Dateline: 10/25/99
In August, my wife, my eight year-old brother and I took a road trip from Sacramento, California to Portland, Oregon. I'd been desiring a lengthy road trip, with stops in several cities along the way, for quite some time. Thus, I was quite excited about our upcoming experience and was glad we finally had the chance to do it.
Saturday, August 7
Jen and I left our home in Los Angeles and drove north to Sacramento, where my little brother lives. We spent Sunday night at my mom's house so we could leave early Monday morning.
Monday, August 9
We left bright and early in the morning and drove to Woodland, California for our initial "on the road" breakfast. We then continued north on Interstate 5 and stopped in Red Bluff at the William B. Ide Adobe State Historic Park. Ide served as the first and only "President" of the short-lived California Republic.
We ate lunch in Redding and proceeded to Shasta Dam, one of the largest in the world.
The dam tour was very, very impressive and truly fascinating. It took us inside the dam and past the huge turbines that produce electricity, most of which is send farther south to help pump water through the state's water delivery system.
From there, we headed toward Lake Shasta Caverns, located on the edge of Lake Shasta, the reservoir of Shasta Dam. The underground caverns are quite rewarding since the temperature outside was in the high 90s. Stalactites and stalagmites more for impressive displays.
We spent our first night on the road in a motel in Redding; it was my brother's first experience in any sort of motel or hotel and he enjoyed it.
Tuesday, August 10
We continued our trek north, crossed the California-Oregon border and checked into a hotel in Ashland, Oregon. We encountered thunderstorms in Ashland so we spent the afternoon and evening playing board games and learning how to determine the distance of lightning.
Wednesday, August 11
We drove toward Roseburg and happened upon a great little museum, the Applegate Wagon Trail Interpretive Center. Nearby was a quaint covered bridge along Graves Creek.
Near Roseburg lies the town of Winston, home to the famous Wildlife Safari where visitors can drive through a "wild" animal park. We saw bears, lions, giraffes, and rhinos from the comfort of our automobile - it's a strange experience and visitors are reminded to keep their windows rolled up.
There's a hilarious camel at the safari, who enjoys attempting to grab hay off the hay truck.
We spent the night in Roseburg. Jen and I were able to share the myth of Bigfoot, for while in Roseburg, we saw a Bigfoot Crossing sign.
Thursday, August 12
We traveled to the amazing Crater Lake, the deepest lake in North America (at 1,932 feet deep). The lake formed as a caldera following the catastrophic eruption of the Mount Mazama volcano approximately 7,700. The water of the lake is very clear and fed only by precipitation and snow melt within the caldera (there are no feeder streams). Our boat tour of the lake was a fascinating look at the inside of a volcano and we saw many impressive volcanic features up close.
However, the 2.2 mile (3.5 km) strenuous hike down the inside of the caldera was a bit overwhelming for my brother, who greatly prefers Pokemon games to the outdoors. Nonetheless, it was a breathtaking view on the way down. Inside the caldera is Wizard Island, a volcano that grew from more recent eruptions.
Just a few miles from the caldera lies the Pumice Desert, which is several square miles of desolate landscape that once was a valley that filled with pumice from Mazama eruptions. Very few plants have yet been able to grow in the "desert."
We spent the night in a cabin in Mazama Village near the lake and experienced more thunder and lightning throughout the night.
Friday, August 13
On Friday morning, we left camp and drove straight to Portland, Oregon and stopped at the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center in the suburb of Oregon City. The center does a great job of presenting Oregon's history and the story of the pioneers of the Oregon Trail.
That evening, we spent a lot of time at Powell's Books, ("The largest new and used bookstore in the world,") and each of us picked up quite a few great books. We spent the night in a run-down hotel near the Convention Center and decided to switch hotels the next day.
Saturday, August 14
After checking out, we spent the day at OMSI, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. OMSI is a fantastic science museum - we went aboard the USS Blueback (the U.S. Navy's last non-nuclear submarine), saw an IMAX film, watched a planetarium show, and went through all of the great interactive science exhibits.
We checked into a new hotel near the airport.
Sunday, August 15
Sunday was a break from all the hustle and bustle of tourist activities, especially since I had to go see a doctor due to a scratch on my eye (probably from hiking at Crater Lake). While at the doctor's office, I was queried about vacationing in Southern California and the best times to visit Disneyland. We saw a movie and read Pokemon books.
Monday, August 16
We headed east from Portland along the historic Columbia River Highway (which parallels Interstate 84). We stopped several times for short hikes to beautiful waterfalls.
We arrived at the Columbia River Gorge and Boneville Lock and Dam just in time for our steamboat tour of the Columbia River. The view of the gorge from the boat was breathtaking and the captain even gave my brother a chance to steer the boat.
At the dam, there's a fish hatchery that has large windows that allow visitors to see the fish ladders and the fish swimming by, it was a lot of fun and my brother really enjoyed counting the sturgeon and lamprey making their way upstream.
Watching two pleasure boats to pass through the locks on their way downstream was mildly entertaining as the partying boaters turned up their stereos and danced for the pleasure of the onlookers.
Tuesday, August 17
We set out bright an early to cross the Columbia River into Washington to visit Fort Vancouver, established by the Hudson Bay Company as their Pacific Fur Trading center. The Ft. Vancouver museum now holds the world's largest collection of fur trading artifacts (imagine that!)
That afternoon we headed further into Washington to visit Mt. St. Helens, which erupted in 1980, producing the largest landslide in recorded history. We took a four-hour "adventure" tour of the area around the volcano and spent most of the time on logging roads. I was quite surprised to see that such a large area was devastated by the volcano.
The trees that were killed by the blast still remain, a lingering reminder of the mountain and its destructive power.
Plants and trees are growing in the ash-strewn area, despite the several feet of ash covering the ground. Our tour guide was a former lumberjack in the area who witnessed the eruption but now conducts tours and writes logging poetry. It was a fascinating four hours with "Logger Lon."
One can still scoop a handful of ash from the ground and we saw the creeks and rivers run grey with ash, which will continue for many years. Lon told us of the efforts to build dams to keep the ask from flowing in the rivers but nothing has really worked and tons of ash still flows downstream into the Columbia River.
Though we thought about sprinting north to Seattle after our trip to the volcano, we decided we probably ought to head back to Portland.
Wednesday, August 18
Our last full day in the City of Roses was spent at the Oregon Zoo, stuffing ourselves with cotton candy and ice cream.
Thursday, August 19
We bid farewell to Portland and drove all the way to Sacramento so we spent about eleven hours in the car.
I truly loved the beauty and nature of the Pacific Northwest and was amazed at how green all of Portland is, in stark contrast to the desert that is currenly my more. In addition to the beauty, once of the things I miss most about Oregon is the highway mileage signs that mark every mile of highway and indicate the number of the offramps; we just don't have those in California :(
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