After we left the site in the morning, I discovered that my hearing aid case’s cover was missing. We drove back to the site hoping that it would be there and sure enough I found it in the dirt where we parked. Whew.

We took the Rubicon Trail that led us to a lighthouse along Lake Tahoe. The lighthouse was the highest elevation lighthouse in the United States. It was built in 1919 for $900.

We stopped to go on the Balancing Rock trail, which is a short self-guided trail with a cool rock that is about 130 tons balancing on top of a smaller rock.

On the way out of Tahoe we stopped by the Emerald Bay lookout, which was extremely crowded, just like most of Lake Tahoe. Then we stopped by Camp Richardson, a little resort/rest stop for some ice and ice cream. Our destination was to be Yosemite National Park.

We took a road that went partially through Nevada and it’s capital, Carson City. Once we entered back into California, we came to Mono Lake. Mono Lake has many large mineral deposits called tufas. The mineral content is so high only brine shrimp, flies, and shore birds lived there.

The lake is used as a water supply for Los Angeles (LA actually owned the part of the park where we had lunch), and so the water dwindled down year by year. There is a boardwalk going down to the shore (over the marshes) with signs showing the height of the lake at different year periods. It went down more than 20 feet since 1850. This was one of my favorite places on the trip and I took lots of pictures.

In the distance you could see the youngest mountain chain in North America, and lots of volcanic rock.

At the place we had lunch, there were some people with a bunny on a leash. They took the bunny to the water fountain and from the picnic table it looked like the bunny was drinking water from the fountain. Theresa says she saw the dad cupping water in his hands and feeding it but I have my doubts.

When we got to Yosemite, there was a pretty lake at 9000 feet elevation called Ellerly Lake. We stopped there to take some pictures, then headed to our campsite in Tuolumne Meadows.

Our site was next to some loud talkative people who gave us a bottle of wine (they had a lot of extra bottles). We hung out with them for a bit then went to sleep early. It got really cold that night, almost as much as our campsite in Mendocino.

This was our last day at Lassen, and we were headed towards Lake Tahoe. We drove down the park road, and passed through areas with lots of snow. They had an exceptionally long winter that year. Along the way we saw the Texas Christians on the side of the road taking samples or something.

We went to the Sulphur Works area and saw boiling mud pots and steam vents. They had a large steam vent that smelled like hot, rotten eggs.

Lassen has many areas of volcanic activity, including one called Bumpass Hell. The trail unfortunately was closed due to snow cover. According to the books, that was the trail that had the most volcanic activity on it. Maybe someday we can return and spend more time in this awesome park.

We drove to Truckee, a crossroads town near Lake Tahoe, and had some ok mexican food. It made me miss the local place we go to, Don Jose. I was wearing my 311 shirt that looks like a 7-11 sign, and this lady comes up to me and exclaims, “Oh My God!! What is 311? That’s my birthday!” I guess people are more excitable in the west.

When we arrived at Lake Tahoe, we stopped by the lake to take in the view. Then we drove to the Olympic Village at Squaw Valley. We took a tram up to the top of the mountain, where it was very cold and windy. Theresa had told me to bring a sweatshirt but I refused, thinking it wouldn’t be so bad. So I froze my ass off.

We did get some beautiful views of the mountain and lake. I took some pictures (without snow) to compare with the snowy pictures I took there a year or so ago. We accidentally missed the next tram down and had to wait around another 20 minutes.

We then drove to DL Bliss State Park, where we were staying that night. We drove down to a beach in the park to take in some sunset views, then headed to the campsite for dinner and sleep.

This was the only night on the camping trip that we did not have wine.

The bathrooms were so good that they are worth mentioning. They were single bathrooms, some with showers and some with just sinks and toilets. Everything was very clean compared to camp bathrooms I had been to in the past.

The next morning, as we were eating breakfast, two deer walked right behind out tent. They were so close to use, yet seemingly unafraid.

We drove to Subway Cave, an underground lava tube that was formed when the top of a lava flow hardened due to cooling. The inside lava, insulated by the hardened top layer, kept flowing and eventually flowed away completely, leaving a hollow tube.

Inside it was very cold and had low ceilings. Certain parts were called “stub toe” areas where little stalagmites of lava deposits protruded out of the floor. There were also small “mud pots” that had hardened.

