The plan for today (Saturday 6/17/2017) is to visit Lava
Beds National Monument and then Lassen Volcanic National Park before ending the
day in Reno, Nevada. We stayed overnight
in Klamath Falls and at the motel we stayed in had a number of bird nests in the
roof overhang. I was finally able to get
one of them in its nest.
We start heading south on US-97, then turn east on
route-140, then south on route-39 until we reached South Merrill Rd in
Merrill. Turning east we are on
the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway again, this time route-30. Driving along the Oregon and California
border, we turned south into California on Hill Road. While on this road we all
of a sudden come along a flat section of land with no trees to interfere with
our view of Mt. Shasta and it is clear skies for a good look.
Not long after entering California, Hill Road and the Volcanic
Legacy Scenic Byway is the same road as we are approaching Lava Beds National
Monument and as with much of this trip we are passing ranches. This one appears to have hills of lava flow
rising above the ranch.
We drive by Tule Lake, a National Wildlife Refuge, but the
only wildlife we can see is the bird in the lower left corner. That’s okay because we do not have time to
stop and look for other animals.
Along this section of the road we are following the Klamath
Basin Birding Trail, the Modoc Volcanic Scenic Byway and still on the Volcanic
Legacy Scenic Byway and we can definitely tell we are getting closer to the lava
beds. The terrain has the
characteristics of lava whether it is or not.
Now in Lava Beds National Monument we can see the results of
the lava flows through this area. New
plants are growing out of the lava rocks.
This clump of flowers is growing out of the rock without
much or any soil. This lava is part of
the flow that covers the floor of the caldera
Look at how the lava collected and cooled in this flow. It is a wonder that after all of these years
this protrusion has not been broken.
At the overlook named the Devils Homestead. This is the northern flank of the Medicine
Lake Shield Volcano. Though not as tall
as more familiar volcanoes like Mt. Shasta or Mt. Hood, or Mt. St. Helens is it
the largest volcano by surface area in the Cascade Range. Those cinder cones are inside the volcano and
are all over 7,000 feet.
Looking north from the vantage point of Devils Homestead, we
can see Gillem Bluff. This is where some
of the Modoc Indians were held prisoner during the Modoc war (1872) when they
refused to return to the reservation.
The bluff is a scarp, and was created when the region stretched and a
block of earth dropped down along the fault.
The layer at the top of the bluff is still 2 million years old.
I find the stark differences in contrast between the newer lava
flow and the grasses and sagebrush very interesting. The newer flow that is here still has sharp
features.
Varied landscapes make this area interesting. Here one of the few full height trees we have
seen in close proximity.
Our next stop is at what is known as Balcony Boulevard
Caves. We stop and hike along the trail
heading to the caves and see this flower nestled in the shade of a sagebrush
bush.
Hiking to the caves, we expected to drop in elevation before
seeing a cave. Not the way it
happens. These caves are opening or
cave-ins of some of the lava tubes from the time of the lava flow. Here one such cave drops down into the tube,
creating a cave. We did not enter any of
the caves since they were tight.
While hiking along the many caves on the trail, I did manage
to see an animal. Okay, it was only a
butterfly, but we haven’t seen many animals, not even a lizard, and I was getting desperate so you
have to settle for a butterfly.
Okay I lied; we or I should say I did go down into one of
the larger caves just to take a look inside.
If you were to go further into the cave you’d need to have knee pads,
heavy gloves, and helmet. Just look the
floor, how’d you like to crawl on that?
We have seen Bunchgrass, not knowing what they were until a kiosk, like this one and we have read that
this is a favorite of the rabbits in the area.
Although, we haven’t seen any rabbits either in the bushes or even
running across the road in front of the car.
At least we’ve seen the grasses they like to eat.
From one of our vantage points a glimpse of Mt. Shasta can
be seen.
There are many different plants growing out of the lava beds
and these flowers are no different.
These seem to enjoy it here and are thriving, even feeding a bee or two
while Carmen was taking this picture.
