Crater Lake

more pics of Crater Lake

Santa Rosa, CA 8/31

The trip down was beautiful but the road stunk. People think Alaska's roads are bad.This can compete with those roads. We are now in Santa Rosa, which is in Sonoma County and Napa Valley, right in the middle of wine country. Tomorrow we will go to San Francisco by ferry. Since Labor Day weekend is this coming weekend we decided to go to San Fran for a few days and then go wine tasting. I have uploaded the pictures but they might be confusing as it has been hard to match the pictures with blog. Since I have been on this for 4 hours, I give up. Hope you enjoy. It has been one heck of an adventure and it is not over.

Elk2

This picture shows the two male elks, one has lost one of his antlers.

The Elk

Last day in Klamath, CA

We were moving slow today but we did decide to go out for one more hike. Then we turned on the TV and got caught up in Ted Kennedy's funeral and just vegged out. In the evening the campground had a all you can eat, fresh cooked salmon and chicken dinner that we enjoyed, included was salad, veggies, and rice. There was entertainment included with the dinner. A guy, Tug Boat Willy playing the washtub bass and a guy, Doug, playing the guitar and harmonica. We also had a parks and forest services person play the accordion. It was fun and enjoyable. There was a huge bonfire in the fire pit and for desert you could roast marshmallows. All this for $9.95 a person.

8/28/09

Klamath, CA 8/28/09

A walk on the beach again was our goal today since it was clear and without fog today. This was the first time in the week were there wasn't fog. There were many people out fishing and found out one family owns the whole spit. It was a RV park before a big flood years ago washed it away. The man told us that ET and some of Star Wars were filmed in Crescent City along with parts of Jurassic Park. Now we have to see all the pictures again to see if we can recognize anything.
After lunch we drove to Crescent City and went north of the city in a wooded area out to sand dunes. It was a great hike after our walk this morning in the deep sands. We decided not to go into the dunes since we walked in enough sand the last two days. After the two mile hike we decided we did enough walking today. All told over 4 miles and I am sure we will probably hurt tomorrow. I am happy because after this easy walk in woods my ankle is feeling much better after 2 weeks.
I spoke to a friend outside LA and he said it was 101 today and very humid. So, we will take our time getting down there. It has been so pleasant here in Klamath, high in 60’s maybe 70 in the day and 50’s at night.

Klamath, 8/27

We drove up to look for seals, sea lions, etc. but fog was in again, so we decided to go to the redwood forest again. There are so many trails we haven't been on, plus it is so pleasant in the forest and the trees are amazing. I hope you get an idea of the size of these trees from the pictures, when I send them. Fern Canyon was so unique and beautiful and we were told that part of the movie Jurassic Park was filmed there and in Klamath. A young woman doctor who was with her to kids, 4 & 11, walked along with us. She told me that as long as my ankly is not broke I can't do any damage and that eased my mind, and I hike without any fear and I felt the pain ease. I thought I would have to stay months in bed when we got home.
Two huge male elks were seen today with 10 to 12 points along with a harem of lying in the tall grasses. When the elk are lying down in the grass they are really camafloged and you have a hard time seeing them.

Klamath, 8/25

Today was a day to shop for groceries and we had to drive up to Cresent City 18 miles away. This was the closest LARGE town. We then drove to Brookings, OR. to get fuel. It was 15 miles from Crescent City and fuel was 3.09 in the city but 2.69 in Brookings, plus it is a city on the coast. It had a beautiful beach, it was a very pleasant drive and we saved over 30 dollars on the fuel.
We drove up another coast road to view seals, sea lions and in season orcas but the fog was in and we saw nothing but heard sea lions. We will try again another day.
Not as exciting as yesterday but I need to rest my ankle and have an easy day.

Monday, 8/24 Klamath, CA

It is hard to describe the spectacular day we have had today. The Redwood Forest is amazing. Some facts about redwood trees...Height to 379ft...up to 2000 yrs. old...diameter to 22 ft at breast height...bark is 12 in. thick.
Some people we met told us of a man in 1800's that came across these majestic trees and thought it was Divine providence that he cut them down. Of course he made millions of dollars. Fortunately there were people that had some foresight to save the redwoods. They started a fund around 1910 by inviting wealth people to California and had them tour these majestic trees. This started a fund that bought acres of forest to save for the future.
When we can, we will down load pictures.
The best part of the day was when we turned onto a road and found a herd of elk. Gene has video with sound of the two males fighting and clashing antlers. The one male tore the right side of antler off the other male who walked away defeated.The male who won the fight drove the losers herd to his on the other side of the meadow. The footage was so good we made a copy for the kids who have the antler. We have pictures of kids with there father who went out after the herd left and found the broken antler. I have said nothing about the ocean drive which was spectacular or the old farm house that was a camouflaged radar installation during WWII. What a great day, again.