May 31 -June 3, 2019
Collier State Park, Chiloquin, Oregon
Today’s travel was a little over 4 hours right at 240 miles. We traveled Interstate 5 for half the trip then onto State Road 97. Again another long and lonely road. We arrived at the campground and found it to be self check in. We made it to our site and set up and just relaxed the rest of the day.
Oregon is another new state for us camping and so far this campground is so beautiful. All the sites are paved and has full hookups. The next day we went exploring the museum across the street.
While we were at the museum we talked to a family and they told us about another park to visit and it was about an hour away. Well then what’s an hour when you’ve come this far. So we went back to the camper had lunch packed a cooler with water and off we go to Lava Beds National Monument in California.
500,000 YEARS AGO THE EARTH OPENED
Cracking and sputtering, it released liquid rock and rivers of fire across the landscape. Intermittent eruptions over thousands of years layered the land, leaving intricate caves, cones, craters, and black, jagged blankets of lava. The Modoc called this “the land of burnt-out fire.” Tule Lake and Lava Beds were then, and are today, the center of their world.
Caves were formed from the eruptions and 700 lava tube caves can be found in the park. We did see a few as we really couldn’t explore because we had Nova and they did not allow pets in the cave. Not sure I would have went any further than I did to take the picture. Look pretty spooky and very cold.
It was a very interesting day and its amazing how much Lava rocks you see in the area as we have been traveling thru California. Tomorrow we plan to head to Crater Lake National Park
We tried to get to Crater Lake early before the crowds and its supposed to get real cloudy as the day goes on. Pictures of the lake are best without a lot of clouds. Again most of the roads were closed due to snow and they have yet to clear all the roads.
How did a mountain become a lake? A massive volcanic eruption 7,700 years ago left a deep basin in place where a mountain peak once stood. Centuries of rain and snow filled the basin, unmatched color and clarity. It’s the deepest lake in the United States. The lake is 6.02 miles across and 1943 feet deep. It holds 4.9 trillion gallons of water.
We had another great adventure and Nova loves playing in the snow. Our time is up here and we move to the Oregon to travel up the Coast. We are excited about seeing the Pacific waters
