Father and Son Road Trip- 9 States, 2 Months, 6500 Miles!

[TonyBKK]

Next we went to a Junior Ranger activity where the kids got to make a volcano and re-create the eruption of Mount Mazama and formation of Crater Lake-


The balloon is the magma chamber and the kids are creating Mount Mazama over it-


Mount Mazama is about to "erupt"!


Boom! (or pop, as it were) I LOL'd at the kid on the left covering his ears


And voila- Mount Mazama blew it's top, the Magma chamber collapsed leaving the caldera which filled with rain and snow and became Crater Lake


We finished the Junior Ranger workbook and Kristhawee earned his Crater Lake National Park Junior Ranger Badge!

Good job Kristhawee! I'm so proud of you!!

[TonyBKK]

We wandered around Rim Village a bit more, taking in the sights-


Bought some picnic supplies at the General Store, hit the drinking fountain, and then we jumped back on the bike to ride to the base of the Watchman Peak Trail.


Riding north along the West Rim Drive, we catch occasional glimpses of Crater Lake on our right-


There's Watchman Peak, and if you look closely you can see the historic stone fire lookout on top-


Not many cars or people in the Watchman Overlook parking area. The beginning of the trail is an old road which you can see in the background-


It's about a mile from the parking lot to the top, and about a 400 foot ascent.


The Watchman Trail sign at the trailhead-


Gorgeous view of Wizard Island in the late afternoon sun-


Let's go!


West Rim Drive on the right, Watchman Trail on the left-


Starts out easy enough-


Snow!


Uh oh, somebody's after me!


Snowball fight!


More snow-




Somebody getting tired already??


C'mon little dude- it's not much farther to the top!




As I wait for the little guy I snap some wildflowers by the trail-


Not at the top yet, but already some amazing views-


I'm rather surprised to spot this large bird at this altitude. Too big to be a grouse. About the same size as a pheasant, but doesn't look like any pheasant I've ever seen. Not sure what it is?


Yeah, we made it to the top!!


What a view!


I ask a sexy German girl to take our picture-


Father and son on Watchman Peak, Crater Lake National Park, Oregon, USA!


What a great spot for a picnic!




On the way down Kristhawee makes friends with a bunch of college co-eds and forgets all about me

Nice girls and they love my kid, but alas they were staying at Mazama and we're at Lost Creek... ah well

Kristhawee asks me, in all seriousness, if he can go with them


I want to get back to Lost Creek before dark, but the girls invite us for ice cream at Mazama Village. How could I refuse?

I don't generally like riding at dusk, but I get the impression deer don't come up this high, or at least I hope that's the case.


Enjoyed ice cream with the girls at Mazama Village and picked up some essential supplies at the General Store-

Nice Rack IPA

Once the sun went down the temperature dropped quickly. Again I was thankful for the heated seats and grips on the Land Yacht. We made it back to our campground safely and Kristhawee helped me build a big fire.


He's a pyromaniac just like his dad


Making music with my empty bottle-


A few pages from the Jungle Book and he was gone-

Good night my beloved son- sweet dreams!

[TonyBKK]

Good morning from Lost Creek Campground, Crater Lake National Park!


Today we're headed to California! An interesting sidecar rolled by as we were packing up our site-


Bunch of Harleys at the south entrance of Crater Lake National Park-


Pleasant morning, the beautiful weather continues! Riding past Klamath Lake-


Approaching the California border, 53 miles to Weed!


Our first glimpse of Mount Shasta far off in the distance-


Welcome to California!!

[VietHorse]

Originally Posted by TonyBKK

I ask a sexy German girl to take our picture-
............
On the way down Kristhawee makes friends with a bunch of college co-eds and forgets all about me
............
Nice girls and they love my kid, but alas they were staying at Mazama and we're at Lost Creek... ah well
............
Kristhawee asks me, in all seriousness, if he can go with them
............

I want to get back to Lost Creek before dark, but the girls invite us for ice cream at Mazama Village. How could I refuse?

Like father like son, Tony.
You may recall some similar cases around 20-30years ago.

[TonyBKK]

Woohoo! Welcome to California! Butte Valley National Grassland-


Off in the distance we see Mount Shasta-


Beautiful!




