Klamath Falls, Crater Lake, Bend & Burns

On Monday, our drive from Grass Valley to Klamath Falls Oregon was uneventful. Going north, we took Highway 99, then Interstate 5 through Shasta, and turned off for Oregon at Weed. We stopped on the way in Oroville California at Jen’s Cafe for breakfast.

As we drive, we’re listening to John Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley on Audible. Talking about American diners, he wrote: At the roadsides I never had a really good dinner or a really bad breakfast," So far, we agree. Our breakfasts, especially in the out-of-the way places, have been excellent.

In Klamath Falls we got to the Golden West Motel before our room was ready. So, we decided to go looking for the falls. It turns out that there are no falls in Klamath Falls. I was misinformed. Instead, there are a set of uninspiring rapids on the Link River which connects Upper and Lower Klamath Lakes.

To actually find the rapids and the Link River, we drove around for an hour. Google Maps directed us to dead ends, and the paper map we had didn’t make much sense. We finally found the Link River Trail by trial and error and had a nice couple-hour walk. Unfortunately we only were able to actually reach the river itself in one spot.

For dinner we had pizza, which was OK, but uninspiring.

Crater Lake and Bend

Early to bed, early to rise. We were up and on the road by 6:30 AM on Tuesday, headed for Crater Lake National Park. Having both lived in Oregon for several years, it’s surprising that neither of us had been there. We got to the park a little before 8:00 AM. There were no rangers manning the entrance, so we drove right in.

One thing that surprised us, is how little traffic we encountered, not only at Crater Lake, but everywhere, once we got off the main roads. I often wonder if reliance on Google Maps is directing everyone off of the older byways. Along the way, we saw several charming motels that we wished we had known about, but since they don’t appear on Booking.com, they are essentially invisible.

When we finally got to the lake it was awe inspiring. On the way to Crater Lake we didn’t find any place to eat breakfast. However, when we got there, we found that Crater Lake Lodge was serving breakfast in their elegant dining room

During breakfast we read the brochure about the lake. I didn’t know that it was the crater of a collapsing volcano. For some reason, I always thought it was a meteor crater. After breakfast we drove half-way around the lake, stopping at all of the turnouts, admiring the crystal clear water.

Leaving the lake, we drove north to Bend, Oregon. One of Kathy’s goals on the trip is to collect all of the different local variations of Trader Joe’s shopping bags. Here are the ones she got in Bend.

Leaving Bend, we set out for the city of Burns, in the center of eastern Oregon.

Burns Oregon

In October of 1970 I was a deacon at the Shiloh House in Boise Idaho, with Peter David as the pastor. Being a deacon mostly meant that I needed to oversee the work that put food on the table. 

One day, George Bryson, who was the pastor of the Shiloh House in Burns Oregon, drove to Boise and told us about a work opportunity in Burns, working on a potato harvesting combine. I gathered up four or five of the brothers and we went over there to work.

It was exhausting, backbreaking work, and after only a single day, I gathered up my crew and we hitched back to Boise. The interesting thing was that the two girls who were living at the Burns house, my future wife Kathy and Patty Reams, had worked on the combines for a whole week before throwing in the towel. 

The name of the ranch where we worked was called the Silver Creek Ranch. Sure enough, as we drove into Burns we found the sign right off the highway where it stood 56 years ago.

That’s not all, though. A year or so ago, when the producers of the documentary A Band Called Lovesong were interviewing Jesus People veterans, Kathy wrote and told them about the first time she heard the band. The Burns house features prominently in that story.

I think you'll get a kick out of my first memory of Love Song:

It was the late summer of 1970 when this x-Hippie Earth Mother turned Christian Oregon Mountain Woman was living in a vintage duplex in the High-Desert-Cowboy-Country town of Burns, Oregon. Our communal house, one of many throughout the US, was a part of a Jesus Communal ministry called Shiloh, a Jesus People extension of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa.

A real Oregon Mountain Woman befriended us and decided we needed meat. With lots of shotguns to share, she took the brothers out hunting. All they came back with was a big box of smelly jackrabbits. The brothers double-dared me to skin the rabbits. And then they left me alone in the kitchen.

To keep me company, they brought in a cassette player that contained the sweetest music I had ever heard by a band called Love Song. Singing along, I skinned every last one of those ugly rabbits, cooked them, shredded the meat, and served Mexican-spiced rabbit for dinner.

