Northwest, why do you snow so much?

So after our unfortunate incident with the last blog, we are in Lassen National Park. This is another one of those interesting mountainous/volcanic parks in the United States that I didn't even know existed. You can see me standing next to a particularly beautiful boulder that blew out of Lassen Peak in its last eruption on May 22, 1915. Lassen has the most beautiful granite!

Lassen also has many other volcanic features, such as these beautiful mud pots. If you look closely at the photo you can see that we acquired a new Van companion, meet Prince Ocho the Pika.

If you're interested in knowing a little bit more about the mud pots, you can click on our video from YouTube.

Lassen Peak is the southernmost active volcano in the Cascade Range. It is part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, which stretches from southwestern British Columbia to northern California, and let me tell you I had NO idea how many volcanoes were in the American West. Lassen Peak reaches an elevation of 3,187 m but as you can see from the weather there was no reason to summit... stupid clouds...

So we spent the day in the park hiking tamer trails and seeing a cool museum that displays the first volcano ever photographed during a full eruption.

After Lassen Peak we headed North into Lassen National Forest. There we found an amazing interpretive walk that took us 2 miles through volcanic fields like this one and really explained the geology of a volcanic area. Also the PCT crosses through this section of the park. Can't wait to see this section again on trail... also it would mean that I am mostly finished with the PCT, which would rock.

It is also in Lassen National Forest that i saw my first Lava Tubes. I didn't know it then but this is a tiny tube.

As you can see from this picture the volcanoes here have been quiet for some time, but this lovely cinder cone volcano could still erupt at any time sending these trees flying.

This is the aptly named Cinder Cone Volcano. Why?... because it is a cinder cone. One of the amazing things about Lassen is that inside the park boundary it has all four types of Volcano, which are plug dome, shield, cinder cone, and strato.

We enjoyed hiking to the top of the Volcano because you can see Lassen Peak in the distance. The hike up was not a particularly easy one because you have to do the entire 230 m ascent in cinders.

Then of course we went down into the heart of the Volcano. Its age has been under scrutiny since the 1870s, when many people thought it was only a few decades old. Later predictions pinned the cone/associated lava flow formation around 1700 or during a 300-year-long series of eruptions which ended in 1851. Finally the USGS and the NPS established that Cinder Cone was formed during two eruptions that occurred in the 1650s, by using carbon dating on plant material that was entombed and preserved in sections of the rock.

As we headed out of the park, we went back to Lassen National Forest. Mike had read online that there were lava tubes that you could hike through. This particular lava tube is called the Subway, and I assume you can figure out why. I was absolutely entranced by the experience. Little did I know we were going to spend the next 2 days crawling in and out of lava tubes.

Welcome to Lava Beds National Monument. Of all the places that we visited in our travels, this one had the best guide book ever! It was very reasonably priced and gave you a full mapping of each lava tube hike. Lava tubes are just like caves; there is absolutely no light anywhere past the Twilight Zone. It's the same as caving; you need to carry 3 light sources, a map, and in some caves wear a helmet.

Unfortunately some of the lava tubes were closed because of bats mating but we did get to see the vast majority. One thing about lava tubes is that they have some pretty cool and unique formations. What you can see in this picture are called lavacicles. These form when the lava is not completely filling the tube but it's still hot enough to melt the rock above, causing the beautiful drip formations that you can still see.

This picture may not look all that impressive, and I'm sorry that it was impossible for me to capture this phenomenon on film. Imagine being in a completely dark lava tube and then all of a sudden you swing your light and the wall seems to bioluminesce. Everywhere you swing your light the wall twinkles back in a beautiful and eerie green-gold light. What is going on? A colony of bacteria, actinomyces and up to 13 other phyla, coat the walls of the cave. These hydrophobic micro-organisms bead water on their surface, and when light refracts through it your eye sees the luminous golden sparkle. In some caverns it covers the ceiling, making it more like a gilt cathedral than a cave.

