Crater Lake and Redwoods National Parks

Sept. 2021

While we were staying in Brookings, OR, we drove for half an hour down Hwy 101 to Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, which is within the Redwoods National Park boundary, and is jointly managed by the NPS and the California State Parks. It is the northernmost part of Redwoods N.P., near Crescent City. We drove down Howland Hill Road, which is a narrow dirt road, sometimes so narrow that if we met another car, one of us would have to pull to the side to let the other pass. Sometimes, we would have to practically squeeze between 2 big trees on either side of the road. The dirt road was well packed-down, however, and not very rough, although I wouldn’t want to travel it when there has been a lot of rain. A few miles down this road, we parked at Stout Grove for an easy walk among the tall trees. We sure felt tiny compared to the trees!

We saw just a very small portion of Redwoods. We hope to explore more next spring.

One of several ginormous uprooted trees in Stout Grove

Some redwood trees are well over 300 ft. tall and hundreds of years old. Some live up to 2000 years.

After staying on the coast, we traveled inland to Crater Lake NP. This was my third visit and Craig’s 2nd. We were glad to visit on a sunny day, because that’s when the lake is the deepest blue color. It’s so blue because the water is so pure and clear that all other colors in the spectrum are absorbed, and only blue is reflected back. When I was a teenager on my first visit, I walked the trail down to the lake to take a boat ride. I remember that from the boat, we could see logs 70 feet below the surface of the lake. I also remember it was a tough hike back up. The NPS says it’s like climbing 65 flights of stairs. Glad I did it then; I wouldn’t have the stamina to hike it now. No boat rides are being offered this year due to Covid, so it wasn’t even an option.

We drove all the way around the lake, stopping at many overlooks. It was a windy day, especially at this highest point on the road.

That’s water, not sky.

There are two islands in the lake: Wizard Island is a cinder cone volcano that formed and erupted after the original eruption that formed the caldera.

We could see the caldera at the top of the cone. We also saw waves kicked up by the wind and lit by the sun.

Phantom Ship looks small from the rim, but it’s 16 stories tall. The best view of Phantom Ship was from a trail off the Sun Notch parking area. Phantom Ship was in shadow in the morning, so photos of it were best in the afternoon.

On the way back to our campground in Prospect, we stopped at Rogue River Gorge. It’s a very small gorge, but it has a nice waterfall.

From here, we headed south to spend the month of October in California. Our original plan was to see Lassen Volcanic National Park. Unfortunately, that area has been fighting a huge, devastating forest fire for months, and the National Park has been closed since the beginning of August. We did stay at Rancheria RV Park, about a half hour away from the park’s north entrance, and had no air quality issues there. At that time, the fire was 94% contained. We felt sorry for the campground owners, because the park closure had severely affected their business. There was hardly anyone else besides us in the campground. We got one of the best big sites next to a small lake. Less than a week after we left, a small part of Lassen opened back up. We just missed it.

The lake at our campground was like a mirror. There were ducks and Canada geese on it, but by our last day, we didn’t see any of them. I guess they moved on, because it was getting down into the 30’s F. at night.

We enjoyed relaxing in our reclining lawn chairs, soaking in the beauty and peace. This was one of the nicest campgrounds we’ve stayed in so far. We made reservations for next May! Hopefully at least part of the Lassen N.P. road will be cleared of snow by then so we can see a bit of the park! If they get a big snow (which they need and didn’t get last winter), the park road may not fully open till some time in June or even later.

We did take a short trip to Burney Falls. These falls are exceptionally beautiful because of the way the water seeps through the green, plant-covered wall of rock. It looks like flowing lacy curtains!

I want to come back next spring, ideally on a cloudy day, or else early in the morning before the sun hits the water, to try to get better photos.

From here, we began our journey south for the winter. Next on the itinerary: San Francisco.