A good trip

Things were quiet around here last week because we had our annual camping trip last week. It was a very good trip.

We were scheduled to leave Friday, but I came down with a bug Thursday. A little research tells me it was a textbook case of salmonella. We waited until Sunday morning to leave to give me plenty of time to get over my illness and to finish the packing.

The trip didn’t start out all that great. Between Reno and Susanville we stopped at least five times to deal with a roof bag that was threatening to not stay put. I finally saw it fly of in the rear view mirror. Hubby backed up to it and just threw it on the back of the van instead of the top. That worked, so that is where the bag went for the rest of the trip.

Between Susanville and Lava Beds National Park (a long drive in itself) we saw a heard of antelope. This is the second time we have seen this heard in this area, the first time being a couple of years ago.

When we arrived at Lava Beds, the campground was almost full and the only spaces left were too small for our very big tent (20’ long). This surprised hubby since a very cold night had been predicted. He figured people would have gone home early to avoid it. We decided to go on to another campground he knew of 15 miles (and nearly an hour) away. The roads were bad but we made it.

God has a way of giving us the little things that make life great. Not only was the first site in the grounds empty AND big enough for us, but there was a small herd of deer in the meadow across the road. Now how cool is that?!

We set up camp and had a nice supper of hamburgers cooked over the campfire. Day one turned out real nice, despite its rough start.

Day 2- Monday

We broke camp and drove back to Lava Beds. There we walked through several tubes. These are long tunnels formed by lava cooling while the insides continued to flow out. The children loved it, even though several remember being there before.

On the way out of the lava region, we stopped at Captain Jack’s fort. This is a lava flow with ridges and gullies and hidey holes. This is where the last battle in the Indian war took place. The Indians hid in this flow (which is shaped much like a fort) and shot arrows at the soldiers. There was absolutely no way the soldiers could get to them! They ended up stationing guards around the water and starving the Indians out. It took six months!

Just before our hike through this natural fortress, Joy spotted a Monarch butterfly caterpillar! We saw many plants we recognized and some we are still trying to identify.

Next we drove along the road that divides Oregon from California. This is farm country. We saw wheat, strawberries, corn, and potatoes growing. Also four big white cranes watching a coyote hunting mice and in another field, wild turkeys.

I found this farm land especially beautiful. Being a farmer at heart, this looks like paradise to me:-)

We hit the coastal road and found our campsite at “Trees of Heaven Campground.” This was the only place that threatened a problem with wasps. Andy and I cooked ham steak for supper while the children stayed in the van. We had a lovely supper.

Before that, we went for a swim in the local river. The girls waded in the nice big shallows looking at rocks and shells while the boys took a float down the Klamath River. It was a pretty strong current and they had to keep swimming back up stream to not leave us completely. Andy is a strong swimmer and was keeping an eye on them.

After supper we took a nice walk on a bird-preserve trail. Lots of raspberry vines, though the few berries left were bitter.

Day 3- Tuesday

This was a long day of driving narrow twisty roads. We did see deer, though.

I have never before seen oak scrublands that looked DOWN on conifer forests! The scrub lands I have seen before were in the foothills. This was definitely surreal. There was a nice heard of elk, though we couldn’t get close enough to get a good picture. The rest stop we ate lunch in was a small stand of pine trees at the very top of the mountains. We could look down on grass lands and then forests and over the shorter mountains, the ocean!

After lunch we arrived at the Ladybird Johnson grove. Redwoods! What a beautiful walk with all the ferns below and the trees above! Jennifer (7) asked about the funny dots on the back of the fern fronds and when she learned that that was how they reproduced, she examined nearly every fern to see if it still had its spores. Jane (nearly 3) enjoyed tracing the numbers on all the posts marking the trail and then telling the number goodbye.

It began to sprinkle before we were done with our walk so se hurried it up and headed for the campground hoping it wasn’t raining there since we still had some tents to set up.

We almost decided to pass on this campground because the bathrooms looked horrible from the outside and the only site we would fit into was on the other side of the campground. It turns out the bathrooms were quite clean, just old. And we were all tired and it was beginning to rain.

