Eclipsin' (A wee bit after the fact...)
Decided to go see the total eclipse as it passed through Oregon...
Wednesday, 16-Aug-2017
We weren't really sure what to expect, so we packed a lot of stuff. Had heard there may be no fuel, food, or water available in some of the small towns in Oregon, so we were preparing for the apocolypse!
Getting ready to go...
Camp gear, and such.
Extra fuel and some of our extra water.
Lynne and I left Wednesday night to get through the bay area before traffic hit too badly. We got a room in Vacaville, and then headed north again early Thursday morning.
Thursday, 17-Aug-2017
We drove north from Vacaville and got through Redding and such a bit ahead of Aric and Rachel who were leaving Santa Cruz mid morning today. It was hot. Really hot. Here's how hot it was...
109 degrees on Aric and Rachel's dashboard on the drive up through Redding area.
First lava rocks.
Lava rocks.
These rocks were on the way up to Medicine Lake campground. North of Mt Lassen and Lassen National Park, and south of Lava Beds National Monument.
Made it to camp. Ahhhhh.
There were a bunch of frogs all over the place!
Here's three more frogs...
Aric and Rachel made it to camp a bit after us. We chatted about plans for the next day, and had some yummy of food and drink before getting off to bed.
Friday, 18-Aug-2017
Got up and had some coffee and food in camp before heading off to look at volcano-y stuff. This is a lava flow right up behind the campground.
Rachel and Lynne are in there somewhere.
Lynne and Paul are in there somewhere.
Lynne coming down the lava rock hillside.
Aric and Rachel.
Heading into our first lava tube.
Looking back at the entrance.
Aric and Rachel.
Looked like pyrite all over the cave ceiling.
Looking down into a narrow chasm that you can descend down into if you're so inclinced.
("And it's great, you can write your name, and everything!")
Look! We're in a cave!
"Pele Hair" on the floor of the cave.
Aric
Gang's all here.
Descending into a big cave mouth.
Looking back out.
Not very far into the cave... there's ice.
It's 100F up top!
Walking back out.
Lynne.
After the caves, we drove around the park a bit more. Climbed up to a lookout tower on an old cinder cone (Schonchin Butte), and went toward the north end of the park.
Flower that I can't remember the name of...
Lookout tower on Schonchin Butte
Schonchin Butte.
After hiking Schonchin Butte, we walked around Captain Jack's Stronghold, and looked at birds in the Tulelake National Wildlife Reserve. We saw Ibises! Unfortunately, I didn't have my good camera with me there, so I didn't get any pictures. :(
Petroglyph Point.
Hard to see any petroglyphs because a lot of it was fenced off, and you couldn't get near it.
So this is just a panorama of the cliff face...
And then we decided to head back to camp via Glass Mountain. Just thought we'd take a short hike there, and get home to get some food. Ended up walking around a lot... there was so much obsidian!
Aric and Rachel diving right in.
Cool obsidian layers.
More obsidian layering.
Glass bubbles.
More glass bubbles.
Folded layers.
Obsidian snake.
Walking through the lava.
Glass Mountain peak is in background. This is a pretty huge flow!
Rachel on a pile of obsidian.
Closer up of pile.
Closerer up of pile.
Closererer up of pile.
Walking back to the car.
A little snow down there on the left.
I like the abrupt line between lava and not lava.
Woke up, and it was very quiet, and the lake was still. A little mist hung above it. Lynne and I walked down to the edge...
Peaceful.
Peaceful with Lynne.
The water had been up pretty high this year. You can see a waterline on the shore, but you can also see it on some of the tree trunks.
Here's the campground.
Our site.
Taking down the tent and such.
Aric making lattes.
A little oatmeal. No cascading brown sugar, Dad... sorry.
Planning the great Lassen National Park adventure.
Puttin' stuff away.
Lynne walks cutely from the truck.
Site 11.
Chillin before drivin.
Um... our butts.
Smoke.
Fields of Green.
Tops of Mountains.
But I digress with the frolicking...
We kept driving north into parts unknown until we ended up in the middle of nowhere in this sweet little spot. We had driven up Hwy 395 and turned east on Hwy 20 at Riley (where we topped off the tank). Then north at Burns onto 395 again, all the way up through Seneca (where we topped off the tank) into John Day, and then we headed east on Hwy 26. We drove into Prairie City where we had some food, and did some more map scouting, and then decided that we'd head back west a little bit, and then north up a small road into the Malheur National Forest. And then, at that point, we just drove around dirt roads until...
