October 6th Tioga Pass to Yosemite National Park

October 6th Tioga Pass to Yosemite National Park

It is an 11 mile drive along Tioga Pass Road before you reach the Main Entrance of Yosemite Nat. Park (YNP). We start at an elevation of 7,000ft from Lee Vinings. This is our second visit, 4 years ago we could not enter the Yosemite as the Tioga Pass Road was still snowed in...and that was in Spring.

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Yosemite in autumn is quite different to Yosemite in spring - it is dry and there are virtually no waterfalls. Looking like great big slabs of chocolate cake with  dusting of icing sugar, we are enthralled by the beauty of these majestic mountains.  Check out the landslide.

There was light snowfall probably the night before.

Entrance fee to the park is now $30 per vehicle, good for 7 days. We are now at 9,934 feet above sea level. What a perfect day for a drive around Yosemite.

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Yosemite is home to more than 20 mountains that are more than 10,000ft in height.

Le truck and me.

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Exquisite alpine Tenaya Lake..surface elevation - 8,150 feet. It is believed Tenaya was the name of the Chief of the Ahwahneechees or Yosemite Indians. However, Tenaya is not a word from this tribe but from the Mono Lake Pauites Indians meaning "Father".

Gigantic slabs of granite hug the OMG ("oh my gawd"!) route as we ascend higher into Yosemite. If you are afraid of heights, take a pill before embarking this drive, make sure your wills are in order...it is a 9,000ft drop and hasta la vista baby!

There are pull outs along the way for photo taking and allowing faster vehicles to pass.

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As autumn is approaching, some facilities in YNP are already closed. Our best bet was in Yosemite Valley where there is a general store, gift shop and the Village Grill. This is what happens when humans feed wildlife..as soon as we sat down to lunch this little Chickaree and his friends came scampering....lord knows they could be gluten intolerant and people are giving them wheaten foods.

October 5th Sparks to Lee Vining, California

5th Oct - Sparks, NV to Lee Vining, CA

US 395 took us from Sparks, NV to Lee Vining, California. It is a spectacular drive - we are never far from the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Fall is well on its way in the ranges as evidenced by the snow capped summits.

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The route is definitely a "snow chain" area in winter...the red poles along the highway are a guide to where the road edges are when they are snowed under....it is a long tumble to the valley as the average elevation of the highway is approx. 5 - 6,000 feet.

Mona Vista RV Park in Lee Vining - a basic rv park. We arrived at 10mins. to 1pm and found ourselves in a queue behind 2 Class A motorhomes at the "Do Not Pass Go" white line. We were wondering why it was taking the people before us so long to register. One of the owners of the Class A came and told us that he had arrived 15 mins before us and the RV park would not check him in as Check In was 1pm and that was their rule. Tom was given a few tokens for the use of the bathrooms - each token gave him 5mins. hot water. Wi Fi usage costs $4 per day....if we thought the internet at Sparks was slow, this Tortoise probably had a whole bottle of valium.  Lee Vining is the gateway to Yosemite Nat. Park(YNP) and this is the closest RV park to YNP hence the RV Park's" my way or the highway" attitude.

Sparkes - Reno

October 4th Sparks and Reno Nevada

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Tom's a great researcher - he found this fairly new RV park in Sparks, a suburb of Reno. Our first view prior to arriving at the RV park itself was this lovely marina.

Great laundry facilities, pool, club house but the wi fi was slower than a tortoise on valium. The weather was overcast and we had rain on Saturday night which the locals much appreciated.

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The Peppermill Hotel and Casino in downtown Reno - beautiful architecture but unfortunately not a smoke free place except for the restaurants.We went there for their Champagne Buffet...what a feast! All you can eat and drink - alas,I only managed 2 glasses of bubbly, probably 10 oysters and prime rib. They even had gluten free desserts! Tom did his best with the mounds of snow crab they had and he could not pass up on the prime rib either.

Prospect to Reno Nevada

3rd Oct - Prospect, OR to Reno, Nevada

We take I-5S from Prospect to Reno and we climb, and climb through the Cascades Mountain Range.

The highest point of our journey today was approx. 5,000ft.

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Our route to Reno was the longest for this trip..321 miles mainly on I-5S. 2 hours out of Prospect and we are in Califor-ni-a. Interestingly there was a checkpoint for fruits/wood etc.

One could not ignore this beautiful mountain on our drive..Mt Shasta stands at 14,179 feet at the southern end of the Cascades Mountain Range. Last erupted in 1786.

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We are in Nevada...a salt pan runs alongside the highway as we get closer to Sparks/Reno.

Crater Lake Oregon

2nd October - Crater Lake, Oregon

The Visitor's Centre before Crater Lake - it was worthwhile stopping here. We enjoyed a short clip about the origins of Crater Lake which made us appreciate this wonder even more.

