The Blanch Herd: May Vacay {Day 2: Crater Lake to Crescent City}

Day 2: Sunday, 2 May 2021: Klamath Falls, OR -> Crater Lake National Park -> Rogue River Gorge -> Crescent City, CA

On Sunday morning our plans were to wake up, have breakfast, Gregg would maybe take the kids to a park while I zoomed into a Young Women class presidency meeting, then tune into church on the phone and listen while we drove. That probably would have worked out nicely had we still been on Mountain Time. Actually, our body clocks were still on Mountain Time, so we woke up at 6 am (or before) Pacific Time and it just felt like kind of a waste of time to hang out and wait for the meetings. So we left. The best laid plans, as they say.

We did find a park that was lovely, though, and that was a nice way to wake up the legs before another drive (though not nearly as long as yesterday!) It was about an hour to the Annie Springs (aka south) entrance to Crater Lake, and it was a beautiful drive.

We got to the gate before the ranger (just barely), but didn't worry about it since we have our annual parks pass. As we drove up the windy road to the rim the snow got deeper and deeper - it was full on winter (okay, late winter) at the top! Good thing we packed beanies and gloves and coats! What a sight that lake was! I was so worried that it would be covered in fog and we wouldn't even be able to see the water, but we lucked out and the view actually got better the longer we were there. We had fun climbing on snowpiles and gawking at the lake for a while, then we drove a bit down the road (as far as it was open) to get another vantage point. There were good views of Wizard Island there. Then it was back down the mountain toward the Redwoods!

We were looking for a place along the road to pull over and make lunch when we spied a brown road sign for the Rogue River Gorge Viewpoint. It was nice big parking area surrounded by giant (we thought at the time . . . little did we know!) Douglas Firs and other conifers. A perfect lunch stop. After we ate, we wandered down the trail past the informational signs to check out the gorge. Whoa! What a place! We learned that it was formed by collapsed lava tubes, not just the river cutting its way through the rock. So cool! It was pretty impressive and a nice little surprise stop that we didn't even know existed.

I spy a rainbow!

Don't know what these are, but they were
pretty and bright!

We continued our drive in a southwesterly direction until we were officially driving on Highway 199 aka Redwood Highway! But we still had a ways to go till we actually saw any redwoods. But we did see them since the highway goes right through Jedediah Smith State Park, the first (northernmost) of the handful of parks that make up the "Redwood National and State Parks". It was incredible, even just driving through. We couldn't wait for the next day's plans to hike in them! But our first stop was to find a park, which happened to be at the beach, which happened to be waaaay cooler than any park!

We wandered around on the sand, spotted crab carcasses, chased seagulls, picked up shells and rocks, crossed the walkway (the tide was still low enough to get there) over to the Battery Point Light House where we walked around the outside (it's currently closed to tours because of covid) and enjoyed the views and flowers (but oh! the wind!), explored the tide pools at the base of the light house island, strolled to the end of the pier, and chased some more seagulls on the sand.

We finally checked into our hotel (which was only a couple of minutes away), warmed up some leftover sloppy joes for dinner, and snuggled into our spacious and cozy room (three queen beds - what?!) for the night. What a day! And it's only the beginning!