Grass Lake Station, Klamath National Forest-


What a view!


Shasta-Trinity National Forests-




The snow looks cool, but it's getting quite hot-

[TonyBKK]

We stopped in the funky town of Weed for fuel and lunch. The Hi-Lo Cafe was packed and serving up some great food-


After lunch I dropped the Land Yacht I'd parked it in kind of a tight spot on an incline and as I wrestled it up off the side stand it just kept going, toppling over onto the right side. (Because of the slope, when I went to put my right foot down, I only found air; by the time I reached the ground, the bike was already past the point of no return.

Damn it's a heavy beast, full tank of gas, and my son strapped on the back. Kinda funny actually. Kristhawee was hanging there in his harness trying to decide if he should cry or not, which gave me the giggles, which set him off, and there we are, laughing our butts off in the parking lot of the Hi-Lo while passer-bys are giving us strange looks.

A really nice off-duty fireman who was built like a linebacker saw the whole thing, came over and told me there was no way I'd pick that bike up by myself, which was probably true. I removed my son and emptied the top box and panniers and we got the beast back on its feet.

The cool thing is, the engineers at Bayerische Motoren Werke had forseen that numpties like me would be dropping their Land Yacht and they designed the bike with this in mind. There are big solid crash bars built into the sides of the bike, hidden under some black trim, and this keeps the bike from going all the way over.

We rolled out of Weed, pride a bit scuffed, bike undamaged

[TonyBKK]

From Weed we jumped on the Interstate 5 down to the 89.


Nice views of Mt Shasta from the West-


While my goal on this trip was to avoid interstate highways as much as possible, this section of I5 was quite pleasant.

Passing Black Butte-


A closer look at Black Butte-


Off the I-5 and on to State Highway 89 headed east-




91 more miles to Lassen National Park!


Had the road mostly to ourselves through the Trinity-Shasta National Forests-


Beautiful road, with an occasional nice curve thrown in-


103 degrees Fahrenheit (about 40 C)! It was very hot, but a dry heat, bearable as long as we kept moving-


Lassen National Forest!


Hot and dry- fire restrictions in effect!


We made it!!! Scored the next to last campsite in the Manzanita campground (so lucky!!!) and headed down to the lake to cool off-

[TonyBKK]

Kristhawee at Manzanita Lake, Lassen Volcanic National Park, California, USA!


Ah that nice cool water felt good after a hot day on the bike!


Tons of wildlife around the lake- we saw ducks, deer, eagles, hawks, turtles and something that looked like either a beaver or an otter, not suite sure which. Kristhawee enjoyed chasing the ducks




Checking out some big pine cones-


We scored a nice big site in the Manzanita Lake campground-


Kristhawee was very happy to see that there were a bunch of kids in the site adjacent to ours and he made friends quickly and even got invited over for pancakes in the morning


They were a really nice family from the Bay Area, father originally from Spain. Amazing and heartwarming hospitality


Kristhawee with his new girlfriends

[TonyBKK]

Time to hit the road!


Highway 89 through Lassen Volcanic National Park is a fantastic ride-


There were controlled burns taking place in the park so it was a bit smoky and hazy.


It was another warm day, but got cooler as we climbed to higher elevations-


Very smoky in some areas-


Gorgeous road, too bad the views are partially obscured by the smoke-


Chased down a heavily loaded GS-










We're coming up to an area called the Sulfur Works-


We stopped at the Sulfur Works to check out the geothermal features-


Stinky!


Some beautiful colors from the minerals and bacteria-


Kristhawee at the Sulfur Works, Lassen Volcanic National Park, California, USA!




Looking back the way we came-


I ask Kristhawee if he's up for a hike to the Ridge Lakes? He's up for it! Let's go!

[TonyBKK]

The hike up to the Ridge Lakes was challenging and rewarding. It's only about a mile up to the lakes, but you gain over 1000 feet in elevation, so it's a pretty steep trail.


Up up up!


