Day 69: Biking to the Redwoods

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Ben

We awoke to a beautiful day at the Elk Valley Casino, and the cows in the adjacent field were happy too:

Seems like we’re not here during the busy season:

We did a bit of pre-home-school scooter riding on the reservation. I was on roller skates:

In the afternoon we rode up a gravel road towards the Stout Redwood Grove in Jedediah Smith State Park. The ride started with a 430 foot vertical climb in the first 1.1 miles, with an average grade of 8%. It was pretty tough, but one way or the other we all made it to the top. Here’s our daughter doing her Statue of Liberty imitation with a monster mushroom she found laying uprooted by the side of the road:

Right after the crest, the Redwoods began appearing. Their girth and height is simply beyond description:

They top out at about 370 feet tall, which is taller than the Statue of Liberty, pedestal and all. They are the tallest living things on Earth.

Trish and the kids turned back early, and I continued on to the Stout Grove parking lot and back. I didn’t go into the grove, as we will all come back and see it together.

This is where the Endor scenes from Return of the Jedi were filmed, and flying down a one lane dirt road winding between the trees, I felt like I was right there.

We stayed at Elk Valley Casino again tonight.

Day 68: Grants Pass, OR to Crescent City, CA

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Ben

This morning we headed west and south towards the California coast.

Sadly, we’ve missed four National Parks and Monuments thanks to the government shutdown. The National Forests are closed as well:

We spent some time looking for a dispersed campsite near the coast and found one marginal candidate. We continued on to Crescent City on the coast of northern California:

We walked down to the beach and looked back at the RV:

The local playground has a maritime theme:

At low tide, we were able to walk out to the local lighthouse which is on an island except at low tide when it becomes a peninsula. The lighthouse was unfortunately closed for tours but it was still neat to see the grounds:

We explored the tidal pools and found a wonderful collection of anemones, starfish, crabs, fish, and hermit crabs. We pulled a handful of hermit crabs out of the pools and placed them on a rock to watch them come out of their shells and crawl back into the water.

Looking back towards the lighthouse:

Tonight we’re staying at the Elk Valley Casino near Crescent City. Trish gave us all haircuts tonight and for me she “accidentally” used the #2 fitting on the shaver instead on the #4 fitting, so I’m now ready to try out as an extra in the next GI Joe movie.

See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 67: Ashland, OR to Grants Pass, OR

Posted on October 13, 2013 by Ben

Yesterday, on Shabbos, I went for a walk and found an odd collection of buildings just down the road from where we were parked. Turns out it’s The Oregon Extension, a “semester in the woods” college program targeted primarily towards students at Christian colleges. Sounds like a great program.

Last night, after Shabbos, we drove to Ashland and stayed at the Albertsons in Ashland.

This morning, we headed north and stopped at a railroad park in Medford. It’s only open two Sundays a month, so we were very lucky to get there at just the right time. They had an extensive indoor HO gauge display:

The best part was the road barricades that came down automatically when the trains passed by:

Next we checked out the outdoor O gauge garden trains:

There was quite a bit of attention to detail, like this junk yard:

There was a separate display with Thomas-themed trains:

Bridges over the model river:

They had a Thomas ride-on train for the little kids:

For adults and older kids, there were a number of ride-on trains:

All aboard:

Through one of several tunnels:

They had a number of full size train cars on display as well:

They are in the process of restoring an old engine:

After leaving the train center, we headed north to Grants Pass, OR. We are staying at the Walmart here tonight.

See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 65: Lake Hosmer, OR to Pinehurst, OR

Posted on October 11, 2013 by Ben

I took one last photograph before we left Lava Lake:

We drove south towards Klamath Falls. On the way, we stopped at the Collier Logging Museum. It’s a free outdoor display of countless machines used in logging over the last 100 years:

They had a Fir tree’s cross section there with the rings labeled by significant events in history:

Our son kissed the bear goodbye and it was time to go!

We are dispersed camping about 30 miles east of Ashland in the imaginary town of Pinehurst, OR. We will be spending Shabbos here. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 64: Bend, OR to Lake Hosmer, OR

Posted on October 10, 2013 by Ben

We left the Walmart of Bend this morning and drove to Lake Hosmer, one of the many high altitude lakes at the base of the Cascade range near Bend: Mt. Bachelor, Broken Top, and South Sister. There was actually a bit of slush on the road as we crossed the summit near Mount Bachelor, which reinforced the notion that it’s time to head south.

I remember Lake Hosmer from my Hancock days. It’s a wonderfully asymmetric lake with shallow, winding passages. It’s quite shallow, and the water is very clear. Since it’s a fly fishing-only lake, there are quite a few fish to be seen in the crystal clear waters.

Here’s the view from the boat put-in area at Lake Hosmer. That’s Mount Bachelor in the background, its peak obscured by clouds:

I took my action camera along on the kayak trip, but the card got messed up (a technical term) when we got back, so we have mostly Tricia’s photos below:

Our son decided to paddle his way through the reeds, screaming all the way. So much for the solitude and quiet of kayaking:

At some point he realized that he had picked up a few spiders in the reeds, so he got out of his kayak and lay on top of it. Remarkably, he didn’t capsize:

After our amazing kayaking outing, we drove a couple miles to Lava Lake, where the fishing is supposed to be amazing, but we were unsuccessful. The alpine glow on South Sister (left) and Broken Top (right) made it worthwhile:

We spent the night at the closed campground at Lava Lake.

See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.