We stayed in a sweet little vintage motel in Dunsmuir. The first morning we were there, we woke to the smell of smoke. I imagined a structure burning down quite nearby, but it was from forest fires in Klamath. We had planned these drives and small hikes that would all end up being quite hazy, no breathtaking views. Well, it was breathtaking as in: hard to take a breath. Oy.
Since it was so smokey, we wanted to limit our time outdoors and nixed the idea of any but the shortest of hikes. First, we took a drive to take a peek at the Castle Crags.
We found a lovely spot right off the road to eat some leftover pizza.
On the recommendation of several friends, we visited McCloud Falls. Very cool! When the kids are older, it would be nice to come back, do some hiking and enjoy the water.
Back in Dunsmuir. Everett was not shy at all and joined a group of kids at the park playing "light as a feather, stiff as a board." This amused me so much.
We pulled over to get at least one shot with Mount Shasta!
Burney Falls! We weren't really prepared for the beauty of this place. The falls are truly impressive. And it's quite touristy for feeling like it's in the middle of nowhere! By "touristy," I mean there were lots of people from all over the world there, not that it's like Disneyland or anything. In fact, it had a sweet little nature learning center where the kids got to examine different kinds of plants and scat and stuff.
Aunt Sue commented on a picture I posted from Burney Falls that Grandma Ena was born in Cassle California, right down the road. Her parents were working at Hat Creek Ranch.
And then we made it to Lassen!! We camped at this lovely, quite isolated, campground. The road there was a washboard that made me feel like the van was going to rattle itself apart. And when we got there, the ranger station said it was rarely staffed and the nearest phone was 10 miles away. Service was non-existent there. As a parent, I get quite nervous when it's clear there's no way to call for help if my kids are sick or injured. Thankfully nothing happened. Wilderness and parenting don't mix for me, unfortunately.
The next morning, we checked out Subway Cave, which is an immense lava tube. It's just long enough that by the time I started feeling like, "ok, I'm done. Turns out I may be claustrophobic and scared of this cave collapsing," we were already at the end. Yes, I'm a high anxiety mom.
Next we headed into Lassen proper. First we stopped at a visitor center, and we saw Darby's mom and sister! Wild to bump into them, especially since we had just visited with Darby, Katherine, and the girls.
We headed to a camp store for sandwiches and enjoyed them next to a lovely lake.
We then drove all the way through the park to the other visitor center, admiring the lovely views, then turned around to check out the stinky mud pots! Can you find Vulcan's eye on that mountain?? Unfortunately Bumpass Hell was closed for maintenance.
We were surprised to find snow! In July!
When we got back to camp, we decided to hike up to find our own private lake! Pretty special! Later we realized that this wasn't the private lake we were looking for. I guess this was a different, smaller lake not worthy of being on a map?? Well, we had fun. And it was beautiful.
Campfires and marshmallows. Aw. The best.
Once again we were ready for civilization: a hotel, showers, and margaritas with Elvis.
But we weren't done swimming! This is North Lake Tahoe.
We stayed in a very simple, bare bones motel in North Lake Tahoe, but it was next door to a decent Mexican restaurant (margaritas, yum!), right across the street from a great little beach with a park (and geese), and there was a rooftop hot tub with a view of the lake that we had all to ourselves. Lovely!
And that drive from North Lake Tahoe south along the west side of the lake was wild! Amazing views! I feel bad for Brian. It's a high, thin, curving road, so he had to pay attention to his driving. He missed the amazing views!
Yosemite! We came in through Lee Vining and over the stunning Tioga Pass. It rained on us in Bridgeport but cleared up by the time we got to Mono Lake.
The first day we passed through Yosemite to find our campground. We stayed in the campground that Cousin Bob has access to as part of the community he lives in. The next day, we picked Cousin Bob up near his property and headed into the park!
Before heading back to camp that night, we got a tour of Bob's property! You can see him pointing out where all the rooms of his house will be.
The next day we picked up some sandwiches and took them up to Glacier Point for a picnic with the best views in the world.
When we got home, it seemed like the the kids immediately found their favorite thing, the thing they missed the most. Everett, Lego. Lydia, drawing. And Roz, our yard.