... we landed here.
Nice little camp area.
Dammit, we're cute.
So here's the spot we were:
The two blue lines were the extents of the elclipse totality.
The red line was the center of totality.
We were camped at the little 'X' drawn in just north of the red line.
Pretty close!!
Sunday, 20-Aug-2017
We got up, and walked around to check out exactly where would be a good spot to view the eclipse, and we found that... pretty much right where we were had a great view of the morning sun (the eclipse was happening at ~10am, so we decided we were good right where we were. We stayed there for a few days and did a bit of hiking, some picture taking, and a whole lot of nothing.
Theme of the trip... butterflies kept landing on Lynne.
A field.
A Lynne.
Bug on flower.
Bugs on flowers.
Again with the flowers and the bugs.
Liked how much the woodpeckers have used this tree.
No, don't get up. Really.
No, really. I mean it.
Evening vitamin C intake to guard against scurvy.
Monday, 21-Aug-2017
And then, finally, the eclipse day is upon us! There will be way too many pictures of the eclipse here, and for that, I apologize in advance.
Settled in to watch.
From the truck: the view of the viewing area.
And there was definitely an eclipse...
The shadows were cool!
The trees acted like a bunch of little pinhole cameras.
And then... totality!
These aren't ...
... even close ...
... to how AMAZING this was.
And then... there was a blinding flash (the diamond ring!) like a spotlight being turned on, and the sun started coming back again...
And the shadows reversed!
And we kept watching
(But with sweatshirts because it had gotten cold!)
And then it ended. And it was cause for a celebration... because this is not a normal event.
Um, more vitamin C?
Tuesday, 22-Aug-2017
After the eclipse, we hung out in the forest for the rest of the day, and got ready to leave the following day for Bend, and then Crater Lake.
One last look at our camp... including the large bathroom key.
Saw this guy while driving out the dirt road. Awesome!
We drove out forest road 32 to where it hit Hwy 395, and then drove south to Mt. Vernon. Found a little cafe (Silver Spur Cafe), and went in to get breakfast. As soon as we sat down, the woman said, "We're out of mushrooms, bacon, sausage links - we've got patties - jelly, ..." and there was something else that I don't remember. Based on what we could tell, we were pretty happy that they had any food left at all!
Went to John Day Fossil Beds National Monument
Hiked up the Blue Basin Trail...
...where we had our picture taken.
Today was the only day that we really hit any traffic on the whole trip. We had been sort of expecting the worst, but it never really happened. But today we had a bit of a slow down heading west on Hwy 26. There was an eclipse festival just east of Prineville that was letting out when we were driving through, so we got stuck in that for awhile. But it wasn't very much for very long, and we finally got down to Bend. And when we got into Bend, it was sooo smokey. Couldn't even see the mountains that are just to the west of Bend.
On the plus side, this picture was taken from the motel.
Aw yeeeah. Brewery across the street!
The had a cool hops garden.
But it was awful to be out in the smoke.
Here, it has made Lynne very sad.
We went to dinner at Roszaks Fish House.
This is Mike, we did a North Rim of the Grand Canyon ride with him eight years ago!
Wednesday, 23-Aug-2017
Getting really tired of the smoke! Got up and had breakfast, and made a plan for the rest of the trip. Maggie and Mike were in town, and we went downtown to meet them for lunch and took these great pictures...
Yeah, those pictures are something else, aren't they? Somehow NONE of us took even one picture of getting together. Doh!
Headed down to Newberry National Volcanic Monument to add to our volcano tour list. Hiked around in some lava, and then down to the Deschutes River. And then up to Paulina Lake where we camped, and hiked on another obsidian flow.
The walking path through the lava field.
Lava Butte Cinder Cone up there.
Looking down the lava flow field.
Off in the distant smoke is where the Deschutes River flows.
Bright yellow among the black rock.
Lava channel.
After hiking around the lava, we went down to the Deschutes River and walked around a bit. The lava flow from where were hiking (above) ended here at the river (below). The river now flows along the edge of the flow. Don't know how much it changed the path of the river...
