The Great North America Trip: Crater Lake, Oregon; Redwood NP, California; Pacific coast, Sept 8 - 14

 

Hello everybody:

One of the interesting things is that, as our trip progresses, we seem to change our minds about the most beautiful places and things we have seen during this trip.   Our recent experiences at Crater Lake in Oregon and at Redwood NP in California bear this out.   Both are magnificent as I hope the photos below will show you. At Crater Lake, as the name implies, a lake of volcanic origin, about 2km above sea level and the deepest lake in North America (the deepest point is nearly 600m under water), you just cannot stop taking photographs. Every time you see another breath-taking view.  Moreover, the weather was splendid the whole time we were there which helped our photography and made our hikes most enjoyable.

The lake is the result of an enormous volcanic explosion, about 8000 years ago, when the existing mountain collapsed in an eruption that produced 150x as much ash as Mount St Helens did in 1980!!!   Gradually, the enormous crater, about 10km across filled up with water from rain and snow (on average 14 meters of snow per winter).   So now, we have this beautiful, deep blue lake. 

The Redwood trees in CA, although we had seen them before, also continue to fill us with awe.  These gigantic living trees have more  biomass than any other living thing on earth.   They can live to about 2000 years; the oldest we have seen was 1500 years old!  Loggers loved these trees, so the majoriity was cut down between 1850 and 1940.  Fortunately, in the early part of the 20th century some dedicated individuals raised awareness about these vanishing treasures and started a “save the redwoods” movement.  Through lobbying and fund-raising, the public, including a Rockefeller, bought the land with most of the remaining trees. It’s now a World Heritage Site.

Well, enjoy the photos show below…..

 

Crater Lake with Wizard Island, one of two islands in the lake (it’s actually a little volcano inside the crater)

 

The Lake from various perspectives….

 

 

 

Breakfast at 2km above sea level; it’s pretty nippy in the morning

 

Photos taken during a morning ride around the lake

 

Phantom Ship, a rock formation whose origin is explained on the next photo

 

The fantastic blue color when the sun is shining is the result of reflection of blue light by water molecules; other colors in the spectrum (with different wave lengths) are absorbed by the water.

It’s all explained below……

 

A little fellow we’ve seen before: golden-mantled ground squirrel

 

“Pumice Castle”  (harder volcanic rock that got exposed after softer rock around it eroded away)

 

One tour boat operates on the lake

 

We hiked to the highest point around the lake:  Mount Scott, 2721m above sea level.  Actually, the vertical rise for us was about 450m.  It was one of the easier hikes.  

 

The top of Mount Scott with a look-out post for fires, in sight

At 2700m

 

With Crater Lake in the background (by a photographer who didn’t pay attention to the horizon…..)

 

Our camper on the parking lot, 400m down

 

A view from the north side

 

A Sunset hike to Watchman Overlook with the ranger. He told us about the work various specialists of the US Park Service are doing around the lake.

View of the lake at sunset

 

The sunset as seen from Watchman Overlook

 

By the fire, back at the campground as the temp. at night is dropping rapidly at this altitude under clear skies.

 

A new day, another hike: first about 5km on the Pacific Crest Trail (which runs for more than 2000miles from the Mexican border to Canada) and then another 3km to Union Peak, a climb to 2350m, not as high as Mount Scott, but more challenging because of a very steep trail to the peak which required occasional scrambling.  Total distance in and out: 16km; total rise, including ups and downs: 560m; it took us 5 1/2 hours including time-out at the top for a sandwich.

 

Betsie points at the moss that grows above 5m up the tree trunk because the moss cannot survive under the snow (which can reach a depth/height of 5 meters!).

 

Here a view of Union Peak; we climbed/scrambled to the top

 

We made it: happy at 2350m

 

 

Trail blazes (markers) for summer and winter:  the white ones are at 3 meters or so, the blue ones are placed at 8m high on the trunk so they will be visible by X-country skiers and hikers on snow shoes.

 

Fossil fumeroles (smoke pipes) from afar and close-up (12x zoom on the new Panasonic Lumix P&S camera; we like it).  Their origins are explained on the exhibit below.

 

From Crater Lake, we drove southwest and crossed the northern State line of California close to the Pacific.  There you find the giant Redwoods.   Below a bunch of photos that speak for themselves….

 

The beach by Crescent City; surfers in the distance

 

We walked out on the spit.  On the dock, California sea lions are basking in the sun; the big males are barking all the time to assert themselves

 

Our camper viewed from the end of the spit

 

 

Steller’s Jay, quite common around here

 

A coastal trail exists but is not continuous.  We hiked two parts of it; the first day it was foggy so no good views of the surf and the ocean

 

The next day, we hiked farther south on the coastal trail.  It was a little clearer but no sun

 

After 1 1/2 hours hiking we descended to Hidden Beach; it was full of driftwood.  People had built huts from this abundant supply of building material

 

 

Mice had made their nest on the beach in a hollow piece of driftwood

 

In Prairie Creek Redwood State Park, you find this very large specimen…..

 

These trees can propagate from seeds but also from new growth that starts on one of these burls (protruding bulges from the trunk)

 

Their roots don’t go deep, only about 3m, but spread very wide and intertwine with the roots of other Redwoods.  So they support each other.

 

Our plan was to drive south along the Pacific coast on famous highway 1 and we did for awhile, but it started to rain. It was not much fun to drive on a narrow, winding, slippery road, despite some beautiful vista of the California coast.  So we deviated east across the coastal mountain range, hoping to get out of the rain.   No luck, we had rain all the way.  Finally, this morning (Sept. 14), the weather seems to have cleared up.

 

 

A close-up of the rock on the picture above.  Cormorants spend much time there as you can see from the white bird poop.

 

Well, that’s it for now.  Today, we are heading father south to visit Sequoia NP/Kings Canyon, followed by Yosemite.  After that, we will be heading east, probably taking a northern route to cross the US.  We plan to end up in Northern Virginia by mid-October……