Pacific Coast: Crater Lake NP & Toketee Falls (Part 1)

September 14, 2016

Crater Lake National Park, OR

I once read an article which had compiled a bunch of 1-star reviews of national parks. There was a guy that said going to Crater Lake was a waste of time because all you see is a lake.

Be warned, the main attraction at Crater Lake National Park is Crater Lake. Crater Lake is a lake in a crater. It's filled with enough water to make it the 10th deepest lake in the world and deepest lake in the United States. The water sits inside a caldera which was formed about 150 years ago when a volcano exploded. The lake is replenished only by rain water and snow melt (there are no rivers emptying into the lake). If you drive or walk the park road, you will circumnavigate the lake and thus see 360 angles of the same crystal clear deep blue lake.

Unlike 1-star guy, I love lakes. Crater Lake is one of the most beautiful and unique lakes I've ever seen. It's blue water is mesmerizing. If you get a chance, please go.

I arrived at Crater Lake sometime in the afternoon. My phone had zero reception which made it challenging to find Courtney who was waiting for me at the visitor center. Thankfully, we were able to find each other and adventure forth!

Aside from hiking around the rim of the caldera, we decided to hike down to the lake. The hike down consisted of a series of switchbacks. At the bottom, we encountered a small group of people who were cliff jumping into the frigid 37 degree waters.

We were greeted by a heavy downpour as soon as we made it back to the top and decided it was time to seek out a place to camp for the night in the Umpqua National Forest just outside the park.

The beauty of the National Forests is that there is so much open land where you can camp for free in private. Many times, you can even find actual campgrounds which are maintained within National Forests which are also free. Tonight though, the small clearing in the photo above served as our camp spot.

Toketee Falls, OR

One of the few side adventures we went on was a short trip to Toketee Falls. Toketee Falls is located in the Umpqua National Forest. It's a short hike to a double tiered water fall. The toughest part about getting to the falls is finding the parking lot as the turnout to the parking lot is not marked. Should you attempt your own adventure to the falls, here's a couple previews of things you'll see:

After the falls we headed to Eugene for lunch and to briefly peruse the REI in town. We parted ways in Eugene. Courtney was headed to Bend and I to Portland.

Crazy California: Lassen NP (Part 9)

September 13, 2016

Lassen Volcanic National Park, CA

After the last goodbyes were said and I successfully managed to pack my food box with all the instant noodles my aunt and uncle gave me, I set off. It was time to leave California and meet up with Courtney, who I'd met in Kings Canyon. But first, a quick visit to Lassen National Park.

Lassen Volcanic NP is known for its volcanoes and geothermal features. It's one of the only places in the world where you can find all four types of volcanoes in one spot. Those volcanoes are: Cinder Cone, Shield Cone, Composite Cone, and Plug Dome.

My visit to Lassen was rainy and gloomy. It is often raining at Lassen since it is not protected from the rain shadow effect. Since I was recovering from a cold, I decided to primarily tour the park by vehicle.

As the weather didn't seem like it would let up, I decided to continue on and plotted a course towards the coast to continue my drive up the coastal highway. I'm not sure how I decided on the particular route, but I was probably feeling pretty whimsy and probably thinking I'd have all day to make it halfway to Crater Lake, NP in Oregon. The thing you should remember, and that I didn't account for, is that any time you drive on smaller highways through mountains and forests, you have to tack on several extra hours of driving time due to the winding roads and slower speed limits.

Driving through the Shasta-Trinity National Forest

While the weather wasn't very good for hiking around, the combination of fog and extra tall redwoods and pines made for a spooky driving experience. I hoped that the fog would let up, but if not, that was fine too. Into the mystery!

It was pretty late when I finally stopped for the day. I ended up spending the night Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park surrounded by tall redwoods. This was the first time I'd camped in a place where RVs and other mega tent setups didn't seem so big and obtrusive since each campsite was ringed by even larger redwoods.

Crazy California: A Change of Plans (Part 8)

September 5, 2016

Sacramento, CA

My last stop heading out of the state of California was to visit my aunt and uncle at their beautiful home in Sacramento, CA. I spent most of my time recovering from a cold and figuring out yet another leg of the trip.

Up until I arrived in Sacramento, I had loosely planned to return back to Minnesota before continuing on to Alaska. Upon hearing of my plans to return to the Midwest, my uncle quickly vetoed the idea in favor of continuing on to Alaska from California. In hindsight, I'm thankful he advised me to continue on as I would eventually arrive in Alaska during a most beautiful season.

