Eastern Oregon Captures Our Hearts

We're spending a week in Elgin, OR, a farming town set in pretty rolling green hills along the Wallowa Lake Highway. Elgin may not be the best location for visiting Eastern Oregon, we've got long drives to the things we want to see, but this is really a scouting mission for the area...we can already tell we will be back again someday, it is gorgeous here!

Taking a walk after the rain stopped near our park in Elgin, OR.

The area we are exploring surrounds the Eagle Cap Wilderness. Set in the Wallowa Mountains, the Wilderness has over 30 peaks exceeding 8,000 feet, many high alpine lakes, with streams and rivers running rampant everywhere. It is absolutely breathtaking!

Incredible scenery near Enterprise, OR.

When we first arrived we had a couple of days of rain. Not a bad thing at all, we've experienced very little precipitation since we hit the road almost two years ago. And, it's doing a great job of keeping this corner of Oregon green. Since we're staying near La Grande, OR it only made sense to spend a rainy day taking factory tours of the two local RV manufacturing plants: Outdoors RV Manufacturing and Northwood Manufacturing.

These two RV manufacturers are on our radar if we ever want to downsize our rig. They make well constructed, four seasons, rugged travel trailers, 5th wheels and truck campers. At both plants we got personalized tours and saw just about every inch of the manufacturing process.

We're up on the scaffolding getting a birds eye view of the finishing process at Outdoors RV.

Northwood had a great platform where we could see across the entire assembly warehouse.

When the rain cleared up we took a very long (for us) day trip to check out the small towns along the East side of the Eagle Cap Wilderness. Our turn around point, Wallowa Lake, lies 55 miles from our RV park in Elgin. But what a gorgeous drive it was. Rolling green hills covered in feed crops gave way to forested mountains, rushing tumbling rivers and creeks, cute small towns, and towering snow covered peaks. We saw deer, elk, marmot and possibly fox on this drive.

Joseph, OR was such a pretty little town, cute shops and restaurants and so visually pleasing, we'll likely stay there when we return to the area, maybe next summer. We even managed to fit in a short hike near Wallowa Lake to BC Falls. Hans made a brief panorama video of the incredible scenery near Joseph that can be viewed here.

Downtown Joseph, OR.

Mural in Joseph, OR.

Wallowa Lake

BC Falls.

Now that the weather has improved we've got a few hikes lined up before we leave. We'll take the bear spray with us...this is some wild country!

Sumpter, OR: Historic, Beautiful and Wild!

Our drive from Burns to Sumpter was gorgeous. Heading North on hwy 395 we passed through the Divine Canyon Scenic Corridor where jagged lava spires skirted in Ponderosa Pine followed us through the curves. Turning East on hwy 26 at John Day we passed through rolling green hills edged with snow capped peaks. Then North on hwy 7 into the trees again we rolled into the historic gold mining town of Sumpter.

Downtown Sumpter, OR.

Sumpter is tiny, about 200 people live here, and many of the buildings on Main St. wear For Sale signs. It's on the Elkhorn Scenic Byway and nestled against the Elkhorn Mountain Range. There's plenty of mining history to explore here and outdoor recreation in many forms: primarily ATV and snowmobiling, but hiking, biking, boating, fishing and birding are also easily accessible. There's a hotel in town, a couple of restaurants and a bar, where we enjoyed live music by The Channel Cats on Saturday night.

We spent four nights at Sumpter Pines RV Park, a great little full hookup park in the pine trees, with excellent 4G Verizon signal. ATVing is big here in the summer, and we were happy that there were not a lot of them around stirring up dust during our stay. We even attended the owners birthday celebration, good folks run this place.

Just down the street from the RV park is the Sumpter Valley Dredge State Historic Site. This enormous dredge used the Powder River to turn over massive amounts of rock and soil in search of gold from 1935 - 1954. It was the third dredge to work the area since the turn of the century, so a huge swath of the Powder River basin was damaged in the hunt for gold. Fortunately nature is making a comeback, deer are abundant, beaver are working the creeks, and fishing is good.

