Day 21

Today, we began our journey East, traveling from Redwood National Park to Lassen Volcanic National Park. We drove down the Pacific coast on highway 101 to a town called Arcata, and then turned inland and headed East, away from the Pacific.

It was amazing how quickly the landscape went from lush green forests, to dry, brown mountainsides. As soon as we crossed over the first mountain pass of our trip, the transformation began. It became very obvious how the mountains act as a “wall”, blocking moisture from the Pacific from reaching inland. In fact, there was a lot of smoke in the air, from a forest fire that apparently had been burning recently. We saw lots of fire trucks seemingly leaving the area, their job having been completed.

We had taken our time getting out this morning, as we were in no particular hurry. When we reached Redding, California, we got our first views of Lassen Peak, some 35 miles away. We could also see Mount Shasta from Redding as well.

 Mt. Shasta

Lassen Peak

We arrived at the park and got our camp site set up. It's very dry and dusty here, and it was pretty warm when we arrived, even though we're at an elevation of approximately 5500 feet. We've been told that it gets pretty cold at night … down into the low 40's.

Our plan is to tour the park tomorrow, doing a couple of hikes in the process. Then, it's back to our camp site for our FINAL night of camping. After that, we leave first thing Friday morning to begin our real journey back home.

That's it for tonight, though I won't be able to publish this post until Friday when we reach interstate 80 near Reno, Nevada. Once again, we have no internet access or cellular connections here in the wilderness.