We then drove on a long, bumpy, slippery, unpaved road about 15 minutes to the Butte Lake campground area and the trailhead for the Cinder Cone trail. The road was fun to drive on in 4-wheel-drive. Theresa freaked out, and had me drive, but that was fine by me. The road was so bumpy that later that day when we opened the cooler we found an exploded tomato that was spread out all over the cooler.

When we got to the trailhead there was an Indian family there, and the man asked us about the trail. We told him he should bring lots of water, and he asked us to hold on while he got some and if they could go on the trail with us. We thought it was a weird request but we agreed.

So, Indian family in tow, we walked on the soft sandy black ground of the trail toward Cinder Cone, a small volcano. When the cone came into view it was amazing. We were actually stunned by the fact that we would be climbing this steep volcano.

There was a long, sandy, steep trail up the side of the volcano. It is a 700 feet climb with a 30 to 35 degree incline. We lost the Indian family along the way because they were trailing behind.

The ascent was arduous and Theresa barely made it. At the top, you can see Butte Lake, Mount Lassen, the lava beds, and the Painted Dunes (caused by mineral and iron deposits). We walked along the rim of the cone, and took a trail down on the other side, which was the long way back. The base circumference of the cone is a mile, so it took us an extra half mile or so to get back to the point at the base we started at. On the way down, which was lots of fun, we got tons of rocks in our shoes! This trail was so awesome that I took a lot of pictures here.

On the way back to the campsite, we showered (50 cents for 3 minutes) and did our laundry. Ahh, modern conveniences are everywhere!

The next morning, after getting about 10 miles away from the camp, we had to return to give back the bathroom key for the $5 deposit. I almost decided to forget about the money but the key was weighing heavy in my hand.

We then proceeded to drive towards Lassen Volcanic National Park. We stopped in Redding, about 3 hours away, to get some food. Every supermarket we came across was so nice compared to the ones back home. It’s such a shame.

We stopped at Whiskeytown Lake, which has a dam on it. We didn’t go see the dam because there was an accident on the road leading there.

However, we did come across a part of the lake where they had plastic “curtain” that held the warm water in the lake while letting some cold water fall through. This is because the Chinook salmon needs cold water to sustain its population. It’s a good example of a compromise between environmental concerns and the need to use the water to create electric power.

When we arrived at Lassen, we went to the Manzanita Lake campground and got a good spot. The bathroom was kind of crappy though, since it had no lights.

Our neighbors were from the Texas Christian University Biology Dept, and they had tents exactly like the one I went camping with then I was little.

This was the first site where we had bear-proof containers. The containers varied from campground to campground but they were always metal and had some kind of mechanism to open them that a bear supposedly could not use. We had to keep all food and toiletries (basically anything that had a smell) in these containers. Some cars had been broken into by bears looking for food. This was much different from the last time I was in the area (when I was a kid). Back then the bears apparently weren’t as bold as they are today.

After having lunch by the lake, we hiked a 3 mile trail to Chaos Jumbles. It was a good hike but a bit steep at the end. As we were hiking up a man about 40 years older than us ran right by us. I only hope I can be in that good shape when I get old.

On the way were lots of fallen trees with moss on them, and giant pine cones. We could see snow-capped mountains in the near distance.

Near the end of the trail, I looked down and see a small lake of snowmelt water and lots of craggy rock. We spent some time by the water, putting our feet in, then hiked back.

After dinner that night, we went to the amphitheater, which wasn’t too far from the campground. They were showing a bat slide show, and this really interesting ranger (Kathy) was giving the presentation.

The slide show was about how people should not be afraid of bats. The funniest part was a series of slides showing bats having different haircuts and stuff, and Kathy would say “if I had this hair, would you CARE for me NOW?” Uhm, I guess you had to be there.

We slept in that morning, until 8:30, which was late for camping. After breakfast we drove into Weaversville to look for a ranger station and ask about trails to take. Unfortunately, they were having a parade through main street so we got stuck in over 20 minutes of traffic, and on top of that the ranger gave us worthless information.

We decided to have lunch by the lake and then try and find a trail to take.

We had noticed a sign for trails on the highway on the way to the campground, so we drove there. We hiked a long, not so interesting, trail. We came across some shit a few times and T got scared it was from a bear. We headed back soon after that.

We got back to camp early, had an early dinner with wine, and went to sleep.. early.