Fall Road Trip 2023 - Bishop to Newport

While on the road, we usually stay at a hotel every third or fourth night to get cleaned up and have a non-camping meal. We try to find unique, reasonably priced places (e.g., historic or “boutique” hotels) rather than chain hotels if possible. 

In Bishop, we stayed at the Creekside Inn. Which isn’t historic or “boutique” but was much nicer than many. Sometimes the name of a hotel doesn’t match reality but, in this case, it did. A beautiful little creek with walkways beside, bridges across, and several seating areas with lounge chairs and gas fire tables. The lobby had big comfortable chairs and a fireplace. There was a long wood carving of a mountain scene along the front desk. 

Such pretty colours along the creek.

After picking up groceries and a coffee to go, we headed towards Lake Tahoe. This is one of the few short stretches we’ve repeated so far on this trip. Other than another coffee break, we didn’t stop as it was again a very busy area with trailhead or scenic pullouts packed with vehicles. 

We found a secluded pull off north of Truckee to park for the night as all of the campgrounds were closed for the season. 

Brrr . . . time for long underwear! It's getting colder as we head towards home.

The route towards the coast followed a winding narrow road with lots of elevation gain and loss through the mountains. It was beautiful but, now having a sinus cold along with continued coughing, my ears kept getting plugged up and then popping as we went up and down. Ouch! I don’t recall ever having this much of a problem before. 

Stopping for tea on a long stretch with no towns.

We stopped for the night at a campsite on the Van Duzen River that we'd been to before (Swimmer’s Delight) and really like because of the big redwoods. 

A tree growing out of a tree.

American Thanksgiving means that lots of coffee shops and restaurants are closed but we did manage to find a nice local place, Paragon Coffee House, in Crescent City. 

We stopped for the night at Boice-Cope Park by Floras Lake which was also right by the ocean (lake and ocean separated by meters. We had a nice walk around the lake and a very short but windy walk on the beach. The ocean waves were crashing! 

I really liked the sun shining off these plants growing in the sand
and found this feather caught in one of them.

Powerful waves

Calm lake

Sunset on the lake

Hiking Among Giants

The giant sequoias in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park are some of the world's largest trees. It's a strain on the neck to look up at the very tops while hiking among them.

To give some perspective, the General Sherman tree (the largest tree in the world!) is 275 feet tall and 36 feet in diameter. We didn't stop to see it this trip but others are equally impressive.

We drove through the parks and did a short day hike in Redwood Canyon which is a somewhat lesser traveled area, supposedly due to the two miles of dirt road to get to the trailhead. But even our low-clearance Prius made it without too much concern.

This 20 second video I made also gives come perspective. (Be sure to change settings to HD.)

Such stark and dramatic landscape near Kings Canyon.

Hume Lake

Near the end of the day we found a quiet little stream through some water worn rock. While Andrew was off taking photos of the mini water falls and reflections, I was entertained by the water striders and their shadows. In the photo below, the water strider is just left of centre and his large shadow is in the middle.

The Redwoods

"One of my most unforgettable memories of the past year is walking through 

the Redwoods last November -- seeing the lovely shafts of light filtering though the trees 

so far above, feeling the majesty and silence of that forest, and watching a salmon 

rise in one of those swift streams -- all our problems seemed to fall into 

perspective and I think every one of us walked out more serene and happier." 

Lady Bird Johnson

July 30, 1969

After our attempt at climbing Mount Shasta, we took a couple days to rest our sore legs and did some short hikes and a driving loop through the scenic Shasta-Trinity National Forest and out to the coast before heading back to Jacksonville and the hope for more paragliding. 

We stopped first at Castle Crags State Park which, in addition to hiking, has some great rock climbing. Sadly, the parking lot near the climbing, the high vista point and most of the hikes, is small and was completely packed on a Saturday. We ended up doing a short hike right near the park entrance but still very nice and we were the only ones on it. 

The next day we stopped at Redwood National Park and did the Lady Bird Johnson Grove hike through the old growth redwoods. Beautiful! It's only a mile and a half long but meandering and taking photos takes time! :-) 

Looking straight up at the redwoods.

A stream in Castle Crags State Park.

Castle Crags

View from our lunch stop at Shasta Lake, north of Redding, CA.

Moss in Redwood Park.

Look up . . . look waaaay up.

Funky branches and moss.

A bit of height perspective.

Just one of many lovely flowers.

Cross section of an old tree.

A piece of the sky.

The coast near Klamath, CA.

After getting back to Jacksonville, we made plans with a fellow paragliding pilot, Steven, to try Herd Peak again. Unfortunately, despite the forecast being favourable and not much wind on the ground, the winds at the launch site were quite high. Certainly more than we were comfortable with at our level of experience. Hopefully we'll get there again some day and maybe third time will be the charm.

The wind sock at the Herd Peak launch; Mount Shasta in the background.