LaPine State Park and the Cove Palisades State Park, Oregon, by Caroline

 Life at the campsite after enjoying the beautiful Crater Lake NP. We drove up route 97 to LaPine State Park and we had an Easter egg hunt. My genius brothers made a fire, and also became experts at smoking our clothes and burnt our marshmallows along the way :(. After that, the kids made a fort and started a mutiny.

Roasting marshmallows!

Elk! Elk! Elk!

The Easter bunny came!

Fort 1.

Fort 2.

Coastal Oregon and Crater Lake National Park

Arch Rock, Oregon

The Oregon coast is so picturesque that we kept stopping along Rte. 101 to take pictures and explore the beaches. We spent a few days meandering along until we got to Coos Bay and had a weather window to visit Crater Lake inland.

Crater Lake is the caldera that was created when Mt. Mazama collapsed over 7,000 years ago following a huge eruption. This picturesque lake is fed purely by snowmelt and rainfall- and does it snow here. The lake is located about 100 miles from the Oregon coast and receives storms regularly. The lake is obscured by clouds 50% of the time in the winter, but we were fortunate to visit on the perfect day!!

The Crater Lake National Park has received over 51 ft of snow so far this year!!! The snowbanks were well over 20 ft high now. All of the buildings have snow tunnel entrances since the doors are buried under layers of snow!

BIG snow banks!!

Crater lake in all of it's beauty!!

Close up of Wizard Island.

This is the Crater Lake Visitor Center- can you find it??

The sign is an understatement.

Redwood National Park, CA.

We stopped at the Redwood National Park which encompasses both coastal sections and giant redwood groves along the Northernmost portion of California.  One of the highlights of the visit included a great view of the Roosevelt elk herd that was wintering along the meadow inside the park. The weather was somewhat dismal but we managed a hike through on the Cathedral Tree trail.

                                      

The Roosevelt elk herd that was once endangered.

Hiking in the redwoods.

Cathedral tree trail.

Ranger Nate reviewing the Jr. Ranger work.

The famous banana slug- the hero of decomposition in the redwoods.

This is Paul Bunyan country and we found him looking large with his Blue Ox "Babe"!!

Santa Rosa and the Northern California Coast

We left Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park for Sacramento, California. We spent the night there and journeyed west on Rte. 12 through Sonoma to Santa Rosa to visit my Aunt BettyAnn and Uncle Dick. We had a great lunch together catching up. The children were so pleased to meet their great Aunt and Uncle.

They provided us with some guidance for our future travel in Oregon from their years of living there.

The Ketcham's in Santa Rosa.

We left Santa Rosa and decided to head to the coast. The Northern California coast is so dauntingly beautiful, steep windy cliffs, big surf, rocks jutting out along the seashore!! We lucked out to get a spot at the Sonoma State beach campground in Bodega Bay and enjoyed the natural setting and fire in our grill.

Sonoma State Beach-Bodega Bay Campground.

Our great campfire.

The Pacific Coast.

Our journey took us further up the coast on Rte. 1 until we had vertigo from the twists and turns in the road. We went inland on a little road from Stewart's Point to Cloverdale where we spent the night in their Citrus Fair campgrounds.

 The next day we drove up more benign Rte. 101 to Fortuna California and the Riverwalk Campground. The drive was spectacular, the latter part of the road shrouded with towering California redwood trees! Fortuna was a great base to visit the Victorian town of Ferndale, the Centerville Beach, and best of all the little town of Loleta and the Loleta Cheese factory. The cheese from the factory is sold to Trader Joe's shops around the country under different names! We tasted almost all 36 types of cheese!

The Centerville Beach, Ferndale, CA.

The local Loleta bank.

First the tour of the Loleta Cheese Factory...

Then the tasting...yum.

Our final stop for the day of gastronomic delight was Eureka, Ca. at Gill's by the Bay for some of the local seafood chowder the locals rave about. We enjoyed it very much, but still think it has nothing over New England chowder!!

Lunch at Gill's by the bay for seafood chowder.

Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park, CA

We arrived at Kings Canyon/ Sequoia National Park from California's Central Valley on General's Highway 180 and kept climbing in elevation. The visitor center for Grant Grove Village was at 6,500 ft.+! We found a substantial snow pack when we visited the General Grant Grove of Sequoia trees. Some of these remarkable Goliaths were alive during the reign of Cleopatra!!! The General Grant tree is so wide that you could fit a city bus across its diameter and couldn't see at either end.

The General Grant Tree- 2cnd largest in the world.

Our drive along the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway  provided us with breath taking views of the Canyon and the Sierra Nevadas!!

The King's Canyon!!

Where is the picnic table?

Yosemite National Park, CA

Yosemite National Park has experienced a slow start to spring. We arrived in a snow storm and found 4-6 ft drifts in the higher elevations. We were thankful that the Yosemite Valley was green and sunny and the campground had only a few old snow piles like a distant memory of the hard winter.

The sign in the snow!

Wow- thought we had left that behind!

The snow melt had swollen the Merced River and Yosemite's famous waterfalls were beyond belief. Our first hike took us up 1.5 miles to the past Columbia Rock on the Upper Yosemite Falls Trail. The view of the falls was breathtaking. After our descent we accomplished the more modest Lower Falls trail to the base of the Lower Yosemite Falls.

The Upper Yosemite Falls.

Lower Yosemite Falls.

Our second day we hiked up to the Vernal Falls. The trail afforded us spectacular views of the Nevada Falls across the ravine as well. At the base of the trail we continued along the Merced River on to the Mirror Lake. The lake is no longer dredged or dammed so has shrunk in size, but still reflected Half Dome in its majesty.

Mirror Lake reflecting the cliffs.

Vernal Falls.

"OH, we're not on the trail??"

The Bridal Veil Fall accents the valley.

Half Dome.

Our last day we visited the Mariposa Grove of Sequoia trees. The trails had just opened for the spring and we found snowpack around the majestic trees.

The famous drive thru tree.

The clothespin tree.