rain a year. There is also a lot of fog in the area that provides moisture for the trees.
As we hiked in several of these forests of massive trees, some as old as 2000 years old, standing 370 feet or more in the air, I was reminded of my father's favorite song, “How Great Thou Art.” One verse, which always reminds me of him because of his love for the woods, starts out, “ When through the woods and forest glades I wander...“. I don't think my father ever got to the Redwoods, even though our family lived in the LA area for several years when my older brother and I were infants. I felt his presence in the woods with me. Jodi, who was also traveling, had a similar experience. She and Andy were in Indianapolis with Rob and Katie at a Lillith Fair Concert which features several woman singers. Sarah McLaughlin, whose song “Angels” Jodi had sung with the voice of an angel at my mother's funeral, came on to sing, and the first song Sarah sang was “Angels.” Jodi said she sobbed through the entire song as she felt her grandmother's presence with her there at the concert.
When we were hiking, I felt as though I had been dropped on the movie set of “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” because I felt like an ant compared to the trees. One of the hikes was through an area called The Cathedral which seemed aptly named to me because the tall trees stood like pillars in the quiet peacefulness of the forest. One tree we saw, called Big Tree, was 1500 years old, and 287 feet high with a circumference of 68 feet, and a diameter of 23.7 feet. There were many other trees as old or older, higher, and wider, but they were deeper in the woods, so weren't “featured” trees. We'd be hiking along with our heads bent back looking up at the top of the trees to see how high they were, or if they were still alive, thinking we'd have sore necks from all of the looking. Sometimes we'd look at the base of a tree and have to look several times to determine if it was indeed as wide as it seemed, or if it was two or three trees that had grown together, a common occurence.
It's hard to believe that these majestic trees have been around much longer than the United States has been a country. Even trees that have been dead for 500 years are still standing because it takes so long for the wood to rot. They are not hurt too often by forest fires because their bark is so thick, and their wood doesn't burn well. Many of the trees that have been burned a little are still standing, some almost completely hollow trees that make neat little “houses.” I think perhaps natives used them for shelter sometimes when they were in the woods for long periods of time.
We saw how the trees helped each other, too. Despite their size, their roots are very shallow, and the trees, roots attached, often fall over with the wind. They must make one heck of a noise when they fall because they are so big! Anyway, after they fall, other species of trees and plants grow right on top of the downed tree. We saw lots of fallen redwoods with the roots of other trees wrapped around them, hanging on for dear life, growing tall in the forest because of their “helper” tree. We learned that redwoods will grow from the seeds in the very tiny pine cones they produce, but will more likely sprout from a downed tree.
Several years ago we visited the Giant Sequoia forests here in California, and the redwoods are related to them. The redwoods are taller than the sequoias, but the sequoias are wider and heavier. They have both been around for about the same period of time.
In addition to hiking through groves of Redwoods, we took a few driving tours through some of them. One of the drives was on a narrow, dusty, zigzag lane through several hundred huge redwoods on a road that had once been a stagecoach trail.
We saw a lot of Roosevelt elk here in the park. They almost became extinct years ago, but are now protected in the park, and have come back in huge numbers. There are signs all over saying to stay away from the wild elk, but the elk wander right down to the road, often in big herds.
This morning we took a jet boat ride on the Klamath River to see wildlife. It was a great trip, and we did see lots of animals. We saw many birds like ospreys, mergansers, herons – both blue and green, bald eagles, and a golden eagle, the first I've ever seen. We also saw a seal, a baby bear, a deer climbing straight up the side of a cliff, and several wild cattle that were stranded on the river during a flood about 20 years ago. The captain was very knowledgeable and fun-loving. We had two family reunion groups on the boat with us, with a lot of kids, so he wanted to make the ride fun for them. We did several 360s in the river as well as sudden stops which would make the back row of pre-teen boys get wet. They loved it and so did the rest of us. It was sort of like being on a Disney ride, but the wild animals and scenery were real!
The first night we camped in one of the state parks where the redwood grow. Tonight we moved about 80 miles down the highway, still in redwood territory, but are camped along the sandy beach. Tomorrow we will head to San Francisco.
July 20 Oregon
We camped overnight last night in the town of Cascade Locks near the Columbia River. This morning we drove along the rushing, white-capped river for a few miles before heading south. There were many people on boats and other watercraft enjoying the morning sun on the river.
As we headed south we could see Mt. Adams in Washington behind us, and Mt. Hood in Oregon in front of us with acres and acres of fruit trees on either side of us. We stopped at a roadside fruit stand and came away with blueberries, cherries, peaches, marionberry jam, raspberry jam, and assorted baked goods. Yum!
Leaving the fruit country, we climbed higher into the Cascade Mountains with tall trees on both sides of us. This mountain road was not nearly as steep and winding as the one we took yesterday, however. Then we reached a plateau and the landscape changed to desert sand with small evergreen trees of some sort dotting the land. It changed again to sand with low desert bushes, dotted with green agricultural fields watered by huge sprinklers on wheels. We could still see many snowcapped mountains behind, beside, and in front of us. We saw the Three Sisters mountains to the west of us, along with Mt. Bachelor! He must have struck out with all three sisters, but another must have had good luck because The Husband was nearby!
Many of the mountains we've seen are dormant volcanos. We passed an area of huge lava rocks piled up on top of each other with a hill beside it that must have been the volcano in Newberry National Volcanic Monument.. We are in the high desert area now, and although it is 90 degrees outside, a local told us that this is hotter weather than normal and that they often get snow on the fourth of July. They must get significant snow here because we have passed several signs for “chain up areas.