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Crater Lake National Park is the only National Park in Oregon...entrance fee per vehicle is $15.

How Crater Lake was formed is quite amazing. Crater Lake started life as Mount Mazama, a volcano which took 12,000 years to evolve. The ground below Mt Mazama was a hot pot of magma, gases which increased in volume greater than what Mt. Mazama could handle. The resulting eruption was catastrophic - it blew the summit of the mountain away only to collapse within itself, thereby creating a caldera....simply put, its just like a cake that's been put into an overheated oven. Those of you who bake will know what I'm talking about.

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The amazing blue water in Crater Lake is pure melted snow - over 7,700 years the caldera lake was slowly filled by the huge amounts of snow that falls in this area..44 feet of snow each year. Elevation - 6,178feet above sea level it is approx. half the surface elevation of Lake Titicaca in Peru.

This cute little Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel is obviously used to tourists...I made a few clicking sounds and it came running.

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There are several points interest along the 33 mile Rim Drive...the rim of Crater Lake is very prominent and a constant reminder of how it was once a volcano.

When you are driving along the Rim Drive, you are in fact driving on the side of a volcano. Like a petulant schoolboy scuffing stones with his shoes, the volcano is constantly sending showers of rocks on to the road below.

Simply stunning!

One of the highlights of Crater Lake is Wizard Island - a cinder cone that erupted out of the lake about 7,300 years ago.

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5 trillion gallons or 19 trillion litres of pristine water...mind boggling!

Red Lichen growing on the rocks.

Pumice Castle Overlook...orange pumice rock has eroded into the walls of the caldera.

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Well this was a first for us - the drive to Crater Lake takes you through pine forests and we saw piles of dead undergrowth that had been neatly raked. I guess its a form of fire control but there sure is a lot of forest to rake.

Salem to Prospect, Oregon

1st Oct 2015 - Salem to Prospect, Oregon

After 2 weeks in Salem, we have pulled up stumps and are on our way to Prospect, the closest town to Crater Lake. We leave on a fine 5 deg. C morning - we are on I-5 and passed fields of pumpkins waiting to be harvested for Halloween.

Today we will travel 228 miles...our route takes us along many miles of hairpin bends!

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I am most happy when the passenger side is away from the gorges...we are still in the Cascade mountain range.

Cascade Gorge...not quite sure which river cuts a path through the gorge but it could be the Rogue river. 

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A short drive into Prospect, took us to Mill Creek Falls..the Rogue River feeds the falls.

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The walk to the falls is a rough track which can be covered in 15 mins. tops.

Here we are at the Crater Lake RV Park (I think it was previously Prospect RV Park). We are nestled amongst trees next to a Phaeton Class A Motor Home. It is very peaceful apart from the Phaeton's heating system sounding like Darth Vader as it cycled in and out all night long. We on the other hand were very warm and snug with our feather doona and very quiet.

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So this is the entrance to Crater Lake RV Park. Their billboard proudly announces "Wi Fi and More" - I think it should say "Wi Fi and Nothing More". There is no cellphone coverage, no television, even skype is a challenge. We tried using Skype to book the Trolley that goes around Crater Lake. We were very succint on Skype..mainly, "Hello, can you hear me?". After several attempts, we gave up. Tom thought the ablutions facilities were "rustic"...I think he was using a euphemism. 

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There are several points of interest on the way to Crater Lake - one being The Natural Bridge. Set amongst lush forestry it is an easy walk to this wonder of nature. The Rogue River disappears as it flows through 250 feet of lava tube before resurfacing. It is particularly lovely at this time of the year, with soft autumn colours adding charm to the forest.

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The dry section of the Natural Bridge where the Rogue disappears underground.

Salem, Oregon

17/9 to 1/10/15 Salem

We are parked at Phoenix RV Park at Silverton, a suburb of Salem. It is a well appointed RV Park with good facilities although we spent most of our time in Salem at Robie's home.

I love that we are right next door to Safeway supermarket, Odd Moe's Pizza Shop (they do Gluten Free pizzas) and other conveniences. Just a warning...the delivery trucks arrive at Safeway pretty early - the delivery dock for the supermarket backs on to the RV Park. As you can see, the weather is magic!

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Even though Halloween is still a month away the shops are stocked with all sorts of Halloween paraphernalia. The popular belief is that Halloween comes from the Gaelic Celtic Samhain or New Year which influenced the Christianisation of All Hallows Eve or All Saints Eve which falls on 1st Nov. The Samhain celebrated the transition from autumn to winter, plenty to paucity...in our current society of plenty the message does get lost in the commercial 3 ring circus.

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Tom spotted this display at The Home Depot and was rather taken by it.