Northern California
August 2024

Dates: August 13-17, 2024

People: Mark, Sarah

Itinerary

• 8-13 (Travel, Auburn, Donner Museum, Olympic Valley, Tahoe)

• 8-14 (Klamath Falls, Crater Lake)

• 8-15 (Crater Lake, Klamath River Overlook, Redwoods, Eureka, CA)

• 8-16 (Pacific Star Winer, Fort Bragg Glass Beach)

• 8-17 (Travel)

TUESDAY AUGUST 13

We left the house this morning at 6:10 a.m. to get our trip started. Jonah was our chauffeur to the airport. He got us dropped off and we hit some pretty long lines at Detroit security. I was surprised that even the South security had as long if not longer lines than the north. Nonetheless we made our gate fine and had a little bit of time to sit there and wait. We pushed back from the gate on time but we did have to sit in the taxiway for a little bit because of traffic ahead of us. 

During the flight to Chicago Midway I read and played games on my phone. We got into Chicago at 8:20 a.m. on time. But we had to sit on the taxiway for a few minutes since another plane was at our gate. While at Midway we had a long walk between concourses for our next departing gate. As we waited I looked into upgrading our boarding position since we had B42. Usually this would cost $30 but for this flight they wanted $65. After I had spent some time understanding that when I finally went to do the upgrade there were no longer any available. Thankfully when we did bored we were able to find two seats together, even with a window, towards the back of the plane. I had found out that the position upgrade cost is higher on some longer and higher priority flights. 

On our flight into Sacramento we flew over Lake Tahoe and Olympic Valley. I then pulled up my maps to follow the Western States course and we did see the Duncan Canyon area. But then the flight path took us directly over the course and I could no longer see it from my side of the plane. We made it into Sacramento on time and our bags came out fast. At the rental car place the line for Thrifty/Dollar was by far the longest and more than a dozen people were ahead of us. As I began to wait I saw them advertising a QR code for online check-in. I tried it but it simply put me in a holding pattern waiting for a vehicle to be assigned to me. The number of other people were trying this as well.  45 minutes later with only a couple people ahead of me in line someone finally came out, called my name, and said a vehicle was ready for us. The online check-in worked, sort of, but didn't seem to save us much from just waiting in line the old fashioned way.  We had a Chevy Malibu and it seemed like a perfectly good vehicle for our purposes. We drove out of the airport and on the north side of Sacramento found a Chick-fil-A to get lunch. We were very hungry as this was basically past 4:00 Eastern time. 

Our next stop of the day was in Auburn California. Since it was on our way I wanted to stop and see Robie point and get a feel for this finish line area of the western states race. It was interesting to get a first-hand look at what Auburn was like and I was surprised how hilly the town was. The little road out to Robie point was quite narrow and likewise hilly. At Robie Point I hopped out and took a few pictures and then hike down the trail a quarter mile and back up. It was 90° out and interesting to get a feel for what the runners would get on a race day. From Robie point we followed the Western States course and it's last mile to Placer High School. There I got out and took a few more pictures from the roadside. It was fun to be able to fanboy for a few minutes. 

Leaving Auburn we drove the interstate up over Emigrant Gap and out to Donner Memorial state park. Our next item on the days itinerary was the museum there at the state park. It was fascinating to learn about the Donner party and some of the early California immigrants and their journeys into the state. We stayed there and watched a 20 minute video called The Longest Winter on the Donner party. 

From there we drove on up to Olympic valley. It was only about 20 minutes away from the museum. It was also on the way to our next destination which was Lake Tahoe. The valley was absolutely beautiful and wonderful to see the peaks around the Olympic village. Would be a great place to return to for some hiking and maybe even skiing. We parked and walked around the village a bit. I found where I was pretty sure the western states race started. It was nice to see both start and finish today. 

After Olympic Valley we drove over to the west side of Lake Tahoe and then followed the road around the north side of the lake. There's a fair bit of construction slowing things down. We drove on to the east side to Sand Harbor state park. It was a $15 entry, cash only. We found that they were having a Shakespeare in the Park event that night which had the parking near full. Unfortunately it was already all sold out or Sarah would have loved to attend. We did find parking and made our way down to the beach to walk around for a little bit. I had been targeting a hike on the East shore Trail but we ended up just walking boardwalks around the Sand Point area to sightsee and take pictures.

