Sadly, I had a really lousy night. I was up almost every hour.
My husband K and I got up around 7. When we went across the parking lot to the main office for breakfast at 7:40, it was a brisk 58 degrees, but there was a heat advisory for today.
For breakfast, I had oatmeal, yogurt, and a banana. K had a banana and a bagel. We then went back to the room to pack up.
We checked out at 8:47 and drove all of one minute down the street to the Chevron station. The odometer now read 24376. In Oregon, you are not allowed to pump your own gas. Still. The car took 6.917 gallons, which cost $5.639 each.
We were on our way at 8:52, but drove only 2 minutes to Subway. There was no place to get lunch today. So, we wee getting it here. We got a foot-long turkey sub, chips, and soda plus 15% tip for $16.54. We also had a really nice conversation with the sub maker, whose mother-in-law lives in Florida.
It was 9:20, when we left there, but K insisted on going back to the hotel to get coffee for himself for the road. I don't drink coffee, so I never understand this. Finally, at 9:23, he was back behind the wheel and we were finally on the road.
The road south didn't seem too different from yesterday. High mountains were in the distance. There was cattle grazing, which was new.
At 9:40 (24391), we crossed into California. Google maps even welcomed us, which it does not do in every state. The California welcome sign was definitely better looking than the Oregon one.
At 10:14 (24425), we were surprised by a California inspection station. They wanted to make sure we had no plants, fruits or vegetables. Less than five minutes later, we were driving through the town of Alturas with its interesting traffic light.
At 10:52, we were driving through the Modoc National Forest, which was a bit of a misnomer. There wasn't much in the way of forest. The first tree makes it look like there is one, but the next belies it. I don't know if it was the victim of a fire or what. However, due to the dearth of trees, we could see a glacier on a mountain pretty far away.
We crossed this lonely railroad crossing and started seeing wildflowers like these broadleaf filaree, as well as artistic remains of trees/bushes.
It was 11:32, when we reached the sign for today's adventure- Lava Beds National Monument. We had not heard of this place until K asked a friend for advice for what to see. This fit in well with my love of volcanology and tomorrow's destination.
We traveled along the entrance road for seven minutes before we reached the turn for the Visitors Center. We parked at 11:32 (24492). We admired flowers and the view on our way inside. We also saw signs of last year's fire that have caused parts of the monument to still be closed.
Inside, I showed my Senior Lifetime National Park Pass ( best $80 I've ever spent) and got our receipt to put in the car. We grabbed our lunch and sat on a bench in the shade to enjoy it. Then, it was back inside to pick up souvenirs, including getting my National Park passport stamped, and to look at the exhibits.
Such great exhibits! There wee terrific signs and models explaining composite and shield volcanoes.
Then, there were signs and examples of various volcanic rocks. My favorite has always been obsidian. I love the way it looks. Below are examples of obsidian, cinder, basalt, pumice and andesite.
Then, there were exhibits on the native people, the Modoc, who had lived here. European settlers, unsurprisingly, destroyed their way of life, even if they were just passing through on their way to Oregon. The first picture is of tule, which the Modoc used extensively.
We headed outside and found metal signs positioned to tell us what we were seeing in the landscape. I always appreciate when those signs are present.
It is not possible to really get a photo of Medicine Lake volcano itself, but it is possible to get photos of parts of it that experienced lava flows. For instance, Schonchin Butte is a cinder cone that had quite a wide field of lava flow. The second photo is of part of that flow, but with the scars of last year's wildfire.
Signs told us about other geographical features in the distance. Tule Lake in the first photo, no longer is much of a lake, evidently. The second photo shows the Three Sisters, which are cinder cones. The last photo is of Doublehead Mountain in the background.
Lest you think all we saw were rocks, here was a bird who came to sing.
While the exhibits inside talked about rocks, outside there were signs and examples of lava. The types of lava have Hawaiian names even in Iceland, which we learned on an excursion in a lava tube there. Anyway, here there was pahoehoe and 'a'a.