I'm glad I spent a few days in Sacramento visiting with my uncle. One day, he took me on a walk of the neighborhood and pointed out how wasteful the neighbors were as they grew so many types of fruits but didn't eat them. Needless to say, we returned with a backpack of grapes. It would be the second to last time I'd see him. He passed away March 2016.

The following are a few pictures in memory of my Uncle Mike:

Soon enough, I was back on the road ready to head up the West Coast and on to Alaska!

Crazy California: Family & Friends (Part 7)

May 9, 2016

The first leg of my trip through the Southwest was intense. It was my first time traveling for an extended period of time without running into anyone I knew or had any prior connection to. My adrenaline ran high. Traveling through California was completely different because I was fortunate to have many friends and family scattered across the state. I want to dedicate space on this blog to acknowledge all the people who helped me out, traveled with me, and overall enriched my travel experience.

Santa Barbara, CA

After my stint in the Southwest, I arrived in Santa Barbara, CA covered in a good layer of desert cached on sweat cached on desert. I stayed with my cousin Julia for a couple days and to this day, I still recall that stay as my second new definition of heaven. My stay in Julia's guest bedroom was everything you fantasize about after traveling long stretches in the backcountry. It was my first night sleeping in a "real" bed in a month. Compared to the piece of plywood I slept on my first four nights during the first leg of my trip, I slept like a queen.

Julia introduced me to the world of oysters! Little did I know you could go to oyster farms and eat oodles of oysters.

Orange, CA & San Diego, CA

While I was in LA for Pride, I got wind that my aunt, uncle, and cousin were in the area. Having no pressing business, I joined them on their mini trip to Orange, CA and later to San Diego, CA to visit a family and friends.

Adventuring with my relatives was very nice and a good change of pace to explore urban areas, eat delicious food, and hangout with my awesome family.

Strolling along the beach on a hazy afternoon

San Francisco, CA

Of the many random things I did in San Francisco, I started off by going to American Dental Association conference in downtown San Francisco with my friend, Yin. While I couldn't get into the conference area without a pass, there was still plenty to see right outside. I even got screened for oral cancer and am happy to know my mouth is cancer free!

After the conference, we headed out by foot to Golden Boy Pizza. According to another travel writer I had met earlier in the week, Golden Boy Pizza was supposed to be the cheapest best pizza in SF. Naturally, I wanted to find out for myself. Coincidentally, our route to Golden Boy Pizza took us through Chinatown which was perfect because I wanted to go to Chinatown, but wasn't sure if I'd have the opportunity.

A slice of pepperoni $3.50 and pesto veggie pizza $4

And the verdict for the pizza? Not bad. Golden Boy Pizza is a dive with an unassuming exterior and a punk vibe inside. The service is fast and the expectation is that you eat up and get out so that others can take your spot at one of the few seats available. I was happy to get a cheap meal in the heart of SF.

San Mateo, CA

In the summer of 2006, I studied abroad in Beijing, China. The program was primarily to learn Chinese language with a few elective classes tossed in there such as calligraphy, Chinese painting, tai chi, etc. Within the program, there was a group of us that hung out a lot and called ourselves the "Rainbow 7" after we went to the hair salon and each dyed our hair a different color of the rainbow. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun in China. Over the years, I had mostly kept up with Tina, whom I tried to find purple sand with in Crazy California: Finding Purple Sand. However, it turned out that several of us were in the area and managed to have dinner one day. We hadn't seen each other in 10 years! It was great to catch up!

Oakland, CA

Aria is one of those unique and wonderful humans in the world I'd met back in Minnesota. I was excited to connect up with her while I was in California. While a lot of the time I spent at Aria's place involved binge watching Criminal Minds on TV while I recovered from a cold, we did make a trip up to Harbin Hot Springs and explore around Oakland.

At one point, we took a walk around Lake Merritt in Oakland. The same travel blogger who recommended Golden Boy Pizza recommended going to Lake Merritt. Lake Merritt is a man made lake surrounded by apartment buildings and other commercial establishments. To a Minnesotan, who has access to lakes everywhere, the lake was lacking. The sidewalks were littered with goose droppings and the lake smelled foul and had a lot of algae...

