Day 20- We woke up and headed into Aunt Janice’s to the welcoming smells of cranberry orange muffins with walnuts that morning. We enjoyed a lot more pleasant conversation over coffee accompanied by the lovely muffins. Afterwards we had the joy of getting to show Aunt Janice The Ohana! I think she was a bit impressed with our little living space. After saying our goodbye’s and giving her our love and appreciation we were back on the road.
This time we were headed South down towards California. When passing through Grants Pass we immediately noticed that the town had a big obsession with bears; the streets being lined with bear carvings all over the place.
Along the way there we saw a few more Toyota Motorhomes, and by the days end we would add our trip tally to 5 sightings thus far.
Eventually we entered California, where we saw lots of the copper trees we fell in love with at my Uncle Jim’s lining the road. We also noticed the pine cones were now a lot bigger than the ones we knew from Alaska. After awhile we drove into the Redwood forests; and needless to say we were pretty blown away! And we hadn’t even entered the park officially yet.
We had originally intended to spend the night near the park entrance, but when we realized that Crescent City was less than 20 miles away- we opted to land there for the night in the Home Depot parking lot.
Day 21- The next morning we immediately noticed the town was hosting some type of monster truck event. Laura talked me into heading down to the beach since it was about 5 minutes away. It was beautiful!!! The water was still a bit chilly; but honestly I would still dive in. Nothing like the cold waters from up North!
After a nice beach stroll we were headed back up to the redwood forest. Check out the price of gas in California! It was about $1.50 more expensive than where we had fueled up in Oregon at Grants Pass.
The Redwoods… Oh The Redwoods! These trees where absolutely amazing. The size so immense I don’t think that any of the following pictures or videos we took will do them justice; but hopefully you will get the idea. The massive trees just created an aura of a sacred space as they towered above us so majestically. 😲
At one point, when we where headed down to the river beach I ran my shin across some poison oak; so I immediately headed to the water to wash my leg off. Someone at the beach kindly advised me that scrubbing the spot with sand is also helpful in taking care of the problem, so I gave my leg a good scrubbing and never got a rash!
We continued on down further and entered a campground area- where the Redwoods where even more massive! I was so blown away that they could even get bigger than what we had previously seen! 😵
After wandering this beautiful forest for a long time we meandered back to The Ohana; where we applied our California sticker to our USA magnet.
Once again we where headed back North on the road from whence we came. This time we where headed up to Crater Lake, where I had been told the waters are beautiful. I was super looking forward to seeing and feeling that water!
As we entered the mountains we were surprised to find ourselves surrounded by Redwood trees here as well! These trees were not as big as the one’s in California, but the forest was still a very large one.
We climbed and climbed into the mountains, and were eventually surrounded by familiar surroundings of spruce trees and snow. 🙄
After a very long time we arrived at our destination- in which I was EXTREMELY disappointed. Perhaps I should have done my research better about the lake, because it is really in the middle of a large crater. You can’t even get close to it, you can only observe it from high up above. So… there would be not dipping our toes in this water… 😓 Out of everyone we had talked to, nobody mentioned that part.
When we finally were able to get a little reception, we found out we could not stay in the park anyway. Good… in case you can’t tell in the pictures I was pretty unhappy with this visit. We had driven a long time to the middle of nowhere to see… a view of a lake. We had left Alaska to get away from mountains, trees, snow, and nothing but a lot of pretty views you actually can’t enjoy. So needless to say, I was happy to get away from there. Sorry all you Crater Lake lovers, but this was just not for me!
So without further ado we headed out of the mountains- the North way out being much smoother and straighter with better roads than the way we came in. Eventually we settled in to a rest stop for the night, having covered some of the distance to Bend we had been planning on tackling the next day.
It was nice to settle in after such an incredible day!
Geoff Murphy – 6/22/2022
Beautiful parts of Oregon and California. I enjoyed crater lake but it was later in the year and no snow. But I didn’t loose anything at crater lake to go back for. It is a unique place though. You will probably like Bend. That is kind of the border of the coastal attitude and the beginning if cowboy country. 10 miles from bend in Redmond and the people are different. I’m sure you will notice. The beauty of western Oregon is fantastic but l like eastern Oregon much better. Have fun on your journey
Thanks Arnie! You are absolutely spot on! We will be headed pretty soon!