The dredge dug its own pond as it performed its job of scooping up the riverbed,
sorting out the possible gold, and eliminating the excess rock out the back.

Each of the 72 scoopers weigh 1 ton!

Large rocks were conveyed up this boom and deposited back into the river basin.

Row upon row of stone piles now make up the Powder River basin.

The friendly ranger and host at the Dredge Visitor Center tipped us off to the Twin Lakes Trail. At 7.5 miles RT and with over 2,000 feet of elevation gain this was a pretty strenuous hike, but so worth it! Gorgeous forest, tumbling creeks, expansive vistas, snowy peaks, luscious green meadows criss-crossed with myriad snow melt streams, patches of snow, a lovely cirque lake and the potential to see mountain goats.

We searched valiantly for mountain goats, saw lots of goat droppings, but the only goat we saw was a skeleton. The lower lake sits at about 7,500 feet and was fully engulfed in snow and mostly covered in ice, quite a beautiful sight indeed!

Lake Creek was flowing strong.

This beautiful meadow laced with streams sat below the lake basin,
which is just over the hill and shrouded in clouds.
Behind the clouds were jagged, snow capped mountain peaks.

Signs of spring were emerging all over the meadow.

Behind us the views opened up to the Sumpter Valley.

Ahead of us the approach to the lake basin became a little treacherous.
Once we realized exactly where the lake had to be we avoided the snow
and walked across the soggy meadow because the snow was quite slippery!

The lake basin was a vision in white.

The only mountain goat we saw on this hike...
Perhaps a bear or a mountain lion dragged it into the trees?

For our last adventure we drove up to the almost ghost town of Granite, OR, then a few miles further to the Granite Creek trail head. This 7.2 mile RT trail goes into the magnificent North Fork John Day Wilderness, always in sight or earshot of Granite Creek. Except, we didn't make it the whole way, after an incredible wildlife sighting we decided to turn around when we came to some very heavy brush...didn't want to run in to another bear! We were plenty happy with about 4.5 miles and a bear family sighting!!!

Gorgeous trail along Granite Creek.

I stopped to take a picture of some flowers on the hillside above us and this family strolled into the picture!
Mama was quite large and the two cubs quite small...and only about 75 feet above us!
Talk about an adrenaline rush...

We're heading North tomorrow. One last thing...Thanks Amanda for your How To Grill Pizza Blog Post! You inspired me to try something new and it was delicious!

Grilled pizza!

Modoc National Wildlife Refuge, A High Desert Oasis

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.

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!

When we arrived at the Refuge the clouds over the Southern mountains were beautiful.

I was excited to see Sandhill Cranes, I figured they would have moved on by now.

Mule deer are abundant around here.
That's a blind behind her, it was full of mosquito's!

Love the pink legs on the Black Necked Stilt!

Those clouds in the second photo above morphed into this in about an hour.

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!

Wrapping up our stay in Lake Almanor, CA

It's been an thoroughly enjoyable week at Lake Almanor. We followed up our Lassen experiences by branching out into the surrounding area:

The Bizz Johnson National Recreation Trail is a Rails to Trails route running 25.4 miles between Westwood and Susanville, CA. Not wanting to drive all the way to Susanville, we chose to start at the Westwood Junction trailhead, thereby knocking off about 7 miles of forested trail from the main Western trail head. We figured we'd ride as far as we desired based on the heat and the fact that the return would be slightly uphill. We ended up riding about 7.5 miles of the trail.

Our only problem with Rails to Trails routes is they tend to be a little monotonous since they were originally railroad beds, and we count on the scenery to make up for the mostly straight and flat ride. The portion of the trail we rode was mostly forested with just a few scenic points along the way. In comparison, the Lake Almanor Recreation Trail that we rode the other day, though paved, had a lot of twists and turns and small ups and downs, as well as lake views to make it more interesting.

If we ride this trail again we will start at Susanville, as the East end of the trail is likely to be more interesting because it has a lot of bridges over the Susan River and two tunnels. We also learned that on Saturdays from June through October there is a shuttle from Susanville to three different trail access points so you can ride downhill all the way back to Susanville...sweet!

