Crater Lake

OK…we’re almost caught up here. After Yosemite, Jo and I parted ways. She headed home and Leland and I continued north. The plan was to stay at Lassen Volcanic National Park; however, that ended up being a 415 mile trip and getting out of Yosemite and then around Tahoe takes forever! We stayed in Quincy, CA that night and enjoyed an evening in a hotel. The next morning we cruised through Lassen Volcanic National Park. Lassen is one of the least visited parks in the U.S. and is absolutely gorgeous. After spending a few hours in Lassen we headed to Crater Lake National Park.

Crater Lake was our home base for the next five days. There is a reason Crater Lake is a National Park, it is, without question, the most beautiful place I have ever seen.

We spent our first day riding the rim of the park and stopping off at the viewpoints. Now, when I packed I planned for California and Reno, but not cold a$ Oregon. The second day was spent remedying that problem. We motored off to Bend to get a new rear tire for Leland and a sweatshirt for me (thank you REI!).

We went to Oregon Cave National Monument the next day. Now, I was not expecting much. I thought that if I’d seen one cave I had seen them all. However, it was a really cool experience. We stopped in a large chamber that had amazing acoustics and our Ranger guide convinced two of the Korean ladies in our group to sing a traditional Korean song to show off the acoustics. The song was beautiful and the sound was amazing. Along with the cave being beautiful the ride from Crater Lake to the cave and back was also stunning. The only unfortunate part is my camera broke the night before...boo!

The last day at the lake was spent climbing Mt. Scott, the highest point in the park. It was a great hike that gave panoramic views of the lake, the Klamath Valley, and even Mt. Shasta in the distance.

On our way to Reno (I had a state education meeting to attend) we stopped at Lava Beds National Monument just on the California/Oregon border. Lava Beds has 24 caves that are open for exploration by visitors. All of the caves have some special feature that makes them worth exploring.

Overall I put 3,000 miles on the motorcycle in 18 days. I saw some stunning scenery and became very confident and comfortable on the motorcycle. A heartfelt thanks goes to Jo for putting up with the pets for 10 days by herself and to Leland for going with me.