Sand Harbor - Lake Tahoe Trip Report

We completed our time at Tahoe just before sunset and then drove Northeast from there on up to Reno. We hit a Walmart in Reno to get some snacks and items for the week. We then did supper at blaze pizza. After supper it was a long 2 and 1/2 hour drive up to susanville in the dark. I was certainly getting tired by the end still being on eastern time in a long day. We stayed at the Quality Inn & Suites in Susanville.  It was quite pricey and we ended up using 30000 Choice pts.

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 14

We left the hotel at 8:30 this morning. Not in a huge rush today but we did have a goal to get to Lava Beds National Monument this morning. Today was also marked by the unpleasant news that Sarah was not feeling well at all. She slept most of the morning drive out of Susanville up towards Lava Beds. 

During our morning drive I was biding my time till 9:45 a.m. when the 24-hour window would open for tickets for a Crater Lake boat tour. The earlier reservation tickets were already booked up. But they open up half of the tickets 24 hours ahead of time and I wanted to get on it. When 9:45 a.m. rolled around we literally lost cell signal a minute before. It would take another 20 minutes later till I got just enough signal for me to hit the website. Thankfully there were still tickets available and we booked two. We were on the deluxe tour which would have a 2 hour tour of the lake and then 3 hours on Wizard Island. It was $65 for adults.

As the drive continued Sarah made it clear that she would want to hit an urgent care clinic this morning. We found one up in Klamath Falls, Oregon on our route. As we looked over the timing of the day we made the executive decision to skip Lava Beds, knowing we would have to alot a couple hours in Klamath Falls for the medical visit. We also were prioritizing time at Crater Lake in the afternoon over time at Lava Beds in the morning. So we made the drive straight up to Klamath Falls and hit the urgent Care clinic. We were there about 45 minutes, but then spent another hour and a half at the nearby Fred Meyer waiting for the prescription to come through and to get it. While we were there in town we got lunch at a Jimmy John's and did a gas fill up. We had waited on filling until we made it into Oregon as prices were much cheaper than in California. The fill up was for $3.69 which was probably only 40 cents more expensive than back home. Prices in California were over $5 a gallon.

It was 2:48 when we finally left Klamath Falls and at that point we were certainly pleased we had made the choice to skip lava beds. No doubt it would have been a nice park to see but we wanted to see Crater Lake more. We made it to the Crater Lake Lodge at 4:00 p.m. we got checked in for our room. I had been lucky several weeks prior to get on to what was likely a cancellation. Those rooms usually are booked up months in advance and I had almost stopped checking when one day a room had opened. It was on the valley side so we didn't have views of the lake from our room. But it was very handy still to be able to stay there. Otherwise hotel lodging would be at least 45 minutes away. It was a bit of a splurge night as it cost $268. The room was quite small and did not even have a tv. But the location was great. We were in room C106. 

As we got checked in in the room Sarah was feeling so bad that she decided to take a nap in bed. I decided to take the opportunity to go for a hike. During the drive I've been listening to a couple podcasts on Crater Lake and one of them had heavily recommended the hike up Garfield peak. Conveniently it left right from the lodge. They said the views from its summit were fantastic and it was only a three and a half mile round trip.
 

Garfield Peak Trip Report

Upon return to the lodge I went into the Great Hall and got a beer at the bar there. No better way to finish a hike than to have a beer while taking in views of Crater Lake. I tried the Caldera Ashland Amber.  Sarah still wasn't feeling well so I walked over to the Rim Village and in the cafe there I got supper. I got a basic chicken finger basket with fries for $15. I then took some time to shop the gift shop. They had some nice stuffed animals for the little ones and I found a really nice hoodie to get.

I spent the evening watching the Bond movie Quantum of Solace on my Pixelbook. Around 9:30 p.m. the power went out in the room. I went out to the hallway and our next door neighbor was doing the same and we found the power was out in the whole building. We both went to the front desk together and the gentleman said they hope to have it back in an hour. That would end up not being the case. It would be out all night.

THURSDAY AUGUST 15

We were up early today as we just weren't sleeping well at altitude, plus we're still living a bit on eastern time, at least in the mornings.  We also wanted to get an early start to get over to the Cleetwood Cove area for the boat tour.  So we were up at 6:30am.

The power in the Rim Village and Lodge was also still out when we woke up.  It had briefly flickered on over night. I was awakened by a bright shining light which turned out to be the lamp right in my face.  

