"Hot Tub" Hot Tub

We're at a great hot tub, named "Hot Tub", in the Hot Creek area just east of Mammoth Lakes. Once again, in drove a WIN friend, this time Sally.

Mammoth Lakes Area

Down a scary road from Mammoth Lakes lies the Devils Postpile, a sheer wall of symmetrical basaltic columns more than 60 feet high. It was worn smooth on top by glacial action. I took the trail to the top where the surface resembles a tile inlay. In 1910, a mining company wanted to blast the formation to dam the river. Fortunately, the application was denied, and it became a national monument in 1911.

A short hike away is 101-foot high Rainbow Falls. I didn’t see any rainbows; I think there needs to be more mist.

Hot Springs Surprise

While soaking in beautiful Travertine Hot Springs near Bridgeport, CA, we were surprised to see some WIN friends, Donna, Tom, and Linda, arrive. It’s amazing how often we run into friends on our travels!

A City Fix in Reno

Since we are planning to go down Highway 395 (where there are no Walmarts-gasp!), we needed a place where we could stock up.

Our stay in Reno coincided with the aptly-named Street Vibration Motorcycle Rally. Believe me, the streets really do vibrate from the thousands of motorcycles. My friend Sally is here with her Harley.

Mt. Shasta

Here we are camped where we’ve camped before, with a great view of Mt. Shasta, off Hwy 89 beside the quiet ski park road. We liked it well enough to stay two days. What an amazing view!

A little farther south, we were attracted by a vast lava field on the map, and made our way there. Wow! What a whopper of a lava field, thousands of acres----and, a creek runs right through it. (It's a little hard to see, but that's lava in the foreground of the picture.) We were parked underneath a huge pine tree that had acorns as big as my head. A little scary, I worried about my solar panels!

Southwestern Oregon

From Eugene, we headed south on I-5. We spent a few days in Merlin, Oregon, one of my favorite areas of the country. The picture is of Hellgate Canyon, where the Rogue River goes through a narrow gorge, on its way to the coast. Two years ago, I went on a wet and fun jet boat ride here.


Oregon is famous for its covered bridges, so we had to go see one. This is the Grave Creek bridge. Although this bridge was not built until 1920, it was built along the route of the Applegate Trail. Emigrants began using this route in 1846 as an alternative to the perilous last leg of the Oregon trail, which required a treacherous raft trip down the Columbia River.

The first wagon train to use this southern route camped here. A 16-year old girl died of Typhoid fever that night. Her grave is still here and much honored.

On the Road Again

Finally! My car and I are reunited. The final bill to the other guy’s insurance company will be about $10,000. We couldn’t wait to get out of Enumclaw, even though we had a very nice time there.

We went down the east side of Mt. St. Helens, which is a lovely, winding drive. The mountain was venting a little steam while I was there. It has been 26 years since the big eruption, and the surrounding forest is slowly recovering. I really enjoyed the stark dead tree trunks among the beautiful flowers.

We’re in Portland now. I have some roots here–my mother was born and raised here and my grandparents are buried here.