A slice of meadow with the Susan River running through it.
Not much water due to a minimal snow winter.

Much of the trail we rode looked like this. We were grateful for the shade!

We drove through Westwood, CA after the ride, Paul Bunyan has a place in the towns history.

The Caribou Wilderness lies 12 miles North of Chester, CA, where we parked at the Hay Meadow trail head and hiked a seven mile loop passing at least 20 small lakes. The mosquito's were pretty thick near the water, so this hike would probably be best in the late summer. Regardless, we always keep a can of Natrapel in the truck and with that protection we really enjoyed this pretty trail. (Trail head directions.)

Most of the lakes along the trail were small and unnamed, like this one.

Bufflehead!

All of the lakes were incredibly clear.

Western Tanager.

For our last hike we went for views. Mt Harkness, at 8,046 feet, offers up extraordinary 360 degree views after a relatively easy 2 mile uphill hike. The trail head is just 14 miles North of Chester, CA on a decent paved, then dirt road. A working fire lookout tops the mountain and, if staffed, you'll probably get a tour. As early as this spring has been we were surprised to find it closed up.

Lake Almanor seems to glow on a hazy day.

Mt Lassen and the other peaks in the National Park that were all once part of Mt Tehama.
Drakesbad Guest Ranch is in the small green meadow in the center of the photo.

Mt Shasta, over 100 miles away, was a ghostly sight.

Our stay at Big Springs Resort was perfect. The place is rustic, with 8 cabins and 8 full hookup RV sites, dirt roads throughout. Sites are pretty close together and can be difficult to get in to due to trees. Fortunately they had good wifi because our Verizon signal was only good enough for phone calls.

Though the sites were close together we only had a neighbor one night out of seven. The road leading to the RV park has very low traffic volume and the park was extremely peaceful every day and night. It's a one block walk to a dock on the lake where we put our feet into the cool, clear water of Lake Almanor. We did not experience mosquito's around Lake Almanor, only at the smaller lakes deep in the mountains.

We will definitely return to this area, we could easily spend a month here. Chester, CA is big enough for a real grocery store and has a bunch of cute shops and restaurants, though the lone laundromat was overworked. There are many other campgrounds around here to choose from. Plumas County in general seems to have a lot of outdoor recreation possibilities. Fall, without the mosquito's, is probably an awesome time to visit.

Today we're on the road again heading North with a one night stay in Alturas ahead of us.

Lassen Volcanic National Park, Three Ways

We're spending a week just outside the cute little town of Chester, CA and almost on the shores of Lake Almanor at Big Springs Resort. Resort isn't a very accurate description, but this small, rustic full hookup RV park is extremely peaceful and about one block from the lake. The lake is supposed to get to around 75 degrees in the summer...it isn't that warm yet, but with the temps heading into the low 90's in the next few days we may just have to test the water!

Chester, CA is about 30 miles from the Southwest entrance to Lassen Volcanic National Park. Mt Lassen, at 10,457 ft, is the Southern most mountain in the Cascade Range and is a snow capped beacon looming over the surrounding area that last erupted in 1915. We chanced upon this area simply because it was a good distance from Reno, and we are so happy we ended up here! The lake is beautiful, the forests are lush and inviting and the trails are many!

So, in our three full days here we have experienced Lassen in three different ways:

#1. Lassen From Afar

The Lake Almanor Recreation Trail is a paved trail along 10 miles of the West edge of the lake, and I believe you can add on another mile to the dam using old highway 89. Much of the trail is in cool, refreshing, beautiful forest...perfect for a ride even when it's over 80 in the sun. Here and there are lake access points, there's a gentle incline and descent of a couple of miles in the middle of the trail, and at the South end of the lake you get wonderful views of Mt Lassen. We parked at the Northernmost trail head and rode 9 miles South and then back.

It's a 52 mile drive (or road bike ride) around Lake Almanor. All types of boating are allowed. The fishing is supposed to be good as well as birding. We saw pileated woodpeckers and bald eagles during our bike ride.