Little did I know at that same time my future in-laws, Dean and Jean Gilbert, had turned their home at the Maranatha Apartments in Costa Mesa, California into a mini Jesus commune by inviting Love Song’s Chuck, Tommy, Jay, Fred, and John to live there with them.

Two years later I would marry their son, Stephen Gilbert, and I have loved him and the Love Song ever since!

On one of Kathy’s old letters to her parents, from October 1970, we found the address of the Burns house, and went to look at it. The old duplex was no longer there after 56 years. It has been replaced with a nice, new house. Oh well, time marches on.

We’re staying at the Rory and Ryan Inn just outside of Burns, in Hines Oregon. It’s a nice place, with a pool, a spa, and free breakfast. After looking for the Burns Shiloh House, we went to a local restaurant, the Pine Room, and had a nice, filling dinner.

In the morning, we’ll head for Boise to visit one of my old colleagues, Kathryn Rogers, who now teaches Computer Science at Boise State University.

Gold Rush Country

Today we are leaving Yosemite. Before leaving the Park, we took one last hike to the bottom of Bridalveil Falls. As you can see, there’s not much water left. (Yosemite Falls, by our lodge, was completely dry.)

Leaving the park, we had no cell phone service and our car navigation wasn’t working. Unfortunately, I hadn’t looked up the route ahead of time. I wanted to leave by the north entrance, going on Highway 120 to Groveland. Instead, we ended up leaving the same way we came in. In Mariposa we stopped for breakfast at the Miner’s Roadhouse. The food was definitely better than the breakfast we’d had yesterday at the park.

Heading north out of Mariposa, one of the things I wanted to do was to see where my great-great-great grandfather, David H. Gilbert, had settled when he came to California. In the spring of 1852 he left his home in Leonidas, Michigan and set out for the gold fields of California, with his pregnant wife Margua, who gave birth to my great-great grandfather Marion near Salt Lake City.

When they finally arrived in California, he purchased a small mining claim in Michigan Bar, southeast of Sacramento on the Consumnes River. In August of 1856, David wrote home to his family in Michigan:

I halve been mining this year and have done very well part of the time and a part of the time nothing done very well. At the beginning of the year took up a claim and worked it six weeks. And took out $900 for the three of us. And then I sold my interest for $250. I was coming home on the next boat but gave it up until next spring.

He never made it back to Michigan. In the same letter he wrote “It is summer here year around. It is one of the most pleasant country’s that I have ever saw or heard of.” Instead of Michigan, the family headed for Santa Cruz where David started a General Store.

Looking at Wikipedia, I found that Michigan Bar had been destroyed by the introduction of hydraulic mining in the late 1800s. So, leaving Mariposa, we turned north on Highway 49 and headed into the foothills. One of the first towns we drove through was Angel’s Camp, where we stopped for an ice cream.

Angel’s Camp is the backdrop for Mark Twain’s short story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. Every year the town has an annual Jumping Frog Jubilee, and the winning frog is given a brass plaque on the sidewalk. For instance, in 1959 the frog “Two Snap” won with a jump of over 16 feet.

Angel’s Camp is charming, but still feels really authentic. This week is the homecoming week for Bret Harte High School; there were banners over the main street, and every store had a poster with the name of one of the football players. The team is named, naturally, the Mighty Bullfrogs. We spent an hour walking around, looking at the historic buildings, like Angels Hotel, built in 1855, where Samuel Clemens first heard the jumping frog story. 

One of the apps I use a lot on my phone is Libby. Libby allows you to check out e-books and audio books for free from the library. All you need is a library card. (I have Orange County, Newport Beach and LA County cards, so I can check out books from all three libraries.) Leaving Angels Camp, I checked out Twain’s short story and we listened to it as we headed towards Grass Valley, driving through the tiny, rural towns.

In Grass Valley we’re staying at the Sierra Mountain Inn, a cute set of cottages, a few blocks from downtown. We got here about 4:00 PM, unloaded the car, and went out for a walk.

The town is cute, with a lot Gold Rush era buildings, but it just doesn’t seem as authentic as Angel’s Camp. There are a lot of jewelers, boutiques, and restaurants, all with Newport Beach prices. 

On our way back to the Inn, I found the local Elks’ Lodge. I belong to a weekly men’s Bible study at St. Andrews Church. One of the guys, Ed DuPont, is an Elk, and each month he takes us to the Newport Beach Lodge for Taco Tuesday.

