Northern California is the best California, Part 1
5.17.14
We're off on vacation!
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| No kitty, you can't go. No kitty, that's a bad kitty. |
We arrive in Reno, the littlest big city in America. Wait, that's not right. Biggest little city?
I dunno, neither way makes much sense. Anyway, we're just here to get the rental car to drive to Lake Tahoe. As Reno fades and we drive into California, the surroundings look just like any Colorado mountain town. Feels like home.
5.18.14
Hanging out with Lisa's cousin's family at the lake house, bumming around Tahoe. Great views, and we take a small hike down to the lake.
5.19.14
Drive across the middle of California to get to Lassen Volcanic National Park. Since it's still pre-Memorial Day, we're not sure how much of the park is going to be open. That's just the price you pay to avoid the summer crowds. I much prefer early and late season... always-crowded places like Yosemite and Grand Canyon almost don't feel like national parks to me. They should have cell-phone service jamming devices at the park entrances, not free wifi and Taco Bell in the visitor center.
They've just opened the park's main road, so we can enter. Unfortunately, hail falls on us in the park, so we don't do much. Watch the park video, drive to see a
boiling pond,
then back to the bed n breakfast.
The bed and breakfast experience is a strange one. B and Bs are like staying with distant relatives... feel a teensy bit homey, but you're also nervous about making too much noise or running into strange people in the bathroom. I almost prefer the anonymity of a motel.
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| something very Tolkienesque about boiling mud pits. |
then back to the bed n breakfast.
The bed and breakfast experience is a strange one. B and Bs are like staying with distant relatives... feel a teensy bit homey, but you're also nervous about making too much noise or running into strange people in the bathroom. I almost prefer the anonymity of a motel.
5.20.14
Long day. An overnight snow and hailstorm make the fascist park rangers re-close the main park road after only one day open, so we have to park at the visitor center and explore from there. We hike to the mill creek falls just inside
the park. Short jaunt to the falls. Heaps of deer everywhere.
With the main road shut, we have to take the long way around to the top of the park explore a different area.
We hike in across an ashy field like black sand,
next to a miles-long area of volcanic scree spew to the cinder cone volcano.
The hike up the volcano is steep and treacherous, because the trail is crumbly rock.
But once at the top, there's an amazing view of the ore-stained hills and down into the volcano itself.
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| not pictured: deer. |
With the main road shut, we have to take the long way around to the top of the park explore a different area.
We hike in across an ashy field like black sand,
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| with plenty of bigass pine cones |
next to a miles-long area of volcanic scree spew to the cinder cone volcano.
The hike up the volcano is steep and treacherous, because the trail is crumbly rock.
But once at the top, there's an amazing view of the ore-stained hills and down into the volcano itself.
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| Volcano behind me. No, you can't see it. |
Next post: Redwooding and more Lassen!
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