We learned that the Modoc people depressions in the rock as mortars. I'd never look at that and think, yeah, I can use that.
Lava Beds is not just fields and risings created by lava. It is also caves. Lots and lots of caves.
When I'd researched the monument in planning the trip, I'd seen that there was a cave near the visitors center that was recommended for beginners. It's only 770 feet long. This is where the path was leading us and we arrived at Mushpot cave at 1:11. From the get-go, it was full of great information. I did not know all of the uses of moss that were on the sign. The "mushpot" that gave the cave its name is at the foot of the metal stairs leading down to the upper level of the concrete stairs to the cave itself. It is in the second picture.
Quite logically, you enter the cave in the Entrance Zone. The park service made this entrance very easy on visitors by clearing the rocks that were there and putting in concrete steps. This was so much easier than the lava tube in Iceland.
Everywhere you looked on the walls and ceiling, you got the feeling of movement. The hardened rock looked almost viscous in places. In others, it seemed to drip as stalactites or even be smeared on.
Of course, it is not easy to take photos in a dark cave, even one with some lighting on the floor. But, the signs were well lit and really interesting. They also lit side caves and interesting things elsewhere.
They must have ranger talks in here, because we found this seating area. How cool would that be to have a ranger down here and turning off the lights so that you'd get the full effect?
Now, we were getting into the deepest part of the cave. It was seriously quiet, because it was only the two of us. We also had to bend over at times, especially K, to get through the low passage.
Some features we'd never heard of before. That's always cool- to learn something new about something you are familiar with.
This really was a good introductory cave, because it was even multilevel and they usually aren't.
We reached the end of the cave at 1:35. We took pictures of it and, of course, ourselves.
On the way out, I got this photo of the ceiling that just looks so cool. Just frozen in time.
We were above ground at 1:44 and, as usual, nothing in the landscape would hint that there were any caves in the area.
We made our way back up to the visitors center and made a pit stop there, before heading off to explore more of the monument by car at 2:05. Just six minutes later (24494), we parked for the second cave of the day, Skull Cave. It was named that because a skull was found there. It is 580 feet long and as much as 60 feet wide at times. The NPS says that if you have time for only two caves, make this one the second one. The trail was originally built by the CCC.
I wasn't sure that I was that distraught over the ice floor closure. It was going to save me a lot of stairs.
As we approached the top of the cave, it struck me that this must have been quite something to the first person to come upon it or to someone who didn't know it was there. These caves are only found when part of the roof caves in. There's no telling when that occurred. It could have even been an overnight occurrence. That would have been something to discover in the morning.
The Corps had obviously done far less work here than was done at Mushpot. Basically, a path was created through the fallen rocks and rough stone stairs were put in. But, they were maintaining the feel of the cave. The rocks on the side wall were already different from Mushpot. But, the ceiling showed similar signs of the movement of something liquid.
I was grateful for the path and the one they built along the side of the cave. When we'd gone to the lava tube in Iceland, it was far rougher until you hit the steel stairs and platforms.
A fully outfitted party showed up and we let them just all go in, before we did. Then, as we made our way along, a group of young guys came up behind us. I urged them to go ahead of us and they did.
It was harder to take pictures in this cave, but I got a couple of the fancy party when they reached the natural bridge above the path. When we got to that stairway, we decided we really didn't need to climb down and just got out of the way so that they could pass.
The young guys wound up behind us again on a narrow part of the path on the way back. I apologized and said my knees would not let me move faster. One said that he thought I was doing a good job and the others agreed, which was kind. I asked if they'd been to Mushpot. They had not. I recommended it for explaining what they were seeing. They appreciated it and said they'd check it out.
When we left the parking area at 2:50, we saw all sorts of travel vehicles parked there. We got a nice view of the top of Schonchin Butte as we drove north.