Sometimes getting in and out of the lava tubes does require a bit of scrambling, but trust me it's worth it.

Every once in a while you even get to run into a small furry mammal. This little guy was just clinging all by himself to the top of a cave. Generally these tend to be male bats who don't always sleep with the rest of the colony.

Stuff like this would be considered graffiti if it weren't considered history. This area has been in use since the Modoc Indians. It has hosted many types of modern Americans. J.D. Howard was a prominent cave explorer in this region; homesteading families also ranched sheep and had an underground ice skating rink business in one of the caves that has permanent ice. Also moonshiners set stills in Mushpot cave during Prohibition.

One of my favorite caves that we did was called Golden Dome. These bacteria don't actually bioluminesce, but imagine standing in a dark room with all of this golden light shining down upon you.

Some of the lava tubes have cracked skylights in them. This phenomenon seems to be few and far between in this particular National Monument. Here is a cool picture of Mike looking down at me inside the lava tube. This one gives a good perspective of how large some of the chambers are inside these caves.

Some of the sections of the cave are also a lot of fun because you get to climb up, over and around fallen lava features. Here is me perched upon one that is called Jupiter's Thunderbolt. Don't ask me why. It didn't look a bit like a thunderbolt to us either.

Also some of the places that you had to squeeze into or through were quite small. Here's me crawling through a 1.5' section.

I want to end our visit to Lava Beds National Monument on a rather somber note. In the winter of 1872-1873 an indian tribe called the Modoc lost everything. I don't mean this theoretically; this Indian tribe lost their home, their way of life, their cultural identity, their language and their lives almost overnight. We did a very moving walk around an area called Lost River where the Modoc made their last stand. I didn't take any pictures of this place as it felt more like an unmarked tomb than a hiking trail. I'll leave this section with a traditional Modoc prayer: How good I have felt when the sun has shown and warmed me on a cold day. You are our great sun. Thank you for your care.

We have spent a lot of time in parks that are dominated by conifers, and this section of the trip in Redwood National Park was no exception.

In Redwood you can find some of my favorite animals, the Gastropods. I know it seems crazy but I love slugs and snails. Good thing too because they are everywhere here!!

One of the first hikes that we did was the Hiouchi trail along the Hiouchi river. Unfortunately we got to do this 8-mile trail twice in one day because Mike's wallet went missing. Sadly it's never been recovered :(

The hikes here are very lovely. The redwoods aren't quite as tall as the Sequoias but from a human perspective it barely matters. We've really enjoyed all the moss and ferns better absolutely everywhere.

Here you can see a moss-covered branch that we got to walk under that arches over the trail. Remember this area gets as much rainfall as a tropical rain forest, so if they look similar to you there's a reason for that.

At the end of the trail we ran into this beautiful moss-covered deciduous tree. There were almost no other examples of this on the trail and we were glad that we came this far.

The park also has an astounding herd of elk. Here is a photograph of two bull elk with velvet still on their antlers.

At the higher elevations in Redwood there was still quite a bit of snow so the waterfalls were filled with rushing water. This is Trillium Falls. It is just a short walk from a lovely picnic area where we had dinner one night.

One of the most famous trees in the park is called Corkscrew Redwood. I'm sure by looking at this photograph you can figure out why. Redwood is a very interesting park because it is broken up into multiple units and shares its management resources with a State Park of the same name. It's probably the first time we've seen such an interesting park arrangement.

Crater Lake was a very quick stop for us because there is only one place to stay inside the park and it's very expensive. Luckily we drove through the park from South to North and stayed in the national forest on the other side.

Here is our first view of Crater Lake. If you look in the foreground there is still a fairly big snowbank melting. Sadly the weather was not cooperating and the sky was rather gray.

In the middle of the lake there is a volcanic island that is a remnant of Mount Mazama which was the huge volcano that created Crater Lake. Mike was very disappointed that you couldn't see how beautiful and blue the water was because of the weather.