This campsite turned out to be my favorite of the whole trip. It was like a different dimension. In fact, there was a break in the hedge surrounding it that lead to the beach. When you came back into the site, it was like walking through an interdemensional portal. The next morning especially. It was bright and reasonably dry on the beach, but it was still raining in the campsite (the rain must have taken hours to finish dropping from leaf to leaf to the ground!).

With the hedge around the site and the large spreading trees overhead, it was more like a cave than a campsite. There was one large tree that the children called a jungle gym. It was perfect for climbing and someone had even left a swing attached!

Banana slugs abound! Joseph (11) counted 57 on the trip as a whole.

After setting up camp we drove to a better place for wading on the beach than the one by our site. Only Joy (18) remembers playing in the waves before. All the children enjoyed wave chasing and hunting shells. Jim (15) was especially entranced by the water, while Jennifer informed me there was yellow in the waves and she was going to go home and paint them.

A nice dinner of hotdogs and to bed.

(Yes, it did rain all night and our Joy got flooded out of her tent. She spent the rest of the trip sleeping in the big one with us).

Day 4- Wednesday

Long, long day of coastal roads. We did see elk along the way.

We went on a nice hike through Fern Gultch. This was like another world…Disney World! All it was missing was the animatronic hippos squirting water at us, lol. The walls of the canyon were 100 straight up and covered with ferns. There was a little creek running down the middle. Absolutely beautiful! Jon (12) saw a blue legged frog. Andy and I weren’t fast enough to see it though:-(

We had to load all the gear into the front seat of the van because rain was predicted on and off for the day. Our roof bags are a bit less than waterproof.

The campground we picked was nearly deserted but had plenty of room to lay out all the gear to dry before bed time.

We went down to the beach after setting everything out to dry. There was lighthouse and tide pools. We saw star fish and tiny crabs, sea lions and harbor seals. Wonderful experience! We had supper overlooking the ocean and went back to set up camp. It was another nice night.

Day 5- Thursday

Again, lots long driving by the ocean.

We went to Fort Ross, the Russian fort in California. They decided it was too unprofitable and pulled out…7 years before gold was discovered! Very interesting.

We stayed in a nice, though crowded camp by the ocean. It had showers!

Stew for supper cooked by Andy and off to bed.

About 2:00 am I woke up to definite sounds in our camp site. I checked it out and discovered professional thieves! How do I know they were professionals? They were wearing masks! They were especially interested in the marshmallows.

I woke hubby up after I ran them off and we locked up the food.

Day 6- Friday

A four hour, 100 mile drive to and from Point Reyes National monument. Most of us saw a pod of dolphins. Joy, Jackie (6) and I were surprised by five deer jumping out of the underbrush! Arrgghh! Just like jack-in-the-boxes, one minute we were alone and the next there they were!

The lighthouse was neat except it was a climb down a steep staircase equal to a 30 story building to actually get to it. We enjoyed it from up top.

Then we drove into San Francisco. We didn’t see the Golden Gate. Drove on it yes. But the fog was so bad we didn’t much see it.

We also drove on the lower level of the Bay Bridge.

Then the long drive home. We arrived exhausted but safe and happy.

Jennifer counted 158 horses on the trip.

And you know what? After five days in a van and tent, my little house seemed disorientingly big!

(I couldn't get the pictures to go into the text and a couple mysteriously decided to jump to the bottom. So for more pictures of the lava tubes just keep looking.)



On the way to the first cave.

Monarch catapillar

Our first site; Andy, Jim, Jon, Joy

Loading up the van.

So thrilled to be going again.
Jackie, Jessie, Jane (They were still sleepy)

Everyone had their own water cup. (Joe)

Scrub oak land looking down on conifir forests.

That's my hand to measure the size of the leaf.

Beautiful roads

Jennifer the fern girl.

It was vey difficult to get everyone to lay on their sides like this, especially the tree.

OK, so I can't figure out how to turn them around.

For comparison, Jim is 6'1.5" If yuo spread your arms out as far as you can, from finger tip to finger tip is how tall you are. So this tree would be about twelve feet across.

Anyone know what these plants are?

Andy inside the cave.



Jane with her own flashlight.




Continued