Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

These photos are taken in order from the north entrance, going clockwise around the crater's rim.

Diamond Lake, Oregon

This is my current stop - we were able to get into the RV campground here, so I have hookups and electricity for the sewing machine, air conditioner, and TV. Yeah, we're really roughing it. But the lake is beautiful, the fishing is so-so, and the weather is lovely. That's Mount Bailey on the other side of the lake.

Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon

Rocky Point Resort is on the northwest corner of Upper Klamath Lake - we found it after looking in Trailer Life for an alternative to Eagle Lake. Don wanted to skip Eagle Lake after hearing about the poor fishing and hot weather there. We got lucky - this is a place we would come back to again and again. Not only was it a nice place (a bit rustic, but that's fine with us), the fishing was magnificent and there's a quilt shop only a mile away! Our campsite, number 14, was only 15 feet from the water. Yes, that meant we had to deal with mosquitos, but that's been a constant this trip.


For the 6 days we were here, Don spent most of each of them out here in his float tube. Most evenings he fished until dark. The first night, he caught at 6-pound rainbow - but topped that a few nights later with a 10-pounder. We learned they were common in this lake, but for Don, it was something extraordinary.

Haven Lake and Sierra Buttes

Our next stop, for 6 nights, was Clio's River's Edge in the little town of Clio at the northern end of the Sierras. If you've never heard of it, it's near Graeagle, and fairly close to Portola and Quincy. The river that the campground is near is the Middle Fork of the Feather River. However, the river has been channelized here, so it looks more like a canal. We did find a 2-mile stretch near Portola that was great fishing, and spent one day there. Another day we drove up to the Lakes Basin, where I took the above picture of Haven Lake with the Sierra Buttes behind it. The Pacific Crest Trail goes right by these buttes. There are 10 or so lakes up in the basin, the largest of which is Gold Lake. Don spent two days on his float tube here. I found a quilt shop in Portola - and went there twice, of course.

Bridgeport, California

Our next stop, for 3 days, was Paradise Shores RV Park on Bridgeport Reservoir. It's a fairly small park, but we love it and will definitely go back. Our campsite was in the corner, with our own little lawn and view of the lake. The owners are so friendly - we were helped into our site, given some extra blocks for levelling, and invited to the Fathers' Day breakfast. I want to say something about the bathrooms - not only were they sparkling clean, but they had these little extra touches that just made them special: red liquid soap dispensers, a rack in the shower for shampoo, razor, soap, and such, and floor mats that didn't hurt your feet. (Fellow RV'ers will know what I mean!) We stopped here mainly to do laundry and let Don fish the East Walker River. He did, and had a fabulous time, catching many fish (and putting them all back).



The morning we hooked up to leave, this was the view to the south over Twin Lakes basin.

Mono Lake

Because we had time to "waste" before we could check into our campsite in Bridgeport, we decided to stop at the Mono Lake Visitor Center. We are so glad we did! We learned so much from the interesting displays, watched a fascinating 20-minute video, and did a little walking around on the nature trail.

Devil's Postpile National Monument

To get to Devil's Postpile, you have park your car at Mammoth Mountain Lodge and catch the mandatory shuttle bus over Minaret Crest and down into the valley of the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River. Several of the stops take you to trailheads or lakes, but we took the one at Devil's Postpile.

Back in 1990, we visited this monument, but I only took a couple of pictures of the kids. This time we even took the hike to the top. Geological features like this fascinate me - here, the lava cooled into hexagon-shaped columns, some of which bent and twisted as below.






Along the trail to the top is a slanted outcropping of the columns - they just stick out of the hillside.

The trail from the bus stop to the wall of columns goes along the San Joaquin River - and since we're on the west side of Minaret Crest (the Pacific Crest), this river flows south and then west into the Pacific Ocean.


Across the river was this enormous granite dome.


At another outcropping, one column had broken off neatly. See the hexagon shape?




At the top you can see where glaciers sheared off the tops of the columns, clearly showing their hexagonal shape.




The things you see in nature! This is the root system of a fallen tree along the trail.

Earthquake Fault (Fissure) near Mammoth Lakes

The town of Mammoth Lakes is located within an ancient caldera, and signs of volcanic activity are everywhere - cinder cones, lava flows, hot springs, tuff, pumice, ryolite, and constant earthquake activity. On Minaret Road there's even a good-sized fissure in the earth. Geologists argue as to whether it's a fault or just a fissure - but either way, it's interesting to look at.






I thought this old snag looked pretty cool!

Hello again, Sierras!

This was the view from our campsite at Oh! Ridge Campground on June Lake. This is one of our favorite places, because of the unlimited fishing possibilities, the views, and the nice spacious campground. We stayed here for 7 nights, and I'm now typing this from an RV park in Bridgeport (because now I have electricity and WiFi).


One of our day trips was up Tioga Pass towards Yosemite, where we intended to go to Saddlebag Lake. Once we got up there, though, we discovered that the road to the lake was closed because the lake is still frozen over. The creek here was not, so Don was able to put on his waders and go try a 2-mile stretch of it that runs between Saddlebag and Ellery Lakes.


I just put my chair out next to the truck, grabbed my stitching stuff, and had a wonderful day.

John Muir Wilderness

Yesterday we hiked into the John Muir Wilderness. It's a fairly easy hike - only a few small hills and minor elevation gain. I was at the end of my cold, so I just walked slowly, rested often, and enjoyed sitting at the lakes where we stopped so Don could fish.

Hot Creek

East of Mammoth Lakes is the Hot Creek Geological Area, along with a stretch of the creek that is considered trophy trout water. The first part of it is privately owned, but there's a one-mile stretch open to the public. Pretty, yes?

What a wonderful weekend

We spent 5 nights in East Fork Campground on Rock Creek at 7800' in the eastern Sierras. Don fished the creek, Rock Creek Lake, and 4 small lakes in the John Muir Wilderness. I stitched, read, hiked, and had a totally relaxing time - except for the fact that I had a really bad cold the whole time. I still insisted on yesterday's hike - the elevation gain wasn't that much, and I knew I could walk slowly. I ended up with great pictures and sunburned legs!

Fishing the Lower Owens River

For 95 years, the Owens River below Bishop was dry - the water was diverted into the Los Angeles Aqueduct. In 2006, the LADWP began letting water flow in the river channel again, and the Owens is slowly coming back to life. It is definitely fishable now - so Don and I went in search of places to give it a try. This spot on the right is below Tinnemaha Reservoir - nice clear water flowing out of the dam. Not much to catch, though.




This spot was east of Big Pine, and Don had better luck here. All three photos are the same area.

Lone Pine Campground

In case you're not familiar with this iconic image, the peak in the middle of this shot is Mount Whitney - the highest mountain in the lower 48 states (14,495'). Believe it or not, this was the view from the front door of our trailer. We could look right up through Whitney Portal from our campground. The large window on the side of our trailer had a nice view as well - down past the Alabama Hills into the Owens Valley and across to the White Mountains. Really, it didn't matter which way you looked, it was all lovely.

These mountains are to the south of Mount Whitney - I just wanted to show our trailer and campsite.

The third day at Lone Pine we experienced high winds - I heard on the radio that gusts across the high ridges were up to 100 miles per hour.

Sierra Vista

We thought we'd try to go up to the Bristlecone Pine Forest - the roads were clear up to 10,000 feet. However, there was a locked gate about 4 miles short of the grove and visitors' center, so we turned around and had a picnic lunch at the Sierra Vista viewpoint. These are shots looking west towards the High Sierras above Independence and Lone Pine.