Luckily the national forest isn't all that far from Crater Lake and we came back in the next day so that he could have his photo. This is the same viewpoint as the photo above, and I hope you can see the dramatic and beautiful difference. I know it looks like there are clouds just above the lake, but those are actually reflections of the clouds in the sky.

Here we are at yet another beautiful volcanic park. The landing that I'm standing on is directly in front of a currently working fire-spotting station. It's also right in front of a volcanic cone.

This photograph doesn't look like much but it has an amazing ecological feature right in the middle. That slightly greenish-brown blob in the middle of the red lava field is a section of Earth that was not run over by this historic lava flow. Scientists use it to understand what the ecosystem of the area looked like prior to the volcanic eruption.

That night we left the National Park and stayed again in a national forest. I'm not joking when I say I don't know how we would have afforded this trip if it weren't for free camping in the national forests and BLM land.

As we moved up the Oregon coast we ran into another enormous trout and salmon hatchery.

They even had a sturgeon bench for you to sit on; and just behind…

..a pond with enormous trout and sturgeon in it. Oh if only you were allowed to go fishing in this pond, but I guess that would be a bit like shooting fish in a barrel.

The Oregon coast is packed with beautiful features. We stopped at one that's called Thor's Well. Before you see Thor's Well you're treated to these beautiful Sea Squirts.

Here is a video of the actual Thor as well. It's also called the drain plug of the Pacific. You can see that it got its name because it appears that it actually drains the Pacific Ocean away like a bath tub. In reality it is a 6.5 m deep sinkhole.

Despite the very brief explanation it does not diminish the mystery of this place, as I hope you can see in the photo above. Even though it's very dangerous to stand too close, photographers and nature lovers alike flock here to watch this phenomenon at high tide.

Our next stop was Tillamook. I'm not sure if you're familiar with them but they make cheese, and at their main location ice cream! You can see Mike eating two Berry flavors as we speak. They also have a very cute museum and a place where you can taste their cheeses for free. We took the plunge and actually got some extra sharp cheddar with black peppercorns. Their cheese is quite good.

The Lewis and Clark national historic park grouping goes up and down the Oregon coast. Just before this site we saw the area in which Lewis and Clark made salt for their return journey to the East Coast.

This of course is Sacajawea. If you remember, she was Lewis and Clark's Indian guide and over-wintered with them in this location. For more than just translation and navigation she was one of the most important members of this party. During one of their most hostile Native American encounters, Sacajawea recognized her brother whom she had not seen since her capture. Because of this the Lewis and Clark expedition was provided with horses and rations to continue their journey West. This of course happened long before the section of the national historic park that we're seeing in Oregon, but it's retold here anyway.

Here is the fort that Lewis and Clark built to overwinter on the Oregon coast. And let me say overwintering here would be no easy feat. The wind is nearly constant, but the good thing is that there would be a lot to eat and good water sources.

We were very excited to get to Olympic National Park as both Mike and I have wanted to see this section of temperate rain forest for a long time. This park is very difficult to drive around and see different areas because there's essentially a ring road with very long arms that go towards the most popular portions of the park.

Of course, being us, we made a stop in Olympic National Forest before we headed into the park. We did a lovely interpretive walk along a mile trail. They gave us a good introduction to what we will see in this temperate rain forest.

One thing that they definitely don't tell you in the guide is that salmonberries are in season! They're orange-colored when they're 90% ripe and red when they're 100% ripe but you can eat them both ways. Mike likes them orange because they're a bit more tart. I prefer them red because they're a bit more sweet, but let me just tell you they're nothing like raspberries or blackberries.

The first hike that we did in the park was actually at Beach 4. We walked down a freshwater stream and watched it run into the Pacific Ocean.

I love the beaches here because the sand is dark and there are beautiful rocks studded along the shoreline.

Of course another reason that I love them is all of the tidal pools! We got there as the tide was coming in so we were able to see all of the sea stars and anemones clinging to the rocks.