We got back to the Inn at about 6:00 PM. In the morning we’re headed to Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Yosemite National Park

Rather than eat breakfast in Kings Canyon, we ate some string cheese, and headed for Yosemite at about 7:30 AM, planning to find a restaurant on the way. When we got to Fresno, Kathy asked Google for “breakfast near us” and found a place named Early Birds Cafe that was rated 4.9 (out of 5). It was a few miles off of the freeway, but it was totally worth it. Kathy had a spinach and mushroom scramble with orange juice, and I had the chilaquiles and decaf. 

We got to our hotel, the Yosemite Valley Lodge, a little after noon. Our room wasn’t ready yet, but we were able to register and get our parking pass. Once we parked the car we boarded the free Yosemite Shuttle Bus.

We were hurrying because I’d made lunch reservations for 2:45 at the famous Ahwahnee Hotel, and it was after one when we got on the Shuttle. This 1927 “Parkitecture” gem was Stanley Kubrick’s inspiration for the Overlook Hotel in his film The Shining. As you can see from the picture below, the dining room is very impressive. Both of us thought that it reminded us a little of La Posada, a similar “Harvey House” Hotel in Winslow, Arizona.

There were no reservations available for the formal dinner, and, I didn’t pack my tuxedo anyway. We started lunch with French onion soup, which was great. 

For our entree, Kathy had salmon and I had braised beef. The food was artfully prepared and presented, but definitely a splurge.

After lunch we wandered around the Ahwanhee for a while. I took the picture of Kathy with Half Dome in the back, which appears at the beginning of this entry. We got back to the lodge at about 6:00 PM, picked up our keys, unpacked our car, and turned in.

Saturday, September 19th

We awoke on Saturday a little before dawn, got dressed, and went next door to the Basecamp Eatery two plain but filling breakfast sandwiches, a little coffee and some orange juice. Next door at the main registration desk we got tickets for the 11:00 AM Yosemite Valley Tram Tour. Our room has a little patio with a table and two chairs, overlooking one of the trails across from Lower Yosemite Falls. Since we had three hours until the tram tour, we decided to take a walk. The picture below is facing towards El Capitan. 

Walking around several meadows, and crossing the Merced river, the light in the morning is quiet and peaceful. This is the view in the other direction, towards Half Dome.

On the other side of the river we found the Yosemite Chapel, the only building remaining from the Old Yosemite Village. It is the oldest structure in Yosemite Valley. Built in 1879 near the foot of the Four Mile Trail, it was moved to its current location in 1901. The National Park Service relocated other buildings from the Old Village such as the Wells Fargo station and the jail.

When we got back from our walk, it was time for our tram tour, conducted by NPS Ranger Leo, who was an engaging speaker. The tour left the lodge at 11:00 and our first stop was El Capitan. Leo told us the history of the rock climbers who had first scaled the rock. Although Leo and some of the others saw some climbers just starting out, I could never see them. Kathy brought binoculars with us, but we didn’t take them on the tour.

By this time, the day, which had started out clear and cloudless, became quite hazy, and both of us could smell smoke. We asked Leo and he told us that the Dome fire in the southern part of the park was blowing the smoke towards Yosemite Valley. When we got to the Tunnel View turnoff, to look back towards Half Dome, the smoke was really apparent.

When the tour was done, a little after one, both of us were really hungry. Kathy had enjoyed the pizza we had at the Wuksachi Pizza Deck in Sequoia, and so she was thrilled to hear that there was a similar one in Curry Village. The tour had left us off at the lodge, so we hopped back on the Shuttle and headed over.

Unfortunately, it was Saturday, and the park was overflowing. This line just to order pizza stretched across the deck and out to the sidewalk; easily 50 people. We got in line and waited for about a half hour. When we hadn’t moved at all, we gave up and went into the camp store and bought chicken Caesar wraps, which killed our immediate hunger.

Kathy noticed that the Basecamp Eatery, back at the lodge, had pizza, so we got back on the Shuttle and headed home. When we got there, I had a cheeseburger and fries and Kathy had a small pepperoni pizza with some soup. It wasn’t bad, but not picture worthy.

In the morning, we’ll be leaving Yosemite and heading for our next stop, Grass Valley and Gold Rush country. My great-great grandfather came to California during that time, and settled near there in Gridley, California.

