My Journey

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

I have always loved fire lookouts, I dont know if it is my love of mountains, solitude and views, or the background in firefighting.

Oregon actually rents some out now, that you can stay in

https://www.oregonlive.com/travel/index.ssf/2016/11/17_fire_lookouts_you_can_rent.html


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_lookout_tower#Wooden_towers

You can see in the pictures of both old ones, The one on the ground (older white one) has thick steel cables across all 4 edges ant to the top to act as a lightning rod, the larger tower has a few as well on the edges but are harder to see. I still see a handful of wood ones, they dont flex like the steel ones do. However, they are also burnable.

 

[longhorn1]

Jerry love the fall colors. Your trip to Napal and getting out before the earthquake, has always been one of my favorite parts of your posts. jd

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

PNWY.....I just wish more of them were accessible.....

JD.....that was one awesome trip.....

Now we drove southeast.....our next stop would be for just an afternoon in Bend, Oregon. I filled the truck with diesel, the Jeep with gas, the camper with propane, and the fridge & kitchen cabinets with much needed food. Walking the dogs around the Walmart parking lot I noticed another weed store so I went in for a look. You might be thinking at this point, since this will be my third weed store visit in as many weeks, that I really am a user.....I'm not. But I love looking.....I try to maintain an open mind. Notice each bottle is named.....the clerk says that the Obama Kush is some really good stuff.....I'll take his word for it.....I'll never know.....



South of Bend, Oregon we stopped at the Newberry National Volcanic Monument and checked things out.....



At this point in the season, places are beginning to shut down, and so it was at the Newberry National Volcanic Monument, but the trails were still accessible.....



A kiosk in the parking lot alerted me to the nearby Benham Falls on the Deschutes River, so we headed to the falls to have a look. The approach to the falls along the riverbanks were stunning with the fall foliage.....



I remember thinking the waterfalls are going to have to be spectacular to beat out these views.....



We walked for maybe a mile along the calm waters of the Deschutes River.....



Then the river flowed into a narrow channel, the calm waters turned violent, and it was certainly a pretty amazing sight.....



I decided to tie the dogs up.....not taking any chances with my water loving canines.....



We stayed until early evening enjoying Mother Nature, but moved on as the air began to cool.....this was a good place too. That night we camped in the forest.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Our next stop would be another mountain summit. I'd been on the internet and read that Paulina Peak (7,989') had great views from it's summit as it towered over Paulina Lake and East Lake. I was apprehensive about hiking it since this peak had a road to the summit. There's just something about hiking up to a mountain summit and seeing a parking lot filled with cars and people that bothers me. I tried to deal with my judgemental attitude and we climbed on. A light snow covered the forest floor.....



Cars and plenty of people at the summit resulted in the dogs being tied up once again.....



.....while I took in the views.....





We didn't stay long up there.....just didn't feel right. We stopped for a late lunch at more waterfalls. Upstream of the falls was once again amazing.....



The 80 foot high twin falls known as Paulina Falls were quite nice.....we shared our viewpoint with several grazing deer.....







Later in the day we hiked along this unnamed creek.....the fall colors of the grasses along the creek bank were vibrant....



Then it was back to the forest once again.....

 

[Ace Brown]

Peaks and falls, peaks and falls........interesting. But I like the pattern.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[chet6.7]

Good call on securing the dogs,I see people letting dogs and small children run around in dangerous places way too often.

 

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

Winter is coming, we have been 30ish here in eastern oregon most nights now. I added Paulina Falls to my list now as well.

A map off all the fire towers in Oregon

http://www.firelookout.com/or.html

And the HotSrpings

https://soakoregon.com/

Travel Oregon
https://traveloregon.com/

And Travel Washington
http://www.experiencewa.com/things-to-do/scenic-byways

Although I am sure, you did not need extra things to add to you list. But some good resources none the less.

Happy Trails and Safe Travels

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Thanks Ace.....

Chet.....that pup has no fear and at times, shows little brains.....so.....

PNWY.....thanks for the links.....I'm certainly ready for another hot spring.....

The cold weather continues to push us south, yet very slowly. One morning I recently awoke to 16 degrees which is just too cold for this old guy. Now Crater Lake National Park was not far off our route south, and even though I'd been here before, and I'm not so fond of the national parks (the dog thing), we returned. Now I do recall on my last visit to Crater Lake that I'd thought that this was one of the most beautiful places I'd ever visited, and I felt the same after this visit. The beauty absolutely takes your breath away. The park brochure states that the lake was formed 7,700 years ago after the volcano erupted, and that the eruption left a hole 6 miles long by 4.5 miles wide, and at it's deepest point, 1,943 feet deep. It's just incredible to try to imagine the force it took to have that kind of impact. And it took centuries of rain and snow to fill the basin...





Thankfully we arrived early enough to beat the crowds and had many of the viewing spots to ourselves.....





My plan early on was to get a campsite here and hang out for a few days exploring more of the park, but that wasn't to be. The campgrounds were closed for the season.....





So we spent the day driving along the 33 mile long Rim Drive that circles the lake's perimeter. Our hiking in the park was only along the Rim Trail, which also circles the lake, except for a short hike up to Watchman Tower (8,013') for the best views possible.....





Clouds covered the valleys looking to the south into California.....



I was so thankful that I took the detour into Crater Lake National Park.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

We took the southern exit out of the park and not too far down the highway we found ourselves a very quite, secluded spot to spend the night in the national forest.....



