Trip Summary Continued

We visited 7 national parks and 2 national monuments - Devils Tower WY, Mt Rainier N.P. Washington, Mt St Helen's Washington, Crater Lake N.P. Oregon, Redwoods N.P. California,
Lassen Volcanic N.P. California, Yosemite N.P. California, Sequoia N.P. California, Kings Canyon N.P. California, and Hoover Dam Nevada/Arizona.  There were many "travel days" when we only stopped overnight. We enjoyed seeing so much of our beautiful country.
Pictures of our "home" for the trip: in Sioux City, South Dakota on our way northwest and Shingletown, California near Lassen Volcanic NP which was a nice large campsite.

Pictures from Paul's camera: from Mt St Helen's and Hoover Dam

RV Road Trip Summary

It seems like our timing for this trip was excellent due to weather conditions.  We were out of Florida before Hurricane Irma visited, a cold front with snow came through the northwest and cleared out the smoke from the fires (helped but didn't put them out) while we were there.  Although we were not in the area of the latest fires in California they started after we were out of the state. We were on the road almost 6 weeks and covered over 8800 miles of our beautiful country.  We saw snow in Montana, at Mt Rainier Paradise Visitor Center and Crater Lake. 

We saw Christine Falls at Mt Rainier and Bridalveil Falls at Yosemite.

Hoover Dam

We are back in the heat now.  After wearing jeans for nearly 3 weeks we are in shorts again. We spent Friday at Hoover Dam.  It is awesome to actually see it.  We passed the security checkpoint and took the power plant tour which was interesting.  It is an amazing engineering feat and provides power to such a large area.  Sadly this was our last sightseeing stop before we head for home.  It has been a good trip; we were able to see a lot of beautiful sights. We are in Nevada so it will take several days to get home from here.

Kings Canyon National Park

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks are actually connected but there are separate entrances and different sites to see.  Tuesday we went to Kings Canyon to see more.  It was about 48 degrees at about 6,000 feet of altitude. We spent time at the Grant Grove Village and walked the trail around the General Grant tree, the walk thru tree (we walked thru it), centennial stump among other sites.  We had a nice lunch at the restaurant in the Grant Grove Village.

Sequoia National Park

We spent Monday at Sequoia National Park.  The roads were definitely mountain roads: narrow winding with climbs and descents.  There was a 6 mile stretch of construction with 2 miles of that one lane only. Of course the scenery was worth it! The trees are beautiful and we went to the Giant Forest Museum, walked in the forest a bit and stopped at tunnel rock among other sites.  We stopped at a Walmart (haven't been there for a while!) on our way back to the campground and replenished some supplies.  It is still cool at night and mild during the day.

Yosemite National Park

We went to Yosemite National Park today.  We rode the bus from the campground into the park and used their free shuttle buses to move around inside the park.  It was a beautiful day with a high temperature in the 70's and sunshine. It was also a free admission day and a Saturday - all of which brought the people into the park.  We took the 2 hour Valley Floor tour on with open air seating and a park ranger guide on board.  It was a beautiful ride; we saw Yosemite Falls, Bridalveil Falls, El Capitan and the tunnel view of the valley among other sites.  Pictures of the falls are hard to see because the water is so close to the color of the mountain.  After we arrived at the campground Thursday afternoon we needed to get the oil changed in the truck and do laundry.  The closest dealer for the oil change was an hour away and they worked us in yesterday.  We had a nice lunch at Black Bear Diner which was a short walk.  We have not had a good cell signal for a few days now but we do have a good wifi signal at the campground.

Lassen Volcanic National Park, CA

Today we visited Lassen Volcanic National Park one of the lesser known parks in California.  It is home to 4 types of volcanoes: shield, composite, cinder cone and plug dome.  We saw Reflection Lake, Summit Lake, Mount Lassen and a waterfall among the varied landscape of the park.  The snow on Mt Lassen is from the winter snow that has not yet melted down into the valley.

Redwoods National Park

Today we went to Redwoods National Park.  The redwoods are amazing.  We rode a gondola up to the top of the mountain above the trees at the Mystery of the Trees in the park.  It was beautiful. They also have a trail with the story of Paul Bunyan. There are several state parks within this national park and much to see.  There are several places where you can drive through a redwood tree, however, the one that was recommended to us had been carved out many years ago when cars were much smaller!  There is very limited cell service here but we have cable tv and internet. The campground has a protected area full of redwood trees and ferns; a beautiful walk in the woods.

Crater Lake National Park

More snow! We did not expect to see any snow on this trip. Today we went to Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. It had snowed there earlier this week and this was the first day this week that the trolley was running.  We timed it right and took the trolley around the rim.   It was about 40 degrees at the rim. One of the rangers was on board relating the history and interesting facts about the park.  It was even more beautiful with the snow.  On the way here yesterday a tire blew out on the camper. Paul was able to change it safely but didn't trust the spare so we took the time to find a place to buy a tire.  After they had put the new tire on the camper he saw a piece of wood in the spare so we bought 2 tires.  We were thankful he saw that and were really nice in taking of our problem.

Mt St Helens

Thursday brought some sunshine and a little rain which became fog in the mountains.  We visited Mount St Helens in Washington.  The visitor centers and observation center were very interesting with their exhibits and short film recounting the volcanic eruption of the mountain on May 18, 1980 and the natural regrowth.  Of course the losses were devastating for a very large area surrounding the mountain.  We walked up some of the paths where we could get a better view but the fog was too thick to actually see the mountain.

Mount Rainier

On Tuesday we went on a tour of Mount Rainier.  It is raining on and off in Washington which is much needed and helping clear the smoke from the fires.  It's cooler than we are used to and we only brought flannel shirts and light jackets so we "layered up" - not pretty! It was a pleasure for Paul to let someone else do the driving and we saw so much more than if we had driven there.  We walked a couple trails in the rain.  It was snowing at the Paradise Visitor Center which is about 5000 feet altitude.  Everyone was "playing" in the snow!  Because of the rain and snow we could not actually see the mountain but it was a good day.  So we saw snow in Montana and Washington in the summer - an unexpected surprise.  We were expecting to see and smell smoke from all the fires.

Montana

There was a change in the weather in Montana; a cool down bringing rain along with snow in the mountains.  This will help reduce the smoke from all the fires here.  It's not clear how much help but here near Butte we were told that the smoke has been replaced by clouds in the sky.   We were in Hardin, Montana (near Billings) last night and are at Deer Lodge, Montana tonight.  We had rain on and off yesterday and not quite as much today but we also saw snow in the mountains (over 5000 feet elevation)

along I-90 between Bozeman and Butte with some snowflakes falling on us.  The temperature was in the 40s all day and is forecast to fall into the 30s tonight.  Now that the system has passed more mild temperatures will return.

Devils Tower Wyoming

We went on a hayride from the campground around the owner's ranch near sunset last night.  After that we watched the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" which was filmed here 40 years ago. Today we went to Devil's Tower and walked the 1.3 mile trail around its base.