Day Two ~ Redding to Alturas
We awoke this morning of Friday, August 8, 2008, refreshed and extremely excited about what awaited us down the road.
For mom and I the prospect of revisiting some places we really loved and missed. Given that there are no close-by breakfast joints we chose to just get dressed and packed up and hit the road and snack as we drove this day with a stop at our favorite bakery in Weed, CA, on up the road.
After we got on the freeway we soon crossed Lake Shasta which was shockingly low which exposed a lot of red soils and bedrock. We didn't stop at the Lake Shasta Rest Area as it was too soon to stop so we kept going on until we reached Weed. Along the way we saw the awesome-looking
Castle Crags and then magnificent
Mount Shasta finally came into view.
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| Castle Crags |
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| Castle Crags from Interstate 5. |
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| Mount Shasta |
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| Black Butte from Interstate 5. |
After passing through Dunsmuir, we headed up the long grade to Mount Shasta City and soon
Black Butte came into sight which sight always grabs my eye as this cinder cone looks like it erupted yesterday. We exited Interstate 5 and stopped at the aforementioned well-favored and well-flavored bakery in Weed and picking up three bags of goodies headed for the nearby defunct rest area adjacent to the Weed CALFIRE station where we enjoyed a break with our goodies before heading on up US97.
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| Mount Shasta from the US97 scenic viewpoint. |
It was nice being back on US97 for the first time since 2002. We stopped at both the scenic viewpoint overlooking
Mount Shasta as well as the
Grass Lake Roadside Rest Area.
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| Grass Lake Chipmunk |
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| Grass Lake Chipmunk |
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| Grass Lake Chipmunk |
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| Grass Lake Chipmunk |
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| Grass Lake Chipmunk |
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| Grass Lake Chipmunk |
We then made our way on up US97 over nearby summit and down into Butte Valley and across it to Dorris, CA, where we stopped for another bathroom break and admired their self-proclaimed "tallest flagpole". From there we headed on up US97 a short distance to Stateline Road a.k.a. Highway 161 which we turned onto and headed east into the
Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge.
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| Lower Klamath Lake |
Although we came here later in the year than the first time I ever visited this place which was in April, 2001, when there were so many birds that it was a spiritual experience I shall never forget.
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| Wild Nightshade Berries. |
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| Wild Nightshade in bloom at the lake shore. |
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| Lower Klamath Lake bed area with Oregon in the distance. |
We stopped at a couple of locations (at the spot on the main road with the small copse of trees and the location with the pull-out with a wall containing interpretive placards). We noticed as the one main dirt road headed south off the main road and into the refuge that there were tents and cars coming and going from some sort of event. Unbeknownst to us until a short time later when we visited the visitor center for the refuge they were celebrating the 100th Anniversary of President Theodore Roosevelt creating the refuge.
We took Stateline Road all the way down to Hill Road and then headed south to the refuge visitor center. On the way we stopped at a turn out at the entrance to a former Civilian Conservation Corps Camp which was used for a short time for Japanese Internees during World War Two.
In the visitor center itself which we had to ourselves this time in contrast to the last time we were there in 2001 when it was very crowded, we met the docent who was the same cut little old lady as was there seven years ago which was nice.
From there we headed south on Hill Road and along the western shore Tule Lake (what is left of it as it is much smaller nowadays due to its water being used by local farming interests.
Soon we were entering
Lava Beds National Monument and found ourselves in an entirely different world than the one we had just left filled with water and wetlands interspersed with dry grasslands in the adjacent higher hilly terrain. We were now in a world of lavaflows and as s geology buffs we were in ecstasy.
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| Aa lava flow |
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| Aa lava flows with Tulelake in the distance. |
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| Pahoehoe lava mixed in with some aa lava. |
After paying to enter the monument we first stopped at Gillems Camp and took a short walk and then made a quick photo op stop at an overlook and then spent a little while at an extinct but nameless vent which sported some pahoehoe lava in contrast to all the aa lava that dominates the monument. After that we had lunch at Fleener Chimneys after exploring them.
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| Fleener Chimneys |
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| Small lava tube |
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| Fleener Chimneys |
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| The throat of one of the Fleener Chimneys. |
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| Tequila checking out a gas bubble feature at Fleener Chimneys. |
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| Pahoehoe lava |
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| Fleener Chimneys |
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| Indian Well Cave |
Our last stop at the monument this day was at the Park Headquarters which we visited and then we walked the length of small interpretive lava tube known as Mush Pot and then walked to the end of the path into nearby Indian Well Cave.
From there we headed on out of the monument via the south end which is sort of the "back way" into and out of the monument.
We then got onto Highway 139 via Tionesta Road from the monument's south entrance and then took it on down to Howard's Gulch Campground on the
Modoc National Forest campground a stone's throw from the highway where we took a nice little break. This is one of my favorite little campground's anywhere and it was empty despite it being Summer.
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| Howard's Gulch Campground |
Following that break we got onto the main highway and took it on down to Highway 299 where Highway 139 terminated and we then headed east on Highway 299 through Canby and on in to Alturas. It was nice to see the
Warner Mountains once again after several years as was seeing Alturuas, the county seat of Modoc County and the only city in the county with a population of just over 4,000 residents.
I like this little town. I had considered moving here which idea I've since abandoned but this is a good town to base a
Modoc Plateau adventure.
After we got into town we checked into the Best Western Trailside Inn and then got some local grub in a local eatery we had not tried before on previous visits in 2001 and 2002.
Our favorite eatery in Alturas was out of business so this forced us to try something different.
As it turned out the place was great and it was fun watching the locals go about the business of being locals.
After that we headed southeast of town and drove into and walked around in the
Modoc National Wildlife Refuge where we saw plenty of interesting and beautiful fauna and flora including some coyotes and deer and plenty of waterfowl.
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| Deer hiding in Modoc National Wildlife Refuge. |
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| A waterway in the Modoc National Wildlife Refuge. |
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| Wild sunflower on Modoc National Wildlife Refuge |
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| Wild sunflower |
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| Wild sunflowers |
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| Smokey Sunset outside Alturas |
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| Sunset made smokey from Trinity County blazes. |
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| Smokey sunset at Modoc National Wildlife Refuge |
All photos by Krissa Klein (all rights reserved).
We finished our Modoc National Wildlife Refuge excursion at the roadside rest area just south of Alturas where we watched the Sun set amidst a dark bank of smoke from the Trinity County blazes.
Following that we went back to our rooms and freshened up a bit and then walked down to an Italian eatery on the main street and ordered dinner to go and then walked around town until it was ready.
While doing that we checked out some firefighting activity going on in and around an old hotel on main street and discovered the federal government seems to be using it as a firefighter hostel for part of the year. We saw Type-5 engines from all over the West including Arizona (Gila National Forest).
After that we walked to within a block of city hall and found the location of the bats mom and I had encountered the last night we stayed in this town back in June, 2002.
They were coming out of holes in the roof of an old building, perhaps hundreds of them flitting about eating insects.
Following our own delicious meal we went to bed.
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