The other beautiful thing is that there was almost no one on the beach at all. It's like you get to see all of this and be all alone. It's very rare that anyone gets to be at the shore in season, and nearly alone! Especially when the view is this astounding.

I was amazed to see another few beautiful deciduous trees draped in moss. Unfortunately we were there during a fairly dry spell so most of the moss was brown, but this particular area had some green stuff left.

Here is a cool video that describes the amazing relationship between downed trees and new life in the tropical rain forest. Even though there are enormous trees and more plant life per square inch than in most environments, the soil in tropical rain forests is very poor. This is due to the fact that the water pulls or leaches a tremendous amount of nutrients out of the soil as it runs through. This means that when a tree dies and falls to the ground its decomposition puts minerals and nutrients back into the soil so baby trees are more likely to grow on it, making it the mother tree.

One of the longer hikes that we're going to do will take us up and over a mountain, past a waterfall and past a few Alpine lakes. When we passed this hikers' cabin it made us both think about the Appalachian Trail. There are so few trail systems in the United States that have anywhere near the amenities of our Appalachian Trail. Sometimes that's a good thing and sometimes it's a bad thing, but here it's definitely a good thing.

Here is the first waterfall on the trail. I liked it because it had a very interesting double cascade underneath a log.

We got to three of the Alpine lakes on this hike. We had been warned by the Ranger Station that there might be snow, but we hadn't seen even the slightest hint of it…

..until we absolutely did! We made it about a mile into the snow-covered trail and then were really unsure where the rest of it went. In retrospect we probably could have climbed up the cliff and worked it out, but when we got back to the trailhead there was a flyer for a currently missing 20-something-year-old guy. When I tried to Google him, I found out that around the same time a Marine who worked on a nuclear sub also went missing and they didn't find his body for a year. Sometimes it's better to turn around. We both know that the snow looks solid but sometimes there are crevasses and voids underneath the snow that you can't possibly see. If you don't know the trail, it's better to be safe than sorry.

Before we left Olympic National Park we headed out to this national wildlife refuge.

Most of the refuge is comprised of this long spit of land that goes out to a lighthouse 2.5 miles from where I'm standing. You can barely see the end of the spit of land in the photograph, and unfortunately you can't see the lighthouse.

We took a nice and enjoyable walk along the beach and marveled at the amount of driftwood ... can you call full trees driftwood? Anyway there it was at the extreme high tide line. It was almost like the backbone of this peninsula.

Quite by accident we hit this national historic site. I'm not sure that I've exactly addressed it, but Mike and I have these National Park passports that we're a bit obsessed with and they had a sticker for this particular location. So I made Mike drive us to see it.

And I'm glad I did because it was an interesting perspective on the early hunting and trapping lifestyle. In the front of the fort they had an enormous homesteaders' garden that would have supplied the Fort and its individuals with food.

Now it's not to say that everybody at the Fort lived in poverty; this was the General's house. I guess that when you have so much at stake in bringing furs back to the East for sale, this kind of a house seems appropriate amid so much austerity.

After that we headed in to Portland, Oregon. Mike and I were very excited to see this town… that was before we got here. I am standing and hugging the tree of the world's smallest park. I hate to say it but it's one of the best memories that I have from Portland.

It seems that Portland has a very large tolerance for their homeless population. Match that with the mild climate and you end up with a really odd downtown scene. We were walking in this park and watched a homeless man discussing with a cop how his friend had overdosed. The friend was still on the bench next to him. Also most of the people we met in Portland were very odd. I know that Portland's tagline is Keep Portland weird. and most of you who know me wouldn't call me "normal"; but let me tell you I felt like I was in the top 10% of normality in this city, and I'm not sure that's a good thing.

Now Portland does have one business that I was not excited to visit. Mike is completely obsessed with sweet things and donuts and I am not generally.

