Living out of a 2024 Subaru Crossteek named Imogene
As my allowed time at Rocky Lake came to an end uneventfully, I set off with plans to make it into Idaho for the next week. As the weekend unfolded, plans got changed quite drastically, and I found myself returning to Willow Springs, where I had quite the adventure back in June. However, it would take me getting through some of the most beautiful scenery I have seen to date before arriving at that final destination!
The time finally came to finish with the Cascades, and I planned a nice finish. I visited Mt Baker and then headed through North Cascades on my way east, out of the Cascades. A couple of last nights with those wonderful mountains, and I was off to new adventures. And sure enough, adventure would certainly be one way to describe how I kicked off these new adventures!
I had enough of Oregon’s antics! Maybe I’ve only seen Oregon’s bad side or something, but it did not win me over. Newberry National Volcanic Monument was great, but didn’t really offset everything that I grew to dislike about Oregon. Maybe at some later date, I’ll give it another chance to win me over, but for now, I scoped out a wonderful spot in Washington’s Capital State Forest.
I can’t always wait for the weekends to go visit places that look amazing. Sometimes, the anticipation just gets to me. Coupled with the fact that I have been kind of underwhelmed and bored by Oregon so far, honestly, I decided to go ahead and treat myself to Newberry National Volcanic Monument a bit earlier than I usually treat myself to such things. Once I was finished with work today, I headed off to visit the Newberry Caldera area of the monument.
While staying in Fremont-Winema National Forest, I entered a seemingly endless struggle with yellowjackets. Nope, not bees, actually. Hornets! They swarmed the front of my car, and entered me in constant distraction.
On Friday, I left my spot in Lassen National Forest and headed on to Redding, before making my way up towards Lava Beds National Monument. On Saturday, I continued through Lava Beds National Monument, into Oregon. After another drive through Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument and a stop in Medford, I continued on to a spot I scoped out in Fremont-Winema National Forest. Sunday, I also took a stop into Crater Lake National Park, returning to the camp in Fremont-Winema. It’s been an eventful weekend!
On Friday, I decided it was time to head on out of Lake Tahoe, and I moved over to Sacramento for a night before continuing on to Lassen National Forest. I had a wonderful time visiting in Sacramento, and am excited about my new spot in Lassen. I also visited Lassen Volcanic National Park, which I fell in love with again, despite it’s ominous naming of Bumpass’s Hell.
After staying in the wonderful area of Inyo National Forest for a week, visiting all of the alien planets of volcanic activity in the area, I hadn’t quite had enough. I decided to visit Mono Lake and the nearby Panum Crater before heading up to a new camping location I scoped out in the Lake Tahoe area.
On Friday, I left the Keyesville SRMA area near Lake Isabella, and began my journey through the Southern Sierra Nevada. I had scoped out a pathway through the area, with three campsites, which I had hoped to take a good, long while to get through. Due to lack of cell reception, however, I ended up traveling them all, seeing all of the following: Sequoia National Forest, Giant Sequoia National Monument, Sequoia National Park, Kings Canyon National Park, Sierra National Forest, Yosemite National Park, and Inyo National Forest.
After a few nights at the Black Gulch area of Sequoia National Forest, a lot of negatives were surfacing about the area. Almost all of this was caused by careless campers who came before me, but with rainy weather rolling on into the area, it was time for me to move away from the river. Luckily, I passed through the Keyesville SRMA area–a BLM operated recreation area–on the way to Black Gulch, and this would serve a perfect stop for two more nights in the area.
