On to Pipe Springs National Monument

From Great Basin it was time to head on to Arizona to spend a couple weeks in the high country before heading down to the valley. We spent six nights at the Kaibab Paiute RV park that is right next to Pipe Spring National Monument. Why stay in the remote Arizona Strip so long? Because we can and it is a wonderful area with a very nice RV park.

We had a short, maybe a quarter mile, walk from the RV park to the monument visitor center. This is a wonderful place to visit that can take several hours to see everything. The Monument was created, and is operated, as a cooperative effort of the Kaibab Band of the Paiute Indians and the National Park Service. It tells the story around a natural spring - the proverbial oasis in the high desert. Ancestral Puebloan peoples followed by Paiute Indians have lived there for centuries and then Mormans came along and made claims in the mid-1800's. What happened next is the typical conflict and ruining of the land sending the Paiutes to the edge of survival. There is a great film and tours of the historic fort that tell the story-history very well. The beautiful surroundings at the base of the Vermilion Cliffs help make this an enjoyable place to visit.

Pipe Spring National Monument

Pipe Spring National Monument -
The Fort - Winsor Castle

Cowboy building on Ridge Trail

View of the compound from Ridge Trail

Crossing Nevada and Great Basin National Park

When we left Reno we drove east all the way across the state on US 50, dubbed The Loneliest Road In America by Life magazine in 1986. That loneliness is one reason we really liked the drive. You see very few cars and trucks and thus you don’t have to deal with the maniac drivers you do in most populated areas and on interstate highways. Then there is the beauty. Lots of people would say the drive is boring but we enjoyed the mixture of openness and mountains, the character in each different mountain range you see and climb over, the different colored and sized tiling’s on mountains from old mines, and the endless blue sky. I guess after 10 years of crisscrossing this country it still isn’t old.

Why did these RV'ers cross the state? In this case, to go to Great Basin National Park. This is not a highly visited national park but it is important. This park protects bristlecone pine forests that have trees believed to be 2,000 to 4,000 years old, it has flowers that don’t exist anywhere else on earth, a small glacier, and a cave with a sensitive ecosystem. The park elevation ranges from 6,800 to 13,000 feet so it is pretty much a mountain environment for the driving and hiking. To see the things like the bristlecone pines you will usually need to hike.

A couple hints: if you want to do the cave tour you’ll need to reserve well in advance. Also, be sure to watch the park film at the visitor center, as it is very good. Our visit ended up being rather short since we chose not to do the cave tour because it sounded just like the one we did only two weeks earlier. We also did not drive up the narrow, winding road to the mountain overlooks and hikes because my passenger has a severe fear of open heights so the road was terrifying and not worth continuing, so we turned around. That’s ok, we can hike other places.

Great Basin NP peaks in the distance from Sacramento Pass
BLM Campground

Great Basin NP from main Visitor Center

Lassen Volcanic National Park and Virgina City, NV

Lassen Sulphur Works and view

We left the coast and the Redwoods behind and drove highway 299 to Redding, CA. This is a beautiful, twisting, usually slow, mountain drive. After restocking in Redding, we went on to Lassen Volcanic National Park. We had been across highway 44 before so we decided to drop down to Red Bluff and take highway 36 east and then north through the park. I think that worked out well.

Lassen Sulphur Works

We were lucky with a beautifully clear day that made the park sparkle. This park is, as the name implies, all about volcanoes. The park protects the only place in the world that has four different types of volcanoes in close proximity. I can’t remember all of the details but the 20 minute park film shown in the visitor center tells all about it along with showing some films during the last eruptions that took place as recently as 1915. This park has some geothermal activity and some beautiful views. We left the park on the north side and stayed at a campground before moving on down to Reno the next day to visit friends.

Lassen Sulphur Works and view

From Reno we took a short drive to historic Virginia City, home of the famous Comstock Lode. This was a mining metropolis in the 1870's and there are lots of old buildings dating back to the 1860’s and 1870’s. Most old buildings have shops in them. This town is basically a tourist trap, but it is great walking around looking at the outsides and peeking inside at those that haven’t been modernized too much (you don't have to buy). One in particular has the original plank floor from 1862. We enjoyed our visit. Look for special events before going because they have some that will fill the town and you may or may not want to be there. 

Lassen view while driving

Virginia City

Virginia City

Virginia City

Virginia City

Redwoods National and State Parks

For our next adventure we only had to drive about 50 miles south to get into the land of the Redwoods in very northern California. The Redwood National and State Parks start at Hiouchi, east of Crescent City, and are in sections south for around 50 miles. Several California State Parks were established starting in the 1920’s to protect the Redwoods. In 1968 the Redwood NP was established to protect even more land surrounding those state parks and they work together to help restore and protect the habitat. Most of the old growth giant trees are in the state parks. These parks also protect about 40 miles of shoreline.

We spent four days exploring both trees and shoreline by doing a lot of walking. This is truly a remarkable area. The redwoods are an amazing species. You should plan on the loop trail off Walker Road a couple miles west of Hiouchi (starts near the restroom), Drive the Newton Drury Scenic Parkway with a stop at the Big Tree, and stop at the Prairie Creek Visitor Center and walk the James Irvine trail for as long as you want and turn around and go back. As you drive along the coast there are a lot of turnouts. Stop at the first visitor center you can and get info on hiking and things to see.

Coast

Coast

"The" Big Tree

Oregon Caves National Monument

Well, it’s been two months since my last post. Most of the time was spent visiting family before we started heading south for the winter the end of September. To protect the innocent, I don’t give details of family here so I’ll get down to the Meandering in my RV update.

Our next stop of interest was at Oregon Caves National Monument in the southwest corner of Oregon. This National Park Service location is in the Cascade Mountains and protects a cave and historic chateau. The drive to the cave is a slow, twisting climb of about 3,000 feet to 4,000 feet. The visitor center is in one of a few buildings built in the 1930's. The other historic buildings were closed to bring them up to current safety code so we didn’t get to tour the Chateau. The cave tour lasted about 1.5 hours and was very informative. We’ve been in a lot of caves and, on a relative scale, this one wasn’t very interesting as it was pretty bland with no unique formations. If you’re new to spelunking you would find it more interesting as the tour is educational.

Visitor Center

Chateau

We exited the cave to snow falling