So off we traipsed to Voodoo Doughnut. I have to say that the name did give their business a big thumbs-up in my book and I did hear that they had a doughnut with a stake through its heart, so I thought it was well worth the trip to eyeball their confections.

As soon as you get there you know that they're going to be extremely popular. Could it be the wall of boxes? Could it be the 6 picnic tables of people outside? Could it be the fact that we didn't get donuts yesterday because they were so packed we drove right past?

Being totally honest, these are the best donuts I've ever had. They manage to magically make their donuts not absurdly sweet even when packing on toppings that should be way over the top. Their fillings are delicious, their toppings are appropriate, and for most of the donuts there's not a whole lot of colored icing, which I personally deeply appreciate. It's a bit annoying to admit I'd go back again.

Before leaving Portland we also visited one of their lovely farmers markets. The best things that we saw were these two incredibly cute pet chickens, and a couple who made the best cider we've ever had, out of their garage.

Mike was smart enough to take us by the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Byway. On the drive you get to go past Vista House. This building was originally built to house the small number of travelers up this byway before it was popular. Unfortunately this building fell into disrepair but luckily the State bought it back and restored it. Unfortunately there's not much of a museum in the lower level, but the house and the view are more than enough.

Here is the view from the top floor of the building.

It's immediately apparent why the byway is so popular because there are about a dozen waterfalls just a short walk away from this highway. We stopped and walked to a few of them that were a bit farther away, hoping for a bit of solitude. Sadly that doesn't tend to happen around waterfalls!

Nevertheless we had a wonderful time and prepared for our visit to Mt. Hood.

Unfortunately, when we got to Mount Hood we were too early to circumnavigate and too late to summit! That may not make sense, but you need lots of stable snow to get to the summit, and you need the snow to be gone and melted out to go around. We weren't sure what to do so we did what we do best... go into the national forest and figure it out.

Mike found a beautiful area called Trillium Lake. We made our way over there but were not entirely ready for the onslaught of people! This lake is only an hour and a half from Portland, and it showed.

But as we say, when life gives you lemons, go geocaching and find a rat with a chapstick bottle a butt. Whoever put these Geocaches down had a wonderful sense of humor and we enjoyed finding all 8 of them.

Of course we retreated to the national forest to sleep. We really do love the national forest because wood collecting is allowed, most camp spots are free, and the people who stay here are generally our sort.

What we didn't know when we got here was that we were going to want to settle down for a few days and just chill. No one tells you that, after a year of the view changing out of your window every single day, you might every once in a while want to see the same thing. We chose this lake to be our every-once-in-a-while location. It was insane, it was almost like we had a routine again. We had breakfast, we went down to the lake, we walked around the lake, we went home for dinner.

Sadly all good things must come to an end and we moved on to another fossil section of our trip.

We had skipped this four-part national monument on our way up to Mount Hood, but now that we're on our way South again it falls back into the trip plans. The reason that we started to head South again is that we went North too soon and the snow has really hemmed us in. I of course love that it's come back to a place that has red rock, but I'm not sure that I'd go out of my way to come back here again.

The most amazing part of this entire park is their visitor center and museum. Here you really get a feel for why this area is protected. The numerous fossils that they have on display are beautiful and their descriptions and pictorial wall art really give you a feeling for the place you would have been standing if you were there when the fossils formed.

As we rolled through these fossil national monuments we were also on some of the main trails heading from the East to the new American West. We were able to see wagon wheel ruts from the Oregon trail in Hagerman National Monument. They were even better than the ones that we saw in Nebraska.

Next we had City of Rocks National Reserve. Generally people come here to do rock climbing but we came here to hike.

There's a lot of early colonial history in this area and I thought that the rock formations were beautiful, but when I thought of them while sitting in the seat of a Conestoga wagon they didn't look so appealing.

It's all over the park they have names written on the granite rock. If you look at them they are the names of people who went West, written in wagon axle grease. It's completely amazing to me that these names have stood the test of time and are still there for me to see. You can see the one above is 1870-something.