Such a contrast: the river next to the lava flow.
Again with the river and the lava...
Down at the rapids.
Looking up the rapids a bit.
(There are people in both of the above pictures to give a little idea of scale.)
Squirrel!
Sorry, where was I? Oh yes, after hiking around there, we headed south in the park to look for a place to camp, and some more stufftodo. Which we found... we went for a hike on Big Obsidian Flow (you call that an obsidian flow? [insert picture of Glass Mountain] Now THAT's an obsidian flow.) It was still really cool, though.
The edge of the flow.
Again, the fine line between flow, and not flow.
Also the edge of the flow (where it mostly buried a lake).
Folding rock.
Obsidian and pumice.
Nature finds a way...
Obsidian tips.
Looking down at Paulina Lake where we're camped.
Obsidian.
Paul's Place. Aww yeeeah.
Back down at camp... we were right at the edge of the lake. Paulina Lake (and right next door, East Lake) is in the Newberry Volcano crater, up at 6400 feet or so. The smoke up here wasn't horrible, but it was still there.
Campsite.
Reflection through the window.
Wuz purty.
Dinner and vitamin C.
The smoke made for a pretty sunset.
Just ...
... about ...
... down.
Today's goal is to go see Crater Lake. Lynne's never seen it, and it's been a few years since I have. So we had a little breakfast, and took a walk along the lake, and then headed southwest.
I call this picture "Mom" for obvious-to-those-who-know reasons.
Ducks. (wow....)
Driving to Crater Lake, and ... man, it's smoky.
The sign on the right says were just entering the park boundary.
Not looking good.
Finally... the lake itself!! It's beautiful!!
Ummm... for reference, here's a picture that I found online taken from about the same spot, but higher up ... and at a different time.
Just a wee bit different.
Aww damn. Oh well. Just means that we have to come back sometime.
Stopped here, and made some breakfast on the rim. Could at least see the blue of the lake!
Drove down to the Pinnacles section which has a bunch of fumaroles that are sticking up on the sides of the canyon wall. Very cool stuff.
Here's some.
Look, more!
Umm...
Yeah.
Okay already...
Vidae Falls.
Crater Lake from near the visitor center.
Like I said... gotta go back.
Okay... really tired of the smoke now. Eyes are burnin' a bit, and just want to get out of it. Decided that we'd head to the coast semi-directly! Planning on getting to Crescent City if we can.
Ankle deep in the Rogue River (near Grant's Pass).
Osprey.
Got into town, and had dinner at the Sea Quake Brewery. How did we know it was a brewery? Because there were people playing Cornhole out front, of course. Duh.
Crescent City sunset. (Including crescent moon!)
Friday, 25-Aug-2017
Woke up, and headed south to the Avenue of the Giants on our way back home. But first there was a sign that said "Elk Viewing Area" that we had to laugh at. I mean, right, do they keep them penned up? Is it a zoo? Are they friendly elk? Whatever. I mean, we might as well take a look.
Oh ...
... you can view elk here.
Well why didn't they say so?
All right... moving along to the Avenue of the Giants...
They're big. (Lynne for scale.)
You might say that they're giant even.
(Lynne's on the left side of the road down at the curve.)
Yep... giant.
Dates.
Oxford was created in 1096??? Who knew?
I swear, it's like there's a whole road, or, what's the word... boulevard! of these giants.
(Truck for scale because Lynne was tired of everything being measured in Lynne units.)
I definitely think 1964 was a high water mark.
(Just disregard the month, okay? For me?)
Either way, the water got really high here. The road is already above the river here by quite a bit, and then it got all the way up to the stripe up there at the top.
We continued south and jumped in the river at the same spot that Mike and I had jumped in back in July. When Mike and I were here, there were wall-to-wall people. Not so much this time...
Wall to wall person.
We did the obligatory drive-through tree (that we couldn't drive through because of the carrier on top of my truck), but it was still cool.
But it was pretty cool.
And we did walk through it.
And then... we drove home. Got in pretty late Friday night, and just unloaded the truck and went to bed. Somehow, this looks like we've come full circle, doesn't it...?
Camp gear and such (redux).
And there you have it. Eclipse Trippin'!
Fun trip with a lot of camping. Need to get back out and do that again soon!
posted by pablo @ 5:36 PM
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