Thursday, July 16, 2009

7 15 HOME

We arrived home safe and sound. Now to unpacking and recovering. We have to relearn how to live at home.

Thanks for following our blog. We hope you enjoyed the pictures of our travels and that you got some pleasure from travelling with us.

Bye for now.

7 7 LASSEN NATIONAL PARK

So, this is our last stop before heading home. We have been waiting to go to Lassen since the beginning of our trip. We weren't able to visit before now because of the snow. The trail to the volcanic area of the park was closed due to too much snow. So we waited.

Now we are here.

This is a picture of Mount Shasta from on our way to Lassen. Beautiful isn't it.

This is a view from Lassen. Also, beautiful.

In 1914 Mt. Lassen erupted and threw this "small" boulder over 5 miles. Actually, it was not thrown, but carried by a mudflow caused by the eruption. When it was found 3 days later, it was still warm.

When we started down the trail to the active area of the park, this was the sign we saw. Makes you think twice.



Even tho the trail was open, it was not free of snow. There were about 6 patches of snow, with this being the largest. Good thing we live in Colorado....snow doesn't bother us. Other people were slipping and sliding.




And red algae here too.




This was our first view of the active area. What you can't see, is the sound. The fumeroles, the vents where hot air is being blown out at great force, makes noise like speeding trains. And of course, the smell.....rotten eggs. I actually love it.








Then at another spot in the park were mud pots. Arleen couldn't stop taking pictures of these beautiful bubbling pots of mud. If not forced, another place she would still be at.

Here are some pictures.









Saturday, July 11, 2009

7 11 09 SPARKS NEVADA AGAIN

Well, we have gotten behind again. Since we posted last we spent the 4th of July in Klamath Falls. Then we went to see the internment camps near Klamath in Tulelake and Newell. After that we went to Lassen National Park where we saw lots of volcanic activity. After wearing ourselves out we drove to Susanville again for some R & R.

Today we drove to Sparks for Amber's 6th birthday party. Quite an interesting event for us older folks.

Anyway, we will post the pictures and details soon, but we wanted to let you know we are well and heading toward home.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

7 3 LAVA BEDS NATIONAL PARK

Heading south from Klamath Falls, we went first To Captain Jack's Stronghold, a fortress in the lava beds. Captain Jack was the leader of a small band of Modocs who wanted to have a reservation on the Lost River, part of the Modoc's traditional homeland, instead of being sent to a reservation in the north that housed other tribes. A series of mistakes and miscommunications led to the Modoc War of 1872-73, when Captain Jack and 60 warriors held 600 Federal troops at bay for five months before being cut off from their water supply and forced to leave the Stronghold. It was quite a fortress, built with redoudts, passage ways, observation points that mimicked the best fortresses of medieval Europe. And it was all done by Mother nature. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring extra batteries for the camera on so have only one picture. If you look really closely just in front of the dark rock jutting into the sky you can see a lite line that is Arleen at the point where the walkway makes a bend.


In the two battles to dislodge the Modoc from the stronghold, the army suffered numerous casualities without seeing any of the Indians, while the Modoc lost only one, a warrior who picked up a motar shell that exploded in his face. After a harsh winter, short of water a food, and harrassing fire by howitsers and mortars, Captain Jack led his 59 warriors, their wifes, children, and elders out of the strong hold and across the lava fields. They were later captured. Captain Jack and his three subordinates were executed and the rest of his people were sent to Oklahoma. There were numerous incidents of treachy on both sides of the war, one of which led to the death of the only US army general to be killed during the Indian wars of the west. As the author of one of the brochures side, "There are no innocent parties in war."
The walkway in Skull cave, one of the over 500 lava tubes in the park. It is named for the many bones that were found in it. It is an ice cave where water freezes in the winter and remains frozen most of the summer, suppling water to many animals and humans hence all the bones. The walkway and the path into the tube were built by the Civilian Conservation Corp in the 1930's. Most of the park access, including into the tubes, was constructed by the CCC.

Ice, hard to see, at the bottom of the tube. Many of the caves have lost their ice over the years due to the warming climate. One cave that had been used as a skating rink has no ice left at all.


Black crater is a spladder cone that has the most fascinating lava flows and remelts of lava like the one above. Remelts occur during later erupions when old lava is remelted.



The minerals present in the lava give wonderful colors and textures to the lava remelts.




Reds,blues ,silver, gold, green, all with a marvelous sheen





And just at the edge of the flow life finds a way of adding more beauty.


Fleeneer's chimneys were the source of lava flows that covered six miles and made numerous lava tubes


And they seem so small and insignificant compaired to the lava fields they created

7 2 CRATER LAKE

Heading north from Klamath Falls it is only 57 miles or so to one of the most beautiful locations on our trip, Crater Lake. Created by the eruption od Mount Mazama 7,700 years ago, it is the deepest lake, at 1,943 feet, in the US. Around every turn and at every pull out there is something new that catches the eye and calls for a picture. The 33mile rim drive took about four hours to complete without taking any hikes. With restraint, I managed to take only 70 pictures,
making it hard to choose what to post.