Fremont, CA

For the last two years, I have volunteered to prepare Federal and State tax returns for low income taxpayers at a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) clinic. During my first year preparing taxes, I met Marco and we fast became friends. He's a manager at Pancheros and was helping to open a new branch in Fremont, CA. So, one night I met up with him for drinks and burritos. I gotta say, the queso in a Pancheros burrito is pretty tasty and hits the spot every time!

Crazy California: Yosemite, Sequoia, & Kings Canyon NP (Part 6)

May 3, 2016

When planning a trip to the Sierras, it's important to check the weather and road conditions and closures before heading out. Smog is often an issue in the Sierras as weather patterns push the air pollution inland from the cities. If everything checks out, go for it.

Yosemite NP, CA

The drive up to Yosemite National Park (pronounced yo-sem-it-ee) is a winding road as you leave the agricultural area of California's central valley. I'd wanted to go to Yosemite for years, but was unable to make the trip as it's around a 4-5 hour drive from the San Francisco. As soon as I entered Yosemite Valley, everything changed. I was in utter awe of the massive white granite cliffs that surrounded the valley.

I'd arrived at the park around noon and it was packed. The parking lot had several overflow lots which is where I ended up parking. There's a shuttle system that takes you around the park, but I decided to walk to the Visitor's Center. All the campsites were full which meant all that was left was the option to camp in the backcountry. I headed to the Wilderness Office and got a permit to camp. It's free to camp in the backcountry as long as you have a permit. A bear proof food container is required and costs $5 to rent one if you don't have one already.

The valley was beautiful and is everything you read about. The one thing that was missing was the water due to the drought. As a result, the waterfalls were reduced to a trickle.

I spent maybe a day and a half in Yosemite and was done with the mass of people in the park.

Sequoia NP, CA

Just south of Yosemite is Sequoia National Park, home of the largest single stem tree in the world, General Sherman. As the park's name implies, Sequoia National Park is known for it's sequoia trees. Sequoias are the largest of the three types of redwood trees. They are so big their branches look like the trunks of the largest trees back home.

That said, instead of uploading a bunch of pictures of extremely large trees (of which I have many), I'm going to highlight a few of the things I learned on a nature hike through the Mariposa Grove.

Fire Scars

Redwoods are extremely resistant to fire. However, when you walk around a grove of sequoias, you'll notice that many of them have huge black marks near the base of the tree. Those scars are caused by fire. Repeat forest fires will burn through the bark leaving the tree susceptible to fire damage. Eventually, the fires destroy the core of the tree killing it. There are many redwoods still standing with their cores completely burnt out. Those stand testament to the resilience of the bark which still stands long after the tree is dead.

Fuel Ladders

Fuel ladders are living and dead vegetation that allows fire to climb higher into the forest canopy from the ground. The reason the fire scars of the redwoods only goes up so far is because the fire was unable to reach higher. Redwoods start their first set of branches pretty far up, so the height of the fire scar is about the height of the surrounding vegetation.

Fire can climb higher by jumping from lower branches to higher ones

Big Tree, Little Cones

Several years ago, I took a picture of redwood cones in Redwoods National Park which were around the size of a quarter. The sequoias are bigger than their coastal brethren and their cones are pretty small.

Sugar Pine Cone (below) vs Sequoia Cone (above) — Sugar Pine Cone (below) vs Sequoia Cone (above)

Urge To Merge

When separate Sequoias come into contact with each other, they merge into one tree. This is different than trees (like aspen) that shoot up clone trees from their lateral roots.

So think about this: Sequoias grow to be over a thousand years old, some are closer to two thousand years old. Their roots must be comparable in size to the tree above ground. Maybe the whole forest is connected and the trees have a collective knowledge like in the movie, Avatar.

If you were to look at the base of the Faithful Couple (picture above), you'd think it was one tree. However, upon examination of the upper story, you see that it is two trees fused together.

Kings Canyon NP, CA

Kings Canyon National Park seemed like a mesh of the white granite cliffs in Yosemite National Park and the sequoias in Sequoia National Park. The granite canyon was carved out by glaciers and is one of the deepest canyons in the United States. The best part was that there weren't that many people in the park!

On a brilliantly hot day, I decided to hike up to the top of a waterfall. At the top of the falls, I met Courtney. It turned out she was also a solo traveler roadtripping around the US and Canada. We chatted all the way back down from the falls and camped together for the night. As it would turn out, we met up later on in our respective travels in Oregon.

Happy Travels!