It was unclear how Sarah would wake up today with how sick she was feeling.  While there was some improvement she was certain she would not make the hike up/down the trail to the boat launch.  She decided she would ride in the car with me and then drive it back to the Rim Village to wait.

We also woke up to the surprise of thick fog all around Crater Lake.  Nothing like we hadn't seen before but this killed all the views.  We held out hopes it would lift before or during the boat tour so we could take in the views.

We bought snacks the other day for breakfast today and so were able to do breakfast in the room with some breakfast bars and applesauce cups.

We made the drive over to Cleetwood Cove Trailhead.  The fog and white-out conditions slowed the drive up a bit and again took away all the views.  We had heard some reports the drive could be 30-40 minutes over there.  The ExploreCraterLake concessionaire website for the boat tour says to expect 90 minutes from the park entrance over there.  That seemed super high.  Google Maps said it was only an 11 mile drive.  Even with the slower conditions with visibility I would say it only took us 25 minutes to get over there and we encountered almost no traffic.

Arriving at the parking we found that there was a check-in booth for the boat tour at front of the lot.  I went up there to check-in and was devastated to hear they were cancelling all the morning boat tours because of the weather.  We would get a full refund but it was such a bummer.  There was also no cell signal out there so we couldn't check the website for later options.  I went to the car to discuss with Sarah and decided that I would hike the Cleetwood Cove trail up and down just so I could see the trail and the view from the lakeshore. I also liked the idea of at least touching the water.  

Cleetwood Cove Trail Trip Report

Upon returning to the car we hit the road to drive back to the Rim Village. We stopped at the Watchman Lookout on the west rim on the way.  It was a major lookout and had good views looking down at Wizard Island.  It made the cancellation of the boat tour all the worse as I was so looking forward to hiking up to the caldera on Wizard Island.  

Back at the Rim Village we stopped in the gift shop to do a little shopping for the family.  We then made the call it was time to head out of the park.  I had noted there was an 11:30a Boat tour that was the Wizard Island shuttle.  I gave it some thought but there was concern it was also likely cancelled and so we opted to go.  It was about 9:15a at the time so there was a lot of time still ahead of us. We didn't want to wait 2+ hours only to find it also cancelled.

We followed Oregon 62 west from the park and had a nice long downhill heading back to civilization.  The rental Malibu was averaging like 60mpg through a lot of this section.  We came out to I-5 at Gold Hill, OR.  We took I-5 to Grants Pass and did lunch at Panda Express.  We did a gas fillup at the Speedway in Grant Pass as well. We had half a tank but wanted to fill up with Oregon prices ($3.53/gal) as opposed to California (over $5)

From Grants Pass it was US199 through Cave Junction to the Oregon border. We had briefly debated Oregon Caves National Monument today but decided against.  We continued 199 all the way to Crescent City. There was a lot of windy roads through here including a fun section through some redwoods where I felt like I was driving in a video game, and then all of a sudden it spat us out onto the flat roads heading into Crescent City.

From there we headed south on US101 to Klamath and drove up a narrow road to the Klamath River Overlook.  Just as we were arriving clouds rolled in for a bit.  I followed the hike down to the overlook which was about a half mile and several hundred feet.  Sarah stayed up top taking pictures and working on homework.

Klamath River Overlook Trail Trip Report

On our drive back out to the highway Sarah spotted a black bear in one of the meadows just before we hit the highway.  We stopped to get a few pics of him before he ran off into the woods.

As we continued our Drive South again I noticed that there was a scenic bypass of US 101 through one of the state parks. It was in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park and called the Newton B. Drury scenic parkway.  It was roughly an 8 mile long stretch through a narrow pass in the woods with plenty of Great Big trees to see. At the end of it there was this beautiful Open meadow where it sounded like elk would frequent, but we did not see any. 

We took in more beautiful coastal driving along US 101 and eventually ended up in the Eureka area. On the North side we took California 255 around Arcata Bay to the coast to the Ma-le'l Dunes Trailhead. This was a neat park with a number of trails through the dunes and along the beach. We followed the Lutguk Trail for a nice walk out to the beach. The winds off the ocean we're starting to make things feel a little cool. 

After our hike there we headed into Eureka over a couple of neat Bridges on each side of Tuluwat Island and found supper at Surfside Burger Shack. The owner and manager was really nice and service was great there. I tried the western bacon burger with fries. We had a nice supper there. For the night we stayed at the Clarion Hotel by Humboldt Bay. Was a decent hotel and surrounded by fencing, it felt like a compound. Not sure if that was indicative of the neighborhood?