Looking back and down at highway 89


Kristhawee was a trooper and we made slow but steady progress up the mountain-


Highway 89 is shrinking below us as we climb-


The Ridge Lakes Trail passes by some hot springs-


It's a bit of a scramble to get down to the hot springs-


Getting back up wasn't so easy either




Up and up we continue to climb-


Sulfur Creek burbles cheerfully through the meadow and along the trail-


Wow- I wasn't expecting this- huge fields of wildflowers! Mules Ear, Indian Paintbrush and Lupine-


Beautiful!!


An entire slope in bloom!

[TonyBKK]

We continue our hike through fields of Lupine on the Ridge Lakes Trail in Lassen Volcanic National Park


I didn't think Lupine had a scent, but I guess I was wrong? It smells wonderful up here!


Kristhawee tells me I take too many pictures


He tells me to put away the camera and get moving!


I get far enough ahead I can pull the camera out and snap a couple more pics-


What a beautiful trail!


C'mon little guy- it can't be much farther to the top!


We are both in very good spirits


Are we there yet??


Seriously, are we there yet??



Yippee! We made it!

Ridge Lakes, Lassen Volcanic National Park, California, USA

[TonyBKK]

We've reached the Ridge Lakes, a pair of small alpine lakes cradled in a basin between Brokeoff Mountain and Mount Diller in Lassen Volcanic National Park!


Kristhawee was straggling and just arrived-


Crystal clear water, so cold it takes your breath away!


We had plans to go swimming but quickly had second thoughts once we found out just how cold the water was-


What a view! We were the only people here.


Kristhawee at Ridge Lakes, Lassen Volcanic National Park!




There were some trails that led off from the lakes so we decided to go exploring-


Cool trees-


This is a perfect example of a "Cathedral". Cathedrals are trees that have grown up from the living remains of an original stump or fallen tree. The new trees grow around the perimeter of the original tree and form a circle. Pretty cool!

Kristhawee thought this Cathedral of trees was pretty cool! So did I


We hiked around the lakes- pretty muddy in some spots!


One of my son's favorite words is "SQUISHY!"






A bit of a scramble in some places-




Working our way over some fallen trees was harder than it looks-




Father and Son at Ridge Lakes, Lassen Volcanic National Park, California, USA!

[TonyBKK]

One last picture of the Ridge Lakes before we hike back down to the Sulfur Works trailhead and continue our ride south towards Truckee and Lake Tahoe.


Kristhawee sets off down the trail at a good pace-


Check out the dust he's kicking up-


I actually admonish him to slow down, because a fall here could be quite unpleasant-


On the way down we spot a doe and two fawns-


Look for the ears


Zoomed in-






The fawns still have their spots-




Down down down-


Across the meadows and into the forest-


Kristhawee is doing great on this hike!


We can see highway 89 again so we know we're close to the end-


We made it! Good job Kristhawee- that was a challenging hike!


Back on the road- it's late afternoon now and we need to cover some distance. I'm hoping to reach Truckee today as we need to reach Yosemite National Park the next day to claim our reserved camping spot in the valley.


Leaving Lassen Volcanic National Park. I really want to come back and spend some more time exploring this park some day!


Left on 89 towards Susanville. I'm told that the 36 west to Red Bluff is a fantastic ride too!

[DanielR]

Keep it coming!

[TonyBKK]

Cruisin on the beautiful California Highway 89!


Some towering thunder clouds made me think we might get wet-


It got really smoky as we approached Lake Almanor-


Wow, kinda reminded me of Thailand during the fire season...


Such weird light- we went from bright sun to this in the span of just a few miles-


Fortunately once past Lake Almanor the air cleared-


We reach the Feather River Highway and hang a left to continue on the 89. This is a fantastic road!!






It's getting late and I don't think we'll reach Truckee today, but I want to get as close as I can without having to set up camp in the dark.

Beautiful countryside-


Lots of ranches and cattle-



Some cool old barns-


Where's the beef?


California Highway 89 South-


The California flag has a Grizzly bear on it, even though there aren't any grizzlies in the state...


Seems the whole state, in fact, much of the country, is a tinder box-


The trees are quite beautiful in the early evening sun-


It's after 6 and I decide it's time to stop. See a sign for Cottonwood Creek Campground-


The campground is big and nearly deserted. We have our choice of sites. This ought to do