Deer! Oh wait, that
is just a sign indicating there are deer in the area. We have seen many of the deer crossing signs,
but never see a deer; just like now – no deer.
Plants grow right out of the lava rock in the beds like this
one here. The seeds of different plants are
deposited then take root in the small crevices of the rocks. Flowers, grasses, and other plants like this
one take time to germinate and grow.
We stop at the south entrance Visitor Center and find out
that the road leading off to the south has about 12-14 larger caves on a loop
road. From here we can see across the
southern boundary of the Park. Each of
these twin-peak hills is a cinder cone.
The Rangers asked if we have been in other caves with the
shoes or clothes we are wearing, which we did, so since we have already been in
a cave system and time is short, we will not go to the caves. We would need to make sure each items has been washed to help stop the spread of bat diseases. Even though our shoes have been through a bio-wash, we instead get one last look over Lava Beds
National Monument before leaving.
We have been seeing some yellow flowers and stopped along
the side of the road so Carmen can get a better picture, I on the other hand
see these butterflies that stayed in one place long enough for me to get a good
picture.
While I’m taking pictures of butterflies, Carmen is taking
pictures of the flowers.
On our way now to Lassen Volcanic National Park, we are on
Lookout Hackamore Road and have views like this from the road.
As we travel west on route-299 and during a quick descent we
are at 4,000 feet when we have this great view of Mt. Shasta, with an elevation
of 14,100 feet, and the surrounding countryside. At this location we are about 50 miles or so from Mt. Shasta and remember it is still an active volcano, like Mt. St. Helens.
This isn’t the first time we have seen these, but Carmen was able to get a
picture of this set of landslide fences. They
are supposed to capture rocks that are falling down the cliff side. Not sure if it would really stop anything, but it only needs to work while we are driving
by.
From route-299 we turned onto route-89 south and are back on
the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway. We
have heard that the Lassen National Park road may be closed because of snow and
since we do not want to go through a road closure again we turn onto route-44
and stopped at the Hat Creek Rim Scenic Viewpoint.
Look at this view. We are looking
north and that is Mt. Shasta, 65 air miles away, in the far
background. The road you see is route-89
which we were on earlier.
Looking south from Hat Creek Rim we also have a good view of
Mt Lassen, which is 16 miles away and at 10,463 feet it is also the
southernmost active volcano in the Cascade Range in the United States. The peak on the right is Chaos Craig at 8,504
feet.
Still at the Overlook we stop to take pictures of the
flowers around the parking lot and overlook rim. There are quite a number of different flowers in the area, but I like the blue/purple ones the best.
Before continuing on our way to Reno for the night Carmen takes pictures of more flowers around the overlook parking lot. This has a nice cluster of the flowers that are still in bloom.
Our route takes us to route-36 then we are south on US-395
and just outside of Buntingville we see these military helicopters on
display. We think this is a National
Guard facility, but not sure as we saw them at the last moment.
Finally we pass by a barn that we can get a fair
picture. This one also had a truck bed
in the field foreground; almost as if we placed it there for the picture. You have to love the coincidence of the
positioning and of the timing of the picture Carmen got from the car.
As we are getting closer to Reno, the foot hills are getting
more rugged and sparsely vegetated again.
Sagebrush and juniper trees are again the dominant plantings.
Closing in on Reno, near Hallelujah Junction, California, we
come across this “shoe” tree! It would
appear that many people have either thrown their shoes into the tree or are
placed there for the visual effect, either way I had to take the picture.
Coming into Reno, Nevada, we can see some of the high
mountains in the background which still have snow on the tops. There has been a great deal of snow this year
in the northwest of the United States and a number of the roads we have wanted
to drive have been snow covered and impassable.
Fortunately, we will no longer be driving in high altitudes.
We are staying in Reno tonight and tomorrow our trip will
take us east on I-80 and then south on US-95 until we reach Beatty,
Nevada. From there we’ll visit Death
Valley National Park.
No comments:
Post a Comment