Yosemite

Huge, epic, awesome.  I run out of superlatives to describe the Yosemite valley.  After Bend, we made a fairly epic drive up CA120 west of the park.  We missed Yosemite in 2013 because of fires, but it was all clear this time.  After hours of boring driving on I-5 through the San Jauqine Valley, you climb up the Sierras.  I have ever increasing respect for Cummins and the engines they build.  This was way worse than any climb we've ever done on the interstate, and we've been over the continental divide dozens of times.  Lots of switchbacks and about 5000 later, we were safely tucked away at the closest park to the entrance.  The campgrounds in Yosemite National Park are a little small and even harder to get to, so we used the Chevy for touring.  The national park is enormous, maybe 50 times as big as the valley with El Capitan and Half Dome that you see all the pictures of.  We toured the valley, but we tried to see some other parts as well.  I think the hikers have the best of it.  With 800+ miles of trails, they get to see sights that you never experience sticking to the roads.  Overall, wonderful.

El Capitan.  There were climbers on the left hand side we could see through our binoculars.  The were tiny, invisible to the naked eye.  These pictures are great, but like most, it's just not like being there.

A panorama of the granite faces on the north side of Yellowstone Valley.

Half Dome.

One of the less explored areas of Yosemite National Park.  The Hetch Hetchy (that's right) Valley made a likely candidate for a dam and reservoir after the 1906 San Francisco fire.  Even though it was a National Park at the time and the naturalists fought it, they built the O'Shaughnessy Dam to form the Hetch Hetchy reservoir.  It provides 85% of San Francisco's drinking water.

Hetch Hetchy reservoir from the hiking trail.

Redding, CA

We left Harris Beach and turned inland, through the Jedediah Smith Redwoods and down to Redding, CA.  It's just south of Mount Shasta.  We only got one free day, thanks to an oil leak in the Chevy.  We must have kicked up a rock with the motorhome.  It was leaking pretty good when we got to Redding, so I spent the next day at the Chevy dealer getting a new oil pan.  Luckily, full coverage covered the repair and I only paid the deductable.  Ouch.  A set of tires and an oil pan in the same month.  Anyway, we spent our one free day seen a snow capped mountain outside of town, Lassen Peak.  It was a long day driving, but we drove the loop up and over and around before heading back to Redding.  We'll have to come back to see Mount Shasta.  The whole area was nice, worth a return trip.  Here's some pictures:

Lassen Peak.  It wasn't quite fall yet, pretty cool seeing that much snow in summer time.

One of many lakes up in the high country.  I thought the double image was pretty.

More snow

The ever present reminder that you're driving on a volcano.  There were a few hot mud pots and steam holes, just like Yellowstone.  These were right next to the road.

Coastal Oregon

During the summer of 2013, we got to see the northern 2/3 of the Oregon coast before we cut inland to camp at Crater Lake National Park.  It was spectacular.  Oregon does a fantastic job of keeping their coastline undeveloped, something Florida completely missed out on.  So this year, we rejoined Highway 101 where we left it and saw the remainder of the southern coast.  The trip from Silverton to Coos Bay was not without a little drama.  The road meanders a lot, following the course of the Umpqua river.  I pulled over on a gravel turn out to let some cars pass and when I pulled back on the road, the motorhome was rolling around like a wounded cow.  I pulled over immediately to find a complete flat tire on the Chevy we tow behind.  Dang.  30 minutes later we were on our way, but when we got to a tire shop I was shown that the tire was munched.  Oh well, I was going to need new tires soon anyway so I went ahead and go a new set.  If that blow out had happened at speed, in the mountains, I don't want to think about it.  So, we camped 2 nights in complete fog (all day, all night, no break, yikes) near Coos Bay, then headed south for 5 nights in paradise at Harris Beach State Park in Brookings, OR.  The sea fog was much lighter and the local area was fantastic.  We got a really private hookup spot with cable TV, a real treat in a state park.  The best part was the view of the ocean out our windows.  I don't know what that view would cost if you could buy the land, millions.  Anyway, Brookings, OR definitely sealed our opinion of Oregon as the prettiest place in America.

Between Reedsport and Coos Bay there are some crazy huge dune areas running along the Pacific.  They've done a pretty good job of balancing preservation and access.  We saw a ton of dune buggies and motorcycles set up just for tearing up the sand.  There were also pristine areas where there weren't even footprints for miles.  Day hiking in sand is hard work.