One of the first views of the lake heading west on the Rim Drive. Wizard Island was formed by a later eruption and reaches an elevation of 6940 ft and is 767ft above the water level of the lake

Another view of Wizard Island.

And another.



Mt. Thielson to the north of the park as seen from the rim drive.


A young Grey Jay begging for food from an adult Jay not in the picture. Wonder if our kids would do any better with this approach. It didn't work too well, he finally gave up and flew away.




One last picture of the Wizard





What makes snow red? The blood of tourist who aren't used to playing in snow? Dust from the Painted Hills? No one is telling. We have learned that the red stain is caused by a blue green algae that lives in the snow during the winter and some how produces the red stain. So now we know.






Red Cone with Mt. Balleyin the back ground. There is still a lot of snow around even in July, one reason why the Rim Drive is closed 8 to 9 months a year.






And this was where Arleen saw it all from. And why I didn't spend more time and didn't take more pictures. I wasn't sure she had enough money for me to stay away too long. Of course,I was wrong. Over all, she is still playing on her winnings. So it was a good day for both of us.

7 1 OBSIDIAN AND PETROGLYPHS

This is the mountain that has the petroglyphs on it. (sorry it is out of order)


We left Lakeview and went to see the lady at the rock shop so Duane could see what rainbow obsidian looks like. She explained where to go and what to look for. So, again we went to pick up rocks. We found some. When we get home we are going to have to find out who can polish them or us.


Then we drove on to the section of Lava Beds National Park that has the petroglyphs.
The mountain that has the pictures on it (see above) was at the edge of a huge lake. The ancients had to take canoes to the rock to make the glyphs.

This is one of the panels on the wall.



following are some of the glyphs


















6 30 SUN STONE COLLECTION

Again we went toward Lakeview so we could collect more sunstones. It is addictive.

This picture shows that there are lots of stones on the ground. The idea is to find big ones. We got some. We weren't lucky enough to find crystals...the ones that are really worth money.

Aren't they neat looking?


6 29 FOSSIL BEDS

Last nite we stayed in the "big" city of Burns. It should be the mosquito and cricket capital of the world. In the morning, a cricket walked over Arleen's mouth. Yuck!! We stayed in a different, more expensive motel the next nite.

We went to the Diamond Crater area for the day. It is not a national park or monument, just a point of interest.

The area is full of craters. Not the kind that are on the top of hills or mountains, but the kind that are just in the ground. Here are some pictures of some of them.

This one has had water in it for 6 thousand years and scientists are able to get lots of info from the sediment that has settled in the bottom.
See the 2 craters in the distance.

A big crater right in front of us and a cinder covered crater in the distance

Just imagine .... Oregon is the remnant of a living, farting landscape. (when you go to the bathroom, first you release gas, then solids and then maybe some more gas.....that is how many eruptions occurred.....ergo...farts:) )
When the gas filled first part of the eruption threw rocks into the air and made cinder. Then there would be a lava flow of solid material. Then there might be more cinder. See the similarities.

6 28 JOHN DAY FOSSIL BEDS

We drove today to the Painted Hills of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. We were hoping that we could see fossils, but we were dissappointed to find out that the fossil finding is only for the scientists. All they tell us is where the fossils were found and what info they got from them.

We went to the painted hills portion of the park. To get there we drove thru this crack in the lava flows. This crack has a road in it, and it wasn't made by man, but by nature. It was cool.


Look at the colors in these hills.






6 27 BEND TIMBERFEST

Went to Timberfest. The clerk at our motel told us where it was. Well he told us where he thought it was. It wasn’t. we called a place that Arleen thought might be where it was (a restaurant ranch). It wasn’t there either, but the nice man at he info center looked on the internet, bound out where it was to be held, and told us correctly how to get there. Wasn’t that nice of him. We got there at 10am when they were supposed to start. Well they started at about noon. It was lots of fun to watch and see what you don’t see on TV. Ie. What they have to do to set up the events. How the participants have to prepare. It was fun.




6 26 PAULINE PEAK

Today we decided to drive to the top of Pauline Peak (tho the day was a little hazy) and Century drive, that we thought from the maps we had, would take us to Sisters (a town).

First we went to the top of Paulina Peak which is actually the highest point on the Newberry Caldera. From there we had wonderful views of the volcanic area around Bend.

In the caldera are 2 lakes, Paulina and East Lakes. They used to be one lake until the mountain made cinder cones inside the caldera and separated the lake into 2 lakes.
view of Paulina Lake

One of the lava flows with Paulina lake in the background

more lava flows


Notice all the cinder cones in this picture. The whole area was just erupting like crazy back then.



View of Mount Jefferson from the peak



Turns out you can’t get there from here this time of year. We did drive around Mount Bachelor and see the ski area. We ended up right back at our hotel, without meaning to. We went Sisters to see the beginning of the Metolius River. It starts from 2 springs coming out of the ground with enough water to have a full sized river. Neat. And we helped, or tried to, feed peanuts to the ground squirrels. There were a half dozen people feeding them. They didn’t need to take any from us. It was fun to watch, since they would sit there and open the nuts right in front of you. They made lots of noise doing it, too.