Monday, July 11, 2011

TTRVE - Day 5 and Day 6

We were off the grid for a day at Lassen Volcanic National Park. Butte Lake Campground was a primitive campsite, complete with bear locker (to keep any food items in, so the bears can't get to it), biting gnats (all of the kids got little red bite marks on their necks which didn't swell but looked awful), a beautiful lake (Butte Lake which was the butte of many jokes), and no RV hookups or wifi.

So... this report is from both Day 5 (from Mt. Shasta to Mt. Lassen) and Day 6 (Mt. Lassen to Patrick's Point).

Day 5 was a full day - a morning of playing at the KOA, followed by a short 100 mile drive that culminated in a six mile section of washboard-like unpaved road. At times it seemed the entire RV was coming apart. Once we got to the campground we had the entire afternoon to play.

Since we have the coffee maker in our camper, we've decided to set up a little shop. The kids have made a sign for our shop: StaRVbucks - now open for business.

The kids loved the swings at the playground. Serious air.


Then, when we got to Butte Lake...

the first thing we did was go swimming...

Charlie was very proud of himself when he went in...

Then we did some exploring. In the forest there were lots of burned down trees so we had a discussion about charcoal. The kids conquered the charcoal log.


We rounded out day 5 with a barbeque and smores. Fabulous.


Day 6 we went back out the washboard road, hit the highway and drove to Redding to reload supplies at WalMart and have some lunch. And when I say lunch, I mean In N Out, which is more than just lunch.


We saw Mount Lassen on the way.


And after 90+ miles of mountain roads crossing at least three passes at decreasing elevations (4000+, 3000+, and 2000+ ft), we hit the 101 and saw the Pacific Ocean.


We are camped at the View Crest Lodge and RV park after an aborted entrance to Patrick's Point State Park. Turns out they didn't have RV hookups within the park (which was my mistake upon making the reservations). So the Toners wandered down the road and found another spot a mile away with full hookups.

It's a quiet place among the hemlocks, cedars and redwoods. It's much chillier here near the ocean though. Less bugs, which is a good tradeoff.

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