Day 2, Lava Beds National Monument

I left the motel  in Shasta City at 7:51… doors closed pulling out of the parking lot… of course I wanted to stop for gas… and got away from the station at exactly 8:00…  (this would have been exactly on time on plan if there was a plan instead of a vague concept…)

Instead of approaching Lava Bed National Monument from the north, I came in from the south… from McCloud, over Medicine Lake road…   atop the Medicine lake shield volcano… the volcano that provided the lava to create Lava Bed National Monument… 

Back to my route… it took be east via Hwy 89, through the old railroad and logging town of McCloud… now a collection of B&B’s and a hotel, all in former logging company guest buildings with a bit of railroad track a couple of derelict cars and a water tank, close to collapse.   Nearly abandoned logging towns are not unusual in California… but this one was a big show… a going concern buying big diesel locomotives and modern railroad cars into the 1970’s…  Its world changed quickly.  In town I stopped at the Forest service office and bought some maps…  I had to pay cash… they don’t do plastic…  $20.43 for two maps… I didn’t want to head into parts unknown without a decent map or two.

Back east on 89 through the community of Bartle… then take a left on the first logging road… it also had a Forest Service and a county number… but at its core it was a logging road, a paved logging road… It passed over the recently scrapped McCloud Railroad, through lava beds… lots of lava beds, through a tree farm named Stump Flat… then more lava beds… spectacular lava beds… at Medicine Lake the road changed to one lane with regular pull outs… then to dirt… then the signs said it was closed, but the signs were small and off to the side, I had checked with the Forest Service and with the NPS neither of which knew of any road closures, and this was the route, and I had already gone 70 miles and didn’t want to backtrack…   The so I pressed on,  finding a couple of guys with bobcats working on the road… they waved me through…

I reached the park boundary at mile 75, after 2 hours and 25 minutes of driving… 

I hiked to Mammoth crater, just inside the park boundary… it was also the take off point for the “Big Nasty Trail” (really, the official name printed on the official map and brochure)…  I didn’t do that one…   Then down to the visitor’s center where I showed my magic card, (The America the Beautiful National Parks and Federal Recreation Lands Pass, the best deal in the world for park junkies) but also had to do a Cave safety and two or three minute bat disease awareness conversation... There is a fungal disease, white nose syndrome, decimating bat populations east of the Rockies... They are trying to keep it out of the lava tubes.  The awareness program is well handled…

At the suggestion of the naturalist, I did two caves,  Mushpot, 770‘ long, lighted, and paved, and sentinel, 3280’ long…  not lit, not paved, but considered an easy cave...  plus it can be done one way, coming out a different place than you entered. 

Left the visitor's center area... and headed down to the battle field area... for this was the site of the Modoc Indian wars… the only Indian war in which a general was killed…. First to the site of the Army’s Gillems camp...  Gillems was the original commander of the troops fighting here… he didn’t dislodge the Indians, but didn’t get himself killed either… Then out through the park entrance gate, but not out of the park.  Then to Canby's cross, on the spot where he (General Canby) died… then to Captain Jack's stronghold...  I ate lunch at the picnic area at the stronghold parking area... Sitting with a French couple...  They had the only shady table and invited me to join them.  They had read about the caves, but didn't know about the Indian war.  We had wonderful conversations about their travels in American, about why French cheese doesn’t taste the same here, and about squirrels… they hadn’t seem much wild life this trip, and when a grey tree squirrel visited the picnic area it was a high-light for them.

After lunch, our French visitors moved on to the visitor center and the caves, while I hiked the strong hold…  back on the road, I drove by Hospital rock, another Modoc War site, then paused a couple times at wildlife overlooks… mostly birds on Tule Lake, but I did see a swimming muskrat…   Beyond the lake was the monuments remote  petroglyph site… sadly protected by chain link fence and surveillance cameras…  and well marked with modern carvings…

From there it was about 50 miles to Alturas… initially on small farm roads, before reaching the big two lane highway… the highlight of the drive was a guy pulling a boat trailer which had a catastrophic tire failure… a complete blowout, tire leaving the rim, gone, no rubber…  This however did not deter our hero from continuing on for the next 10 miles at speeds up to 65 miles per hour on the metal rim…  He only stopped to get out and inspect the wheel after visiting the California Agricultural inspection… 

I reached Alturas 20 miles later… and explored the one time railroad headquarters town… The trains don’t run here anymore, but the track is still in place for now… There is a wonderful 1917 stone railroad headquarters office building, a stone depot, and other items of railroad history interests…  Maybe better, I encountered two truck loads of Forest Service fire crews… pulled over at a city park, napping in the shade on the lawn…  they had clearly been out on a fire, they were catching up on needed rest… and still had most of a season to go…

I checked in to my motel (the Rim Rock Motel… nice, older traditional place… well reviewed and in expensive… I am very happy with the choice)  It had its “NO Vacancy” sign lit… Then found dinner down the street at the Brass Rail, a Basque resterant… I am very full and happy as I write today’s blog post…  Coming back from dinner I sat outside and typed… an realized the fire crews were my neighbors at the motel…