As we drove, we knew that everything over the hill to our left was closed due to the fire last year. Our next stop was at 2:57 for the overlook at Gillem Bluff. Here we could see where the lava had flowed out. It was really quite something. There were signs of the fire here, too.
We headed back north again at 3:03, but had driven only seven minutes,, when we stopped to look at the Devils Homestead Flow, which was impeccably named. We also got a good view of the Gillem Bluff Escarpment form this stop, which lasted all of four minutes.
At 3:18, we passed through the north entrance to the monument. Six minutes later (24506), we parked at Captain Jacks Stronghold, where the Modoc tried to hold out against the settlers. As if that weren't depressing enough, we came upon a sign that said that this marked where Tule Lake's shore had been in 1872-1873, when the Modoc had holed up here. The nearly 100,000 acre lake was drained between 1912 and 1958 to create land for homesteads. This photo is from that spot looking toward where the lake had been.
The stronghold seemed a pretty bleak place to make a stand. There was yarrow and pahoehoe to note, but bleak.
We roamed around until 3:37 and then headed out of the area. We were soon driving along what is now the "Tule Lake Sump" and it looked quite verdant.
We soon realized we were coming up on Petroglyph Rock. We hadn't planned to stop there, but it was just a short jog off the road we needed. So, we stopped at 3:49 (24513) at Petroglyph Point.
In ancient times, Petroglyph Rock was an island in what would have been Lake Modoc. Evidently, the Modoc would take boats out there and carve on the rock. A fence was installed in the 1930s to try to end the vandalism that was happening to the carvings. We thought we saw someone inside the fence when we arrived, but they disappeared. We were pretty much alone to admire what is an incredible rock face even without the pictographs.
As we strolled along the rock face, we noticed how barren the land was in front of it. We could hear something in the rock, but it never made an appearance. We did notice some plants taking root on it, as well as two birds, one high in the sky and the other on the barbed wire.
We took one last look back toward the monument area before we pushed on at 4:04 and saw this striking feature, The Peninsula.
We picked the route to Burney that would not take us back through the monument, because it was far quicker. Northeast of McArthur on Rte. 299, we were rewarded with this sight. We were sure it must be Mt. Shasta.
Like last night, the pickings for a hotel for tonight had been slim. Part of this was the area and part was how we were positioning ourselves for the next day. I'd booked tonight's hotel, Green Gables Motel & Suites, through Priceline and I would be getting a rebate from Rakuten.
When we arrived at 5:46 (24612), I discovered that the office sat between this motel and the one next door and operated both. I also found out that the breakfast that was supposed to be included was canceled due to Covid. That was unfortunate.
We unpacked the car and sat down to figure out where we wanted to eat.
Having settled on the Alpine Drive Inn, we left at 6:10. It took us all of two minutes to drive there. It was small inside, but pretty empty, with the counter and kitchen to the left and booths to the right. So, we decided that Covid-wise, it would be safe to just eat there.
There was only one person ahead of us ordering, but that took a while. K chose the Crispy Chicken Salad, which was a sliced up piece of crispy chicken on a regular salad, and water. I picked the Alpine Burger, Fries, and a Medium Chocolate Shake. Adding a $5 tip, took the bill to $38.78. We sat in the booth at the back and waited what turned out to be much longer than you'd expect. It gave us time to admire the painting on the wall and catch up with Facebook. When the food arrived, it was good, not great, but good.
We left at 7:06, but only drove for a minute, before K pulled into an S Express for gas. The odometer was at 24613 and we'd put 237 miles on this tank. It took 4.610 gallons at $6.199 each. We saw a very California sight- wind power on the hillside.
We were on the road at 7:12, but he stopped again one minute later at the Safeway. He came out at 7:21 with flowers for my birthday, which is tomorrow.
We were back in the motel at 7:22 and put up with a very noisy fridge for the rest of the night. My phone said I'd walked 4, 587 steps for 1.6 miles today, but had climbed no floors. I beg to differ- I climbed down into Mushpot.
