Leaving Lake Almanor we drove about 130 miles NE and landed at
Sully's RV Park in Alturas, CA for one night. Sully's turned out to be a great place to stop over. Their short term sites are easy access paved pull throughs, lots of green grass and beautiful shade trees. It's quiet too, even though you can see hwy 395 about a quarter mile away, you cannot hear it.
The best part though was the proximity to
Modoc National Wildlife Refuge. A one mile drive brought us to the three mile Auto Tour Route through the refuge. We let the day cool down a little bit and arrived there about 6pm and proceeded to walk the Auto Route and a short paved path, maybe four miles total. We saw very few cars or other people during our walk, making it a very pleasant way to wind down a travel day.
Spring and fall are prime time on the refuge, many birds migrate through here and most have moved on by now, but we still saw quite a variety of birds including a few sandhill cranes. This is a beautiful preserve, the colors and views are wonderful. I'd love to return during migration to witness thousands of birds passing through.
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The dead end road at the RV park leads you to the edge of the Modoc National Wildlife Refuge.
The views everywhere in this valley are expansive and colorful! |
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| When we arrived at the Refuge the clouds over the Southern mountains were beautiful. |
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| I was excited to see Sandhill Cranes, I figured they would have moved on by now. |
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Mule deer are abundant around here.
That's a blind behind her, it was full of mosquito's! |
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| Love the pink legs on the Black Necked Stilt! |
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| Those clouds in the second photo above morphed into this in about an hour. |
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| Peek a boo! |
We've moved on to Burns, OR for a night. Tomorrow we'll settle for a few days in Sumpter, OR. We'll be happy to have these three driving days out of the way; Rosie is not at her happiest on travel days!
I love sandhill cranes....couldn't get enough of them while in Texas.
ReplyDeleteNational Wildlife Refuges are among my favorite places to visit. We stop any time we are near. I sure do wish they had campgrounds. Those sand hill cranes get around. They are up here in Michigan with us too.
ReplyDeletePoor Rosie...too much moving:( But it sounds like you are having fun!
ReplyDeleteI had to look up Sumpter, never heard of it! Sounds like a nice area to explore. Poor Rosie....
ReplyDeleteNWR spots are always at the top of our list of places to visit. Looks like you found a beauty! Anywhere that I can see birds and wildlife along with colorful, expansive views is a joy....I loved your pictures!
ReplyDeleteWe have 4 pups that don't especially like travel days either. I can so relate!
Beautiful pics, I feel like I can reach out and touch the fashion-savy Stilt from my chair. That stop-over spot sounds like a great find and perfect for your quick visit here. Safe travels.
ReplyDeleteOkey, never been here and once again beautiful CA sceneries. Never knew there are Sandhill Cranes in that part of CA too.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a beautiful place to explore this time of year--especially the NWR--minus the mosquitoes.
ReplyDeleteWe are not too far behind you; heading north to Corvallis this weekend.
Hey, we'll be in Portland for a week beginning June 30th...just in case you are hading that way!
DeleteNice pictures. When the snow geese are migrating that area is amazing with the sheer number of them. We'll be arriving in the Tacoma area June 29th.
ReplyDeleteI would so love to see this place...or any other wildlife preserve, when it is in full migration splendor!
DeletePerhaps our paths will cross as we will head in to WA after July 4th.