Kings Canyon National Park

The John Muir Lodge is in Kings Canyon National Park, Sequoia’s less popular sibling. When it was first set aside by President Harrison, a week after Sequoia was christened, it was called General Grant National Park. The lodge itself has modern hotel-style rooms with televisions and refrigerators. By contrast, the 20 or so cabins next door are both more rustic and more expensive. Even though we don’t watch the TV, at our age we really appreciate the en-suite facilities. 

It was another early morning for us today, but not as early as yesterday; Kathy woke up at 4:00 AM, and I slept in until 5:00 AM. Grant Grove Village, the compound where the lodge is located, has a restaurant that opens for breakfast at 7:00 AM, and we were there right on time. Kathy had a whole-wheat breakfast burrito with eggs and vegetarian sausage. I had an omelette with hash browns and fruit. It was fine, but not as good as Cracker Barrel.

About two miles from the lodge, Grant’s Grove is the third largest grove of Sequoias, and is much more accessible than the Giant Forest Grove which contains the General Sherman tree. It is also much less crowded. The main attraction is the General Grant Tree, the second largest tree in the world. (I’m not sure why General Sherman got the largest tree, while General Grant, who went on to become President, got the smaller one.) 

The General Grant Trail is an easy, half-kilometer loop. At eight in the morning there were only a handful of other visitors and it was so peaceful. In 1872 the brothers Israel and Thomas Gamlin built a log cabin in the grove while they herded sheep nearby and tried to file a timber claim. From 1891 to 1913, the U.S. Cavalry used the cabin to store hay and feed for patrol horses. Later, it was the residence of the first park ranger. It is the oldest remaining structure in the park.

There were several other interesting sights that I didn’t get pictures of. The Centennial Stump is the remains of a tree cut down in 1875, divided into pieces and sent to the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition where it was reassembled. However the people back East didn’t believe it was a real tree. They called it the “California Hoax”.

The “Fallen Monarch” is a giant, hollow Sequoia log that has been used as a hotel, stable and saloon over the years. We walked through it and it was impressive. We thought that the best part of Grants Grove were the large number of  “anonymous” trees scattered throughout the site. It is a really peaceful place. 

After Grants Grove, We got back on the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway and headed for Cedar Grove and the end of the road. When we saw a turn off for Hume Lake (where I had gone to church summer camp as a boy) we took it, and, after a few miles we could see the lake. I took a picture of Kathy, our Subaru and the lake, and then we turned around.

We got to Cedar Grove around 1:00 PM. Most of the campgrounds in the area had closed a few days earlier, so it was eerily deserted. The Cedar Grove Lodge along with its restaurant and store were still open, so we picked up some snacks and ate them sitting in the shade, watching the dragon flies flitting over the burbling Kings river. So very peaceful. 

After our rest, we drove to the end of the road where we found a parking lot that was surprisingly filled with the cars of people who were packing into the wilderness. There we turned around and headed back to our lodging. The Scenic Byway is well named. Imagine driving on a narrow road, beside a rushing river, with giant granite cliffs close on either side. I tried taking a few pictures through the sunroof, but they just couldn’t convey the scale and the awesomeness of the drive.

 Back at Muir Lodge we sat in the rocking chairs on the deck for a while. At five we walked over to the restaurant for dinner. Then, back to our room; asleep by eight. Tomorrow we head to Yosemite.

Sequoia National Park

Five minutes before the alarm went off at 3:00 AM, I sat up in bed and turned on the light. Like well-oiled machines, Kathy and I threw on our clothes and toted clothes, bags, coolers and walking sticks out to our Subaru. After one last look around, upstairs and downstairs, we were on the road at 4:30 AM.

Two and a half hours later, we pulled into Cracker Barrel, just off Highway 99 in Bakersfield, for our traditional road-trip inaugural breakfast.

In keeping with tradition, I had the hash brown skillet, topped with scrambled eggs, red peppers, green chiles and fried onions, augmented with biscuits and sausage gravy. As you can see from the picture, Kathy chose to flaunt tradition, and went with scrambled egg whites, tomatoes, turkey sausage and fruit. I probably need to move into the future with Kathy. Tomorrow.