FRIDAY AUGUST 16

Happy Anniversary 🎉 

I started the day early at 6:40 a.m. for our flight check-in for tomorrow. I couldn't get back to sleep so I decided on a morning walk. Ended up finding a Target parking lot just two blocks away from our hotel and walked a few laps there. I talked to David on the phone during my walk. 

I came back to the hotel and Sarah and I enjoyed and no hurry morning eventually eating breakfast just before it closed at 9:30 a.m. We got packed up and left around 10:00 a.m. We had a relatively wide open day with just a few ideas of things we wanted to do.  

I drove highway 101 down to the cutoff for California 1. This would be the road to fort Bragg and it was narrow and windy. It had a hilly area where we got stuck behind an RV for a few miles who just didn't want to pull over. It was interesting driving.

When things opened up along the coast the driving got better again. Just before the Town of Newport we found the Pacific Star Winery. Sarah had actually noted this in her pre-trip research and it seemed like a really good idea for us today. We got in there around 1:00 p.m. it was an absolutely lovely place with amazing views of the coast in the ocean. We just walked right in and a nice server lady got us started on five different tastings of wine. We will get a glass at a time and could partake anywhere on their grounds where they had various picnic tables and chairs where you could just sit down and take in the views. After each glass we would come up and get the next wine tasting. It was $14 for the five tastings. This place totally hit the spot. 

From there we finally made our way down to fort Bragg where we stopped at the Noyo Headlands Park.  We wanted to see Glass Beach.  There are some pictures of what look like some pretty big rocks that are transparent and look like glass. We got to the parking and found it nearly full. As we look ahead to the beach area it was actually quite a nice park and lots of people present. We explored around a little bit and never found any larger glass rocks. We did find some small Beach areas with some very tiny pieces. It would appear people have scavenged and taken the larger ones over time. We spent an hour and a half there exploring and it was quite fun. Within took a walk down the multi-use path to a stop called compass points and then back. 

We drove into downtown fort Bragg next and walked around a few shops looking for souvenirs for the older boys. We finally settled on buying them each a California themed deck of cards.  We are ready to leave fort Bragg and not quite hungry for supper so we hit the highway. We drove East out to Willits and then did a gas fill up. While filling up with gas we got a video phone chat from the little ones with Mom and dad. We ended supper at La Sicilianas in Willits, CA. I had the Redwood Logger pizza with pepperoni and green onions. Sarah had tortellini. I had an IPA beer.  Sarah had a Corona. It was a nice family friendly local restaurant.  After supper we made the rest of our drive out to Woodland and our hotel getting in at 940p. We topped off the rental car with gas at a Chevron for $4.49/gal. We stayed at the Quality Inn & Suites - Woodland - Sacramento Airport, it was only $80 for the night and an easy 10 minutes drive from the airport.

SATURDAY AUGUST 17

Our last morning was an early start.  We were up just before 4am to get out of our hotel room and off to the airport. We had a 15 minute drive to the rental car return.  Google Maps was showing one of the airport entry ramps closed from the highway which would have added 10 minutes to our trip but thankfully that proved false.  We made it to the return at 4:40am, there was nobody staffed there at the time. So we left the vehicle as is and I took a picture of it for good measure. (I would later in the morning get an e-mail acknowledging return).  

In the airport the bags check and security went fast.  We found Sacramento airport to be pleasant to walk through and was very aesthetic.  SMF has a single tram with a short ride after the security checkpoint and out to the terminal.  We happened to be in Terminal B with Southwest.

We left Sacrament on time and I had spent a moment deciding which side of the plane I wanted to be on for views.  I finally deduced right side to hopefully see the Colorado rockies.  In flight I watched Star Trek Into Darkness movie.  When we hit Colorado we were up by the Wyoming border and the only notable site was seeing Rocky Mountain National Park.  I wasn't quite able to pick out Longs Peak.

We arrived in STL about 8 minutes early. We had a 90 minute layover.  I grabbed a chicken sandwich from Shake Shack.  We left STL on time and had a ton of kids and families on the plane heading for DTW.  On this flight I was a putz and spilled some of my coke on my Pixelbook. I quickly dried and cleaned it and it appears I was fortunate and didn't destroy it. We made it into DTW on time but were delayed 20 minutes getting to our gate as another plane was present. Luke was gracious enough to pick us up and deliver us home. We got home around 5:30pm.