The park also has some other lovely features such as this arch. Mike climbed up to have his very touristy photo taken in the center!

Then we went out into the BLM land that's just outside this national recreation area, and hung out with the cows.

Seeing that we were on our way South, we decided to swing through Salt Lake City one more time. I always have the feeling that if you don't do it now you might never get to do it again. Lucky that we did because as we were driving down the highway I spotted a sign for this National Monument. I told Mike to get off, I wanted to see it.

It was a 29-mile drive but what we got to see was where the gold spike was driven in so that the Western railroad could meet the Eastern. I have to say if you're not able to see the reenactments at this national monument you should definitely skip it because there's literally nothing else to do.

If you're interested in seeing a lot more about this national monument, you can head on over to YouTube where there are four videos of the reenactment that we saw. Just click here for our YouTube channel.

We had another lovely stay in Salt Lake City and I swear it had nothing to do with the hotel and the shower… We got some relaxing and then went out to Red Rock brewing for dinner. They really have a wonderful menu and great servers to present it to you. We like to sit at the bar but I'm sure it would be just as good at table service. Also I wanted to go back down and see the Mormon Temple Square area. Evidently we were a little late because they were closing up, and we got to have a wonderful personal tour from one of the security guards. He was actually retiring very soon and going to become an English teacher. I wished him the best of luck and gave him a card just in case I could ever be of any help.

Colorado National Monument was another place that we were fairly certain we would never be able to hit because it was just out of the way.

Luckily it was on our way to Rocky Mountain National Park so we got to hit it! I have to say the heat here was rather oppressive after being in the cold Northwest for quite a while.

The country is absolutely stunning; it looks like Arches NP and Canyonlands NP had a baby and it was Colorado National Monument. We decided to walk down into the Canyon and tour the features at the bottom. Unfortunately we underestimated how hot it was going to be and barely had enough water. Even 13 months into a trip you need to be vigilant about how much water you bring when you go anywhere. I guess that we're just spoiled by the fact that we usually carry too much rather than too little.

In the Canyon I spotted this very beautiful Eastern Collared Lizard, Crotaphytus collaris. I had never seen one before and was amazed by his brilliant coloration in this red landscape. I was just lucky that he decided to sit still and let me take some photographs.

The last stop that we planned to make before Rocky Mountain National Park was Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Don't feel bad if you've never heard of it because we hadn't either. In fact we hadn't heard of it so much that we were 40 miles away from it in Moab, UT months ago and we missed it!

I'm glad that we rectified our mistake because it's a Canyon unlike anything we've seen before. When you drive up to it, you're driving across a flat and mostly sandstone plain and then you arrive.

When you arrive you can look more than 2000' down into the Earth. And it's not just sheer cliffs with a river at the bottom; there are lots of interesting features that the river has cut over the years.

The river is extremely fierce with very steep drop-offs up North. Then the grade gets less and less until it exits Gunnison Canyon at a lazy pace.

Generally the river cuts about the thickness of one piece of paper out of the Canyon every year. That's on an average year, then there are the crazy years where the flood waters come and it can cut feet out of the bottom in a single season. Luckily we went there during one of those kinds of years!

Gunnison actually has a North and a South rim to the Canyon, just like the Grand Canyon. They are not close together so you have to be committed to see both. Luckily there is some BLM land in the middle so we got to stay overnight between the two sections. Sadly there was a very strict fire ban in place so we were unable to sit out and have a fire, but that doesn't matter because if you set illegal fires you can be the person that puts firefighters in danger and costs the National Park Service millions of dollars in reparation. Most people who do it are never caught so the bottom line is, if you want to be responsible don't set fires when they're not allowed.

If you set fires, this is the kind of sunset that you might never be able to see. Also after the sun goes down and the Milky Way comes up, you won't be able to see that either. I know that in a lot of this blog I seem a bit preachy about personal responsibility, but that's what it takes.