The last half-hour or so before we got to the park, the drive became boring as we drove through a fairly new-growth forest and could only see sand and trees about 8-12 feet tall. So we were glad when we arrived at Crater Lake National Park, and were immediately on the Rim Drive which goes around the rim of the crater for 33 miles. In some places, you're very close to the rim, in others, you're farther down the outside of the crater. We stopped at the first lookout we could, walked up the sandy hill, and Wow!, 2,000 feet below us we saw the bluest lake we had ever seen in the “bowl” of the crater! It's beauty, after such a boring drive, was breathtaking. We could hardly take our eyes off it, except that we were at this point on the edge of the rim, and the sand underneath our feet was so soft and slippery that we feared we might slide down the edge into the craggy rock wall below.
The lake is cobalt blue in color and was so far below us that the ripples on the water looked like white dots, and the few boats there that take tourists around the lake could hardly be seen with the naked eye. It is from 4.5 to 6 miles wide, and contained within the crater. At one side of the lake is a fairly large island called Wizard Island. Across the lake from that is a rock structure that looks kind of like a ship, hence its name, Phantom Ship. Other than that, there's nothing else on the pristine lake. There is only one trail down to the lake from the rim, and you need to walk down it. It descends steeply for over 1 mile, and they compare the climb back up to climbing 65 flights of stairs! I would love to have gone down there to see the lake up close, or even to take the boat ride, but I thought it would take me several days to get back up, so we didn't try that trail!
The surface of the lake is a little over 6,000 ft., and the rim above it varies from 1,500 to 2,000 feet. Some of the time on our drive around the lake we were above the tree line, and some of the time we weren't. There was lots of snow still dotting the sides of the crater, both inside and out, chilling the warm air as we went past the snowy areas.
The snow did not kill the mosquitoes! They were out in attack armies of a million or more to one human! We went on a wildflower walk near the crater, and were swarmed by the nasty creatures! That might have been alright if we'd seen a meadow full of flowers like the brochure said, but we saw only about 5 flowers that were actually blooming!
Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the United States, is in the remains of a volcano called Mount Mazama which erupted and collapsed into itself 7,700 years ago. It filled with rain and melted snow, and evaporation must keep it at about the same depth from year to year. The area gets about 44 feet of snow a year. There are 16- 20 foot poles stuck in the ground along the roadway every 20 feet or so, so that the snowplows will be able to tell where the road is supposed to be!
The campground was several miles from the rim, and mosquito infested, too! We put on lots of mosquito repellant, built a huge campfire, and managed to keep most of them at bay while we enjoyed our dinner and the night sky. Tomorrow we're headed to the redwoods of California!
Washington
This lake is near Mt. Rainier.Find more pictures of Mt. Rainier, Mt. Saint Helens, and Kaetlyn by clicking :)
July 16-19 Washington
We arrived at the home of Kaetlyn Spivey, the most beautiful baby in the world, and her parents Kelly and Steve, and big sister Megan, about 6 PM. We spend the next three days and nights kissing, hugging, holding, and squeezing Kaetlyn for all of her aunts, uncles,Byet had the privilege of doing so.
She and her family accompanied us on a few excursions, also. Saturday we enjoyed a trip to nearby Mt. Rainier. We drove up a very curvy road to Sunrise Point, an area that looked a lot like Candor after a late March snowfall. There were patches and piles of snow dotting a geen hillside.
Young and old alike were sliding down the snowbanks, cross country skiing, and throwing snowballs in shorts and T-shirts in the summer sunshine. Standing guard over all of this fun was beautiful, snow and glacier clad Mt. Rainier. At over 14,000 feet it looked close enough to become the local sledding hill, but it was several miles away.
On Sunday we visited the Ballard Locks which are used to get boats from the Pacific to Lake Washington. Several sizes and kinds of pleasure boats went through the locks while we were there. We also saw salmon doing their yearly ritual by navigating up the fish ladder to get to fresh water. Some of the salmon, maybe on their way back to the Pacific, and maybe not, were caught in the water pouring out of large tubes, like rushing waterfalls, back into the salt water from the fresh. We thought some of the fish must have woken up dazed from this mad dash and wondered where they were!
When Kelly and Steve got married two years ago, we had taken the ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island, enjoyed the local fish and farmer's market, etc., so we didn't do any of those things this time, but we enjoyed watching the ferries go on their routes while we ate at a great seafood restaurant on Alki Beach.
Monday afternoon we bid our family reluctant farewells, buoyed by the knowledge that we would see them all in early September for our annual Wardapalooza family reunion.
We took the scenic route from Washington to Oregon through the Cascade Mountains. For much of the way we were accompanied by the sight of Mt. Rainier, and then Mt. Adams, both with white gleaming tops. We went up and down mountains and around switchbacks so often that my ears couldn't decide what the pressure should be and stayed plugged for the remainder of the afternoon. The narrow road was lined with straight, tall cedar and pine tree, some over 120 feet tall. Near the bottom of the mountain their massive trunks were mostly covered in soft, green moss. Along the way we saw Mt. Saint Helen's with the forest close to it still showing signs of the wrath of destruction the eruption caused 30 years ago. We also saw many lumber mills as this appears to be prime logging country.
When we finally got down the mountain, we were at the beautiful Columbia River which divides Washington and Oregon. Crossing the river at the Bridge of the Gods, we found a nearby campground and settled in for the night.
Banff and Jasper
Click here for pictures of the Canadian Rockies which were absolutely gorgeous. It's difficult to capture the beauty in a photograph, but we tried. It was all spectacular, especially the Icefield Parkway.
The blog on the Canadian Rockies should be just below this listed as Banff and Jasper.
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