Northern California and Southern Oregon Epic Trip

The Epic Thanksgiving Trip

Lava Beds, Crater Lake, Lake Shasta Caverns

A few days before Thanksgiving, we embarked on a trip to northern California and southern Oregon.  Little did I know it'd become the best trip under one week we've ever been on.  It was a possibility for some sections of roads to require traction devices.  I think the trip ended up being so fun due partially to the potential severe weather.  If nothing else, we kept the expectations quite low.  It was going to be wet and cold.  We hit the road anyway thinking in worst case, we'd be stuck in a hotel somewhere, which would in itself be an experience.  For the weather, we brought the following items.

• SAE Class S snow cables.  Our Subaru Forest doesn't allow chains.
• Knee pads.
• A backup driver side windshield wiper.
• A tiny shovel and a small hoe for removing snow and ice around the tires.
• Gloves as snow and ice can injure hands easily.

The video below demonstrates how to install the snow cable that we bought.  We found that the same snow cable was cheaper at a Fred Meyer supermarket in Oregon.

The sections below will take you through the short but packed trip.

Day 1: Staging in Redding, CA

We first staged up in Redding, CA.  It's a sizable city where a Costco is available.  We usually start a road trip with a Costco Pizza and a full tank of Costco trip.  From Redding, one can easily head to the coast, Lassen Volcanic National Park, Shasta area, or even southern Oregon cities such as Klamath Falls.

Day 2: Lake Shasta Caverns

The next day, we headed to Lake Shasta Caverns.  The caverns are privately owned by someone who lives in San Francisco.  The guided tour includes a boat ride across Lake Shasta, a bus ride to the caverns, a tour around the caverns.  All in all, it took about 2 hours.  The trip felt extra exciting because of these different elements.

After the tour, we headed to Klamath Falls, OR, another staging area for the next few days.  It snowed in the evening.

Day 3: Lava Beds National Monument

Lava Beds National Monument sees only slightly more than 110k visitors a year.  That is nothing compared to the most popular National Parks such as Yosemite and Zion, which both see 4M+ visitors a year.  In general, the parks and monuments in northern California are hidden gems without heavy foot traffic through the year.

We made a phone call earlier inquiring whether there would be snow-related road closures or not.  They informed us that they hadn't seen snow yet and usually the park would be open.  To our surprise, when we arrived at Lava beds in the morning, we saw fresh snow on the ground.  It is important to note that during the winter season, only the route from the north would be open.  Always call the park before your visit for directions.

There were quite some caves closed because there were bats in them, which the park would like to protect.  We visited all the easy caves available and some moderately challenging ones.  Driving around the cave loop is a must.  We started with Mushpot Cave, which was well lit.  We then headed to Valentine Cave, which could be more difficult then one would expect.  Adults in our group needed to crawl through some sections.  It's very easy for the kids.  We didn't get to the end of the cave.  In comparison, Skull Cave was easier because there was a more defined "end", which is the ice floor.  Speaking of ice floor, Merill Ice Cave used to have an ice floor big enough for people to skate on.  Now it has 0 ice.  Ovis cave was interesting in the sense that after a very short hike, we got to see the sky again and climbed our way back up.  We still aren't sure whether that was the right way to tour the cave.  Golden dome was extremely beautiful.  We went in for about 40 minutes only.  It went on and on and on.  I wish we had enough to go as far as we could.  Equipment-wise, a helmet and a good head lamp are a must.

It rained quite a bit on our way to Klamath Falls.  It was very difficult to drive.  I'd recommend that you clean the inside of the windshield often.  It will help you see better at night when light shines through your windshield.

Day 4: Crater Lake National Park, Deep in Snow

Leaving Klamath Falls, we headed up to Crater Lake National Park.  We've been there before in June and it was stunning with snow.  We knew already that it'd been snowing the past few days and when we visited, it'd be the last snowy day.  We saw lots of fresh snow.  The visitor center was quite covered in snow.  The ranger told us that we might be able to hike up and see the lake that day.  The first time we tried, we went the wrong way.  The snow was at least knee deep every step of the way.  We realized we went the wrong way because on a GPS map, we moved away from the lake.  We lost about an hour right there.  We headed back to the visitor center and the ranger was nice enough to lead us to the Raven trailhead.  Now, we were tight on time.  We had about 3 hours to finish the hike.  It was way easier this time because more people traveled through the trail with snow shoes already.  They got the snow compressed a bit.  From time to time, a leg would still sink entirely.  The uphill was way more challenging.  Hiking back down was easy.

The picture below shows the wrong trail.

The correct trail is called "Raven Trail".

I had never seen this much snow before.  In total, we spent about 2.5-3.0 hours hiking this trail.  Luckily, we did see the lake!

There were "blue diamonds" on trees around guiding us.

We didn't have snow shoes or skis with us.  We muscled up with just hiking boots and snow boots.  Snow boots fared way better.  Waterproof  hiking boots got soaking wet.  It was a pleasant surprise to us that kids didn't sink into the snow nearly as easily.  I almost want to say that they don't need snow shoes but I think it really depends on how much a kid weighs.

Looking back, we might have gotten lucky that the road up to the lake was closed, which led us to hiking in deep snow, an experience we would otherwise not have had.

Day 5: Snow Play Around Shasta Area

Not having had enough snow, we asked a ranger at Shasta ranger station where we could do snow sledding.  We were told that we couldn't reach Bunny Flat and that Snowmans Hill could work.  That was a superb suggestion.  We had a ton of fun there going up and down.  Kids played with snow on their own for a long time too.  I tried to pave the slides for people, plugging holes and smoothening out the ways.  A couple of people eventually joined me.  It's worth mentioning that it comes with some risks sledding on snow or ice.  Be ready to get some bruises.  Wearing a helmet could be a good idea.

How I'd Make It Better

It would have been much better to allocate two full days for Lava beds NM.  I'd visit more caves and try to reach the end of them all.  So maybe it'd take 3 days.  I'd also like to hike up one or two cinder cones there.  Lave Beds NM is truly a gift that keeps giving.

After visiting Crater Lake, it'd be good to swing to the coast and visit the Redwood national park.  During non-winter season, we could also start by visiting Lassen Volcanic national park.  Hiking up Lassen peak has been a goal of mine.

Food?

You probably noticed I didn't mention about restaurants in the post.  Usually, when going on the road, we skip restaurants to save time and money.  We typically bring canned vegies, instant noodles, and snacks and leverage complementary breakfast at hotels.  As an example, for this trip, we only purchased the following items on the road, amounting to less than $50.00.

• A Costco pizza, half and half.
• A rotisserie chicken and a 3lb bag of cuties mandarins at a Fred Meyer supermarket.
• McDonald's (20 chicken nuggets, 2 medium fries, 2 cheese burgers, and a quarter pounder) as a prize for family members to make it to seeing the crater lake.  I genuinely thought they wouldn't be able to make it.  I was in shock when I heard some noise and realized that they made it.  I had Floyd's at McCloud on my mind but it was too far away.