Tuesday, August 5-Wednesday August 6 Across Texas and home

 Tuesday, August 5

 Yes, we are back in the South!

 We have breakfast at the hotel and cross into Texas this morning.   More driving.  Sure is a wide state as we enter Central Time Zone.

Very windy as we cross familiar territory on 40, then route 287 all the way to Fort Worth where we stay at a Hampton Inn & Suites.  

 Happy Birthday, Tom!  He says it is 105 in Benson (AZ).  He still plays golf, but they tee-off at 6:30AM to finish before it hits 90!

Back in Texas

Our first meal back in Texas.... Barbecue? Brisket? Tacos?  No.  Sushi!

The restaurant that we could walk to had a little robot (right 😊) that delivered things.

Wednesday, August 6

12:15  Home again home again, jiggedy jig! 

 And all is well.

Monday, August 4 Colorado and into New Mexico. Driving.

 Monday, August 4

It's 69 degrees at 7AM this morning and the lighting makes the red rocks glow, so we spend a little time at the Monument.

This is Fruita Canyon View, and a balanced rock in the shade.

Beth wants to re-visit the Kebler Pass area as we continue eastward. Traffic is somewhat heavier as we climb some mountains within Gunnison National Forest.  

We come across some stop and go traffic due to road construction - we have run into a fair amount of this, usually one lane for a bit.  We also come across two trucks that are painting yellow lines, but not before we've picked up a bit of yellow paint on the driver side wheel wells <sigh>.

Kebler Pass is 30 miles of unpaved road, but it is good gravel and nice and wide. We've seen deer and moose here in the past and beautiful lakes.  

 

More traffic than we expected.  It is a pretty but uneventful drive and by the time we reach the turn for Lake Irwin, Greg just wants to get off this road, so we continue through Crested Butte (swarming with visitors) and head for home.

We wind our way over to I-25 south and cross Raton Pass into New Mexico. A Quality Inn in Clayton, New Mexico seems a good place to stop.  We need some cool comfort!   It's a small town with not much in the way of restaurants, so we use the room microwave to cook a frozen lasagna from the Trek.  A real gourmet dinner, thank to Stouffers haha.

 Hotel is fine and we get a good night's rest, turning on the TV for the first time in a while!

Sunday, August 3 Utah, Colorado Nat'l Monument

 Sunday, August 3

Nice cool morning as we continue east and enter Utah and Mountain Time Zone around 9:30. 

This ranch entrance caught our attention.  That's a lot of animals!

Route 70 has some very nice scenery for a while.  We stop a few times to stretch and look around.

Then things go back to flat and bland.  We opt to bypass the exits to re-visit Goblin Valley, Arches and others for reasons you no doubt can already guess.  We look ahead to Colorado National Monument which is at the border and are pleasantly surprised to find many sites available on their on-line reservation system.  It is at a little higher elevation, so we hope it won't be terribly hot.

As we begin to climb the road through the red rocks,  we come across this big horn sheep who crosses the road in front of us, then poses for a moment before continuing to climb.

Even the lizards are looking for shade.

It is close to 100 degrees at the campground, though considerably less in the shade.  The site Beth blindly picked doesn't have much of that, so we move to another and then fix things with the congenial camp host.  Everything is done with reservations on line and he shows us how to change sites easily (so no one else will try to reserve the new site we moved to).

We walk a little, but mostly hang out in the shade.  Things cool nicely as the sun goes down.  We eat dinner outside and play some cribbage.  

Saturday, August 2 Lake Tahoe and across Nevada

 Saturday, August 2

48 degrees this morning!  And we are officially starting for home.  Of course there are still lots of stops, but not any major destinations.  Lake Tahoe is almost in our path, so we will swing by.  We spent some time there in a cabin  a long time ago with both sons and it is a beautiful spot.

But first we go through more fire devastation in the Plumas National Forest.  Fire restrictions have been in place nearly everywhere and we've been fortunate not to be near any smoke or burning this trip, as Canada continues to burn and there are more and more fires appearing.

Coming to Tahoe may have been a mistake, as each glimpse of the beautiful lake is paid for with horrible traffic and crowds of people as we creep along.  I guess our problem is that we have seen much of the country in better times and conditions, so can't help but shy away from the noisy, busy places they have become. We usually travel in the shoulder season, so this reenforces why we do that!