Some sort of tree.  I just thought the red skin of bark over the older silver was cool looking.

The view from our living room window in Brookings.

Harris Beach, a short walk down the hill from our motorhome.

There is just no end of rugged, rocky beauty on this stretch of the coast.

Walking along the beach, I came across this rock with a split worn by the ocean.  It's probably not clear in the photo, but the split was about 30' high and the water pulsed in and out like it was alive.

We couldn't believe our luck.  An actual sunset on the Pacific.  It's almost always obscured by some kind of clouds or sea fog.  This was on our last night in Oregon too, sort of a "thanks for visiting, come back and see me" message.  We'll be back.

Salem, OR

After Bend, we stayed for a week in a little community called Silverton outside Salem, OR, the state capitol.  It was a nice park and a cool little town in the heart of the Willamette (rhymes with Spam It) Valley.  There weren't a whole lot of natural wonders to photograph, but we did a few waterfall hikes when we weren't hanging out relaxing.  The weather was awesome, cool moist mornings and warm afternoons.  Central Oregon continues to impress.  Here are some photos...

It was almost harvest time in the Oregon wine country

South Falls in Silver Falls State Park.  177 feet high!  We did a 2 mile loop around/behind it and a couple other falls

Lower South Falls

North Falls

There's a really nice municipal garden in Silverton, called the Oregon Garden.  They had live acoustic music on the veranda one evening, very cool.  Ironically, all the water features are processed waste water from the city plant.  It was coming out too warm to go back into the Silver River, so they built this park and about 11 ponds to cool it.  The garden is allowed to use 10,000 gallons a day to irrigate, the rest cools and goes back in the river.  Great relationship.

I don't remember the name of the plant, but it had really cool blooms.

These bright red flowers were everywhere, but no signs to say what they are

This wooden sculpture was called Adam and Eve and was for sale for $2000.  Hmmm.

The Gordon House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  It was finished in '63, originally miles away on the Willamette River.  In 2001 it was going to be destroyed, so they dismantled it and moved to the Oregon Garden for preservation.

Another view of the Gordon House

Bend, OR

Wow, I think we might have found our favorite place in the whole country.  We stayed up in the hills above Bend at LaPine State Park.  It was very nice, spacious woodsy sites with full hookups at an affordable price.  Just hanging out at the site was sublime.  This are has just about everything for the outdoor enthusiast.  Skiing, mountain biking, river sports, hiking, etc etc.  Plus, it's high desert so you get trees without the rain.  They don't even get a whole lot of snow, except up on the peaks where you want it.  The mountain tops around Bend were still covered with snow in late August.  Very nice.  One thing we did that I couldn't capture on film was explore Lava River Cave.  This is one of those lava tubes that went hollow, but it's a mile long, totally underground, with no electrical lights.  You bring your own flashlights and hope they don't fail.  We took 6.  It was amazing, and since it was during the week and most of the kids have started back to school, we had it almost to ourselves.  On to the pictures:

Intrepid Travelers at Paulina Falls in Newberry volcano.

Benham Falls, LaPine State Park.  It's really a cascade of the Deschutes River, but when it's flowing like this, they're right to call it a waterfall.

Paulina Falls, Newberry volcano.

Big Obsidian Flow.  This was a relatively recent belch by the Newberry volcano.  This picture was taken from Paulina Peak, a couple thousand feet above the flow.  The picture below is us in the middle of it.

Intrepid travelers in the middle of Big Obsidian Flow.  There were chunks of pure, shiny black obsidian glass as big as cars.  Everywhere.

Our lunch view from East Lake, in the Newberry caldera.

Panoramic shot of Newberry Caldera, one of the biggest volcanoes in North America.  The two lakes and the obsidian flow are all contained within the caldera.  Luckily, it's been well behaved for a thousand years or so.

Mountain views from Paulina Peak.

A small cinder cone.  This place is highly volcanic.  Or at least it was...

Lava Butte.  A large cinder cone.  We took a shuttle bus to the top and hiked around the rim.  No private vehicles allowed.

The Deschutes River near our campsite.

Sunset over Bend.  Snow on the peaks in late August!