We left Newport and headed south along the coastal highway (OR 101) to Coos Bay where we turned east at 5:21 PM on 12 July. At that point we were officially EASTBOUND and headed back to the Atlantic Coast from the Pacific. As we climbed into the coastal mountain range the sun came out, it got warmer and the fog dissipated! Our long hard cold summer in the NW seemed to fade quickly in the rearview camera!
The next day we arrived in Grants Pass OR and stayed in a county RV park on the Rouge River. We were looking forward to spending several days with good friends from our AF days at Mather AFB, Jim and Judy. Now that we were on the eastern slope of the coastal mountains the weather was quite pleasant, sunny and warm, clear & warm, dry & warm, blue skies and warm! You get the idea - it was warm!
One day Jim & Judy took us south to the Redwood Forest in northern CA. BJ had been particularly interested in this trip and once we got there I understood why. What magnificent trees these are!
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| Growing into the clouds! |
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| Magnificent giants! |
BJ had understood much better then I what awesome giants these Redwood trees were. Now we both are looking even more forward to out next trip west when we will include the Sequoia forests in out must see list!
On another day Jim and Judy took us to Crater Lake National Park. Lots of snow still on the ground in late July and the perimeter road still had not been completely cleared of snow and was still impassable!
Nonetheless the lake was beautiful. The actual lake is about 700 ft below the rim where the visitors center and most of the support facilities were located. While I was not interested in doing it during this visit I was interested in maybe scuba diving the lake on a future visit. On the way to the lake we stopped at a Forest Service service center and while talking to one of the rangers I found out he was a diver and went to the Keys most Springs on a dive vacation. He had dived Crater Lake and gave some interesting facts. First of all it is cold (that was not news), second it is excellent visibility (clear water and little if any current to stir things up). However it is a 700+ ft trail down to the water and Park Service does not allow any wheeled vehicles, e.g. carts, on the trail. You have to haul your dive gear down the trail and after the dive you had to haul it back UP the trail!
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| Crater Lake |
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| Crater Lake Hotel |
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| Visitors overlook built by CCC |
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| Crater Lake from the rim! That is snow, not white sand! |
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| BJ with Jim & Judy |
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| Imagine carrying your dive gear down & UP this path! |
The trip to and back from Crater Lake was equally enjoyable and a little warmer then Crater Lake!
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| One of several beautiful water falls we visited on the way to Crater Lake! |
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| Jim & Judy's friend, Peking Duck was with us and really liked the geocache we found on the trip to Crater Lake! |
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| The Living Sutmp - an interesting pheonome they showed us. After the tree was cut it continued to grown and "repair" the cut by growing over it! The roots of the stump and the adjacent tree were intertwined and it got nutrition from the joined roots! |
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| A river was narrowed and running rapidly thru gorge! |
Always at home, no matter where we are!!
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