An hour and a half east of Bakersfield lies the southern entrance to Sequoia National Park, the second National Park in the country, added in 1890. There were only three or four cars lined up at the entrance to the park, and no-one at all in the right lane, so we showed our Senior Citizen Lifetime National Parks pass to the ranger, picked up a map, and started down Generals Highway. 

The highway is so named because it connects the General Sherman tree in the southern part of Sequoia National Park with the General Grant tree in neighboring Kings Canyon National Park, where we’ll spend two nights at the John Muir Lodge. Sherman and Grant are the two largest trees in the world by volume. 

In both parks you’ll also find a Robert E. Lee tree, but you’ll need an older guidebook, since the Park Service no longer maintains the signage, or puts them on maps. In a similar vein, the Sequoia National Park entrance sign features the Plains Indian portrait which originally appeared on the back of the buffalo-head nickel, and that has proved controversial.

It’s been a beautiful day, and the driving has been exhilarating. Just smelling the air, we could tell that we weren’t in the city any more. The park speed limit is 25 miles per hour, and, it often felt like we were the only ones on the road. When we entered the park, the temperature was about 82 degrees (at 10 in the morning). As we gained elevation, it dropped to mid 60s, so we drove with all of windows open, and the air-conditioning off. Quite a relief from the heat and humidity of the last month in Southern California.

At the Giant Forest Museum, we saw the 2,200-year-old Sentinel Sequoia. It is 257 feet tall with a 25-foot diameter at its base. The 37th largest Sequoia in the world, it is just average size as Sequoias go.

From the museum we started walked along the Big Trees Trail loop, a paved trail through a portion of the Giant Forest. There were more people here than on our drive up, but it certainly wasn’t very crowded.

I’ve been going to the gym and walking a couple of miles on the treadmill several times each week to prepare for this trip, so I was pleased to find that I wasn’t too tired. When we got back to the car, we drove a few miles north to see the General Sherman tree. On the way, traffic stopped for a small black bear who was tearing the bark off a fallen tree, probably to get at the grubs underneath. We were lucky to get a parking space in the first row near the trailhead. Taking our walking sticks, we started climbing down the trail, which featured this sign.

The trail was fairly crowded, and we heard a lot of different languages. Mothers were carrying their children, and there were a few older folks with walkers. When we reached the tree, there was a line of people waiting for just the right photo. Instead of getting in line, we started to take a selfie from a different angle, when one of the people in line offered to take our picture.

After our last hike, I thought that this one would be a piece of cake. It wasn’t. We took it slow climbing back up, stopping for a rest at every bench. We got back to the car around 2:00 PM and were hungry, so we stopped at Wuksachi Lodge at Lodgepole and ordered a pesto and chicken pizza, along with a meatball sub for lunch. The food was surprisingly good and more than we could eat.

This is the first time we’ve stayed inside one of the National Parks. We got to the John Muir Lodge in Grants Grove Village at a 3:45 PM, and waited 15 minutes for our room to be ready. I had heard that some people were disappointed at the in-park lodging, but our room was really nice.

In my imagination, I had pictured sitting out on the porch, watching the sun go down. In reality, both of us were really beat. I worked on the blog for a bit, both of us read for a while, and by 8:00 PM we were asleep.

Retirement Road Trip

Tomorrow morning, at 4:00 AM, Kathy and I are leaving on our first post-retirement road-trip, traveling across the United States, and back. We'll be gone for almost two months, and we'll visit 23 states. You can view our itinerary by clicking the map above.

I'll be posting pictures here, along with a little color commentary. I'll also post some food pics for my brother, Gary Gilbert. We're looking forward to trying fried green tomatoes in Alabama, and barbecue in Mississippi and Memphis. In Wyoming, we'll steam in the Thermopolis hot springs, and walk around the Devil's Tower from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

We'll stop off at Walnut Grove (from Little House on the Prairie), as well as Natchez on the Mississippi, where Greg Iles' Penn Cage books are set. In October, we should be able to catch the leaves changing on the Blue Ridge Parkway. In Florida, we'll drive the Overseas Highway to Key West, spend two days at Flamingo in the Everglades National Park and listen to John MacDonald's Travis McGee on Audible. In Louisiana, we'll stay in Dave Robicheaux's home town of New Iberia, have breakfast at Victor's Cafe, and maybe tour the Tabasco factory on Avery Island.

To follow along with us, just bookmark this page, and then you'll see the updates as they appear. See you on the road.