We are about due for an oil change, so we check out Oil Changers in South Lake Tahoe.  A new-ish company that does a terrific job without trying to upsell a zillion things.  There has been something dangling under the Trek so Greg asks them to zip tie it up while they are working.  They won't let him go into the pit to check it out... we have scraped bottom slightly a time or two, but nothing really bad - we thought.  That is the one drawback to these Roadtreks - low clearance!

We get out of Tahoe slowly because of traffic and catch route 50 across Nevada - the "loneliest road".  It is pretty bleak with occasional small towns, but mostly a whole lot of nothing and you get gas whenever you can.   Hey, but at least traffic isn't a problem!

 Greg drives nearly 500 miles today, ending at the Egan Crest Trailhead where Compendium says we can boondock.  Not much there but two picnic tables with shade covers, but it is off the highway.  Once the sun sets, it gets nice and cool and by morning it is 44 degrees!

Some mining creates interesting patters on the hills across the way and the mountains of Great Basin National Park aren't far.  But we've been there and this is not the time of year to visit again, except for the underground caverns which are doubtlessly fully booked.

Friday, August 1 Lassen Volcanic, Burney Falls, Lassen Peak, Kings Creek

 Friday, August 18

50 degrees this morning as we continue south.   Gas is $4.89, but we expected it to be high in California (taxes).   

We decide to visit Burney Falls before we reach Lassen Volcanic National Park and are really glad we did.  It is a unique and beautiful falls in a State Park of the same name. $9 entry fee for seniors . The water flows year round through porous basalt left behind by lava flows. Twin falls thunder down a cliff but what is unusual are the hundreds of springs seeping directly out of the rock behind and on both sides of the main falls.  This creates a veil of falling water nearly 250' wide!  

100 million gallons of water fall daily, even during dry summer months and eventually form Lake Britton, a nine-mile long lake.

 There is an overlook and then a mile or so loop trail that takes you down to the foot of the falls (and back up!). This park is one of the oldest in California, created back in 1922.  It is gorgeous!

Chipmunks and California ground squirrels along the trail.  

Cave (with flash)

From here, we move on to Subway Cave, which is a lava tube from about 24,000 years ago.  The tube  has caved in.  We grab our flashlights and explore.  It's chilly down there and while it looks smooth in the picture the ground is very rough,  described somewhere as stub-your-toe rough.  We are sort of glad that it is only 1/3 mile long before we are back into sunshine.

Next, we enter Lassen Volcanic National Park.  Shortly after the entrance, there is a gas station, a restaurant and a building that houses a laundromat and showers.   We go for the showers, which cost $5 for 7 minutes!  But they are spotless and feel great.

We stop at the visitor's center and visit a small museum, then decide to walk the Lily Pond Nature Trail, a half mile trail that identifies trees such as the Ponderosa Pine, The Jeffrey pine, Red fir, Mountain Alder, Lodgepole pine, sugar pine and others.  I'm surprised there are so many varieties in such as small area! Interesting scattering of pinecones and we pick one or two to add to a collection we have on our hearth at home.  Funny how some huge trees have tiny pinecones and others have foot-long ones!

The lily pond is lush, but not blooming.

There is supposed to be signal by the museum, but....not today.

We continue through the park, parts of which have been decimated by fire.  Lots of dead  trees stacked - for later collection and piles of debris.  

We stop by  Chaos Crags, a group of 6 domes from old volcanoes,  and an area called the Chaos Jumble which is a result of a series of 3 rockfall avalanches, which covers miles.

More than 200 lakes and ponds are vital to the park.

Lassen Peak, 10,457'

King's Creek is a pretty area with lots of wildflowers.

The air is so crisp, clean and clear!

 Emerald Lake sparkles.

We pause at the Sulfur Works, where a short boardwalk takes you by some bubbling mud pots and vents (and a pungent sulfur smell) showing signs of continuing underground thermal activity.

We stop for the night at Guernsey Creek Campground on Rock Creek in the Lassen National Forest. $7.  Lots of cut and stacked wood throughout the campground and surrounding area, we assume from fires. Only a few of us campers.

Overall, this National Park doesn't break our top ten.  If you are into geology and volcanoes, then yes it's for you!  Otherwise it is interesting with a few highlights, though granted we didn't see all of it.