Click on a photo to enlarge it.
By Monday, we had both come down with coughs and colds which just slowed us down a bit. But it didn't stop us seeing the sights. After doing some
shopping we drove to Lava Beds National Monument in California. There was a wonderful drive through a wildlife reserve surrounded by volcanoes to
get there. Then we spent 2 hours at the monument and went into 4 different caves.
We borrowed some torches from the visitor centre thinking they would be better than ours - we were wrong! But we still used them. The first cave we
went to was Mushpot cave and was the best because it is the only one with lighting inside and various information boards. We did a bit of exploring
in 3 other caves. There are numerous caves in the area, all with a variety of difficulty, from easy to strenuous, and some several miles long.
We spent an enjoyable 2 hours there and then drove further south with great views of Mount Shasta (14,100 ft). Then we got stopped by the police
for holding up the traffic! But the officer had made a mistake as it was the lorry behind us who couldn't keep up with us who was holding up all
the traffic!
We continued on and got to a National Forest campground about 25 miles north of Lassen Volcanic National Park, our next destination. The campground
was closed so we parked in front of the gate for the night.
On Tuesday, we drove into Lassen Volcanic National Park. We drove up along the park road through a forest and stopped several times for photos. We
had good views of Mount Lassen which is the vent of a much older volcano that collapsed into a caldera 10,000 years ago. Mount Lassen last erupted
in 1915 and is the largest plug dome in the world.
We drove down to Bumpass Hell and did a 3 mile walk to mud springs, boiling lakes, fumeroles and stinking sulphur. It is named after a Mr Bumpass
who discovered the sulphur pots but lost a leg when he was guiding people in the area and slipped through the narrow crust and got badly burned.
On the way back along the path, Kirsten slipped on the steep gravel slope and ended up with a very white bum!! Fortunately we were well away from
any sulphur pots! So, we are now renaming it Kirsten´s Bum Hell!
On Wednesday, we drove to Red Bluff and started looking into a Smog check that we have to get done for our registration this year. We went to a
local DMV office afterwards as we found out that we need to get an enhanced test done because of the address on our registration form which means
we have to go further south where the enhanced test is available. So we paid the registration fee, showed our insurance docs and got an extension
for the smog check to give us time to get further south.
We spent a few hours at the local library catching up on our emails and managed to find out that England had qualified for the World Cup and come
top of the table! (Very important news!!)
Then we drove towards the coast over a very twisty, narrow, up and down road into the blaring sun. After 3 hours we hadn't got very far and found a
spot to park for the night.
On Thursday, we managed to get to the coastal road and went to Humboldt State Park - home of the giant redwood trees. We went to the visitor centre
and saw a tree that had started its life in 1148 and fell in 1987 at the grand old age of 839!! We also saw a motorhome built out of a redwood
tree in the 1930s and used by a man who went around trying to drum up support to save the redwood trees. (Apparently, the tree he used had already
fallen otherwise it would have been a bit ironic!)
Afterwards we drove to a campground for 3 nights which was a good choice as it rained most of Friday and Saturday and gave us the chance to catch
up a bit with the website and have a shower!
On Sunday, we took the spectacular coastal road further south and stopped at the lovely little village of Mendocino for a walk along the dunes and
through the town. We also checked our emails and found out that we could meet up with Bob and Suzanne from Tamasopo in Mexico who were staying with
her daughter in Calistoga in the Napa Valley which was not very far away from where we were.
We phoned up and got directions and arranged to be there tomorrow afternoon. Then we drove further south and found a vista point where we could park
up for the night.