Mt Lassen dominates the horizon in these parts.

#2. Lassen at its Heart

Another day we drove the 30 miles to the Southwest entrance to Lassen Volcanic National Park. We'd planned to hike the Bumpass Hell and the Terrace/Shadow/Cliff Lakes trails but learned at the visitor center they were still closed due to snow. We were surprised since we knew it had been a low-snow winter and snow was melting fast in the early season heat. After a normal winter trails often don't open until July!

We ended up hiking three miles out from the Summit Lake trail head (campground and day use area still closed for the season even though there was no snow). Then stopped at the Kings Creek trail head and took the pretty one mile trail to the falls. Then stopped to oooh and ahh over the stinking, bubbling, boiling Sulphur Works. Sulphur Works is said to be the heart of the park, it is the center of a ring of mountains that were once one giant volcanic mountain, Mt. Tehama. Here's a You Tube video Hans shot at Sulphur Works.

All in all a fun day in the park...and we only drove halfway through the park! We'll save the Northwest portion for another visit down the road...

Fantastic views from the road through Lassen.
These peaks are part of edge of the original giant volcano, Mt Tehama.

Pretty colors in Echo Lake.

Kings Creek cuts through a still brown meadow, snow blankets the North facing hillside.

This is only a small portion of Kings Creek Falls!
It was stunning!

Lake Helen still covered in a thin layer of ice. The road cuts through the left side of the photo...
it could still have 10 - 15 feet of snow in a normal year!

The more active volcanic parts of the park leave colorful residues on the mountainsides.

Boiling sulphur mud pools right off the road at the Sulphur Works turnout.

#3, Lassen from the Fringes

Today we accessed Lassen Volcanic National Park from the town of Chester. Just 17 miles North of town (14 miles are paved, 3 are good dirt road) is the Drakesbad Guest Ranch. Drakesbad opened in 1900 as a remote, healthful retreat, utilizing the hot mineral waters naturally flowing through the property. Today it is owned by the National Park Service and continues to provide a unique lodging experience in an incredibly beautiful setting.

Drakesbad is located next to several fascinating trails (plus the Pacific Crest Trail) and we hiked two of them: Devils Kitchen and Boiling Springs Lake. We enjoyed these hikes so much I have to tag them as Favorites!

Drakesbad Guest Ranch is nestled in a beautiful meadow with a forested lava mountain behind it.
The hot spring in the foreground flows into a swimming pool at the bottom of the hill.

Devils Kitchen is AMAZING! There's about a third of a mile trail that loops you THROUGH the bubbling, steaming, burping, stinking mess that is the earth releasing its super heated gases. It's a fascinating experience and pictures just cannot do it justice...you've got to visit this place!

A cold water creek flows through Devil's Kitchen right along side steaming vents and bubbling hot water vents.
See the steam rising down stream?

The sounds coming out of the vents were scary!

Bubbling furiously!

Signs all over the place warned us that it is illegal to go beyond the signs!

Once we could finally tear ourselves away from the wonders of the Kitchen, we took a different trail back towards Drakesbad and the Boiling Springs Lake.

A strategically fallen tree enabled a stream crossing.

All along this portion of the trail we saw recently torn apart logs, sure sign that bears frequent this area.
Sure enough, once we reached the next trail junction a sign confirmed that fact!

Boiling Springs Lake was a cauldron of milky whitish, blueish water surrounded by colorful soil.
Hans is looking at a deer lying in front of a tree near the lake.

We decided he was enjoying the warmth of the dirt!
In places the soil was quite hot to the touch.

The far end of the lake seemed to be the main source of the earths emissions.

Colorful, burbling, burping, steaming potholes making all sorts of crazy sounds at this end of the lake.

Here's a You Tube video Hans made that includes the wild sounds coming out of the potholes.

Boiling Springs Lake with Mt Lassen in the distance.

We're halfway through our week at Lake Almanor and we've just scratched the surface of this incredibly beautiful, scientifically amazing place! Oh, and one of the best things, it's very uncrowded. Today we only saw one other small group on the trail!