The following day we drove on the northern segment of the Volcanic Legacy Highway.....



It was an outstanding drive with the fall colors on the trees that lined the highway and surrounded the amazing Oregon ranches.....



I'll admit at this point that I'm tiring a bit with the peak bagging, but there was still one more mountain that I wanted to climb. Mount Mcloughlin at 9,495 feet would be the highest peak we would want to attempt in Oregon. So I spent the next night at a Sno-Park lot near the Great Meadow, close by the trailhead to Mount Mcloughlin.....



The following morning at the trailhead I decided that the winds were too strong to attempt a peak with so much exposure to the elements as Mount Mcloughlin has......



Changing plans now, we decided to take the Jeep up a four wheel drive road to the summit of another nearby mountain.....Pelican Butte (8,036'). Not too far up the road the thought came to me.....I can hike this just as well, so I parked the Jeep and we hiked up.....



We were the only hikers that day.....most people went up on their ATV's or dirt bikes. Parts of the road were really, really rough.....we got in 6 miles of hiking.....



On the summit was another fire tower, or was it a communications tower ? I'm not so sure.....



The winds on the summit made just standing a chore, and I was glad that I hadn't attempted Mount Mcloughlin that day.....it would have sucked.....



It was yet another good day hanging out with summit dogs.....

 

[Sierra Valley]

Go check out Lassen NP on the way south. If you hit up Reno let me know.

 

[kathleenjackson040]

Great. All the best for you journey.

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Sierra Valley.....good call, thanks.....

KJ040.....thank you.....

Now I've pretty much spent the last few weeks hanging out in the national forest and I was feeling the need for some city time, so I drove into Klamath Falls, Oregon (population 21,000) for what turned out to be 4 nights.....more than I would have expected.....



As I do with most cities these days, I came here wondering the same thing.....could I live here ? The answer would be no. Klamath Falls was a hard city to figure out. I met some great people during my stay, but on the opposite end of the spectrum there seems to be a huge influx of shady, homeless, derelict type people here as well, and that bothers me. I checked out the revitalized downtown section which seemed to be fairly dead.....



I guess the strip malls and Amazon just kill this whole idea of historic, revitalized downtowns (an exception I have found are the wealthier towns). Sometimes the revitalized downtowns almost seem like big museums.....you usually can find at least one gift shop there as well.....just like a museum.....



One thing that Klamath Falls has that apparently no other city in the U.S. has is a training center for the F-15 fighter jet. These things train every day and they're absolutely amazing machines. I spent an afternoon at the airport watching them land and take off. It was great !



At the end of the airport runway the National Forest Service has built a small museum/memorial/viewing area.....



This memorial was built to honor the firefighters and the pilots that fly the planes combating forest fires, and more specifically, to honor the two pilots that died when their plane crashed battling the Cleveland Fire in 1992. .....



After Klamath Falls, we drove south, departed Oregon and drove into northeastern California where we made a planned brief stop into an afternoon of hiking. Our next stop was at the Tulelake National Wildlife Refuge.....



This was pretty much a pleasant experience and the waterfowl were really, really abundant.....and really, really beautiful.....



Lots of trails to explore throughout the marshlands with plenty of informative signs to educate oneself. This one I found particularly interesting.....



The next picture gives you an idea of the number of birds that flock here. Unfortunately waterfowl attract hunters this time of year so there was this almost constant sound of gunfire in the background. It kind of takes away from the beauty of the sounds of the waterfowl. The thought came to me while watching these birds....."sitting ducks".....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Lava Beds National Monument (thanks Sierra Valley) was our next stop on what is beginning to seem like a never ending tour of America !



This area was once owned by the Modoc tribes but the influx of white settlers pushed them off their lands that they'd lived on for centuries.....



Lots of lava tubes to explore at this national monument.....





It was a cool switch from all the peakbagging I was doing.....





Once I'd had enough of the caves, I went right back into peakbagging mode and hiked to the top of Schonchin Butte (5,259'). Yet another fire tower on top.....



And some pretty cool views of Mount Shasta (14,180') to the west.....



To finish off the day, I did some bushwacking since there was no trail and climbed to the top of Hippo Butte (5,500').....



We ended the day at the Lava Beds National Monument campgrounds. I can't even recall the last time I'd stayed in a campground, but it was convenient, cost $5, and seemed like a good idea at the time. Generators and lots of people nearby made me question my decision. At least we had a nice campfire.....something I rarely do these days as I'm frightened of starting a forest fire.....

 

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

Alabama Hills is some pretty cool BLM camping,

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1........6..0i71j35i39j0i131j0i131i67.PR1Kl9KQiDA

And also a well done, albiet sobering internment camp near by Manzanar

https://www.google.com/search?q=man...rome..69i57.1983j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

also a good interprative center
https://www.google.com/maps/place/E...e9c1fd0e57756!8m2!3d36.5781013!4d-118.0555952

All those are probably a few hundred miles South of your current location. But i enjoyed them on the way through

Happy Trails and Safe Travels

 

[Sierra Valley]

Nice glad you got to check out the lava beds. There are some more over near Lassen National Park off of HWY 44 at Old Station called Subway Lava Cave. Good camping along Hat Creek.

If you are looking to get away the Lassen Applegate trail through Northern California and Nevada is really cool! Ive done a lot of the trail in different sections this past year. There are hot springs and remote camps with cabins and lots of good exploring if your interested I can give you some points of interest.