6/27/08 We are now at Mike and Marilyn's place on Agency Lake just north of Klamath Lake in southern Oregon. They have a very nice house and have provided us with a great parking space with a beautiful view of the lake. The weather has been beautiful and we all have been doing projects during the day and then having Happy Hours and dinners together. Almost every day Elaine and I drive down to the wetlands area (for waterfowl) where we can do a long walk and appreciate nature at the same time. There has been a big mix-up with regard to something important that had to be sent to us, so we will have to stay about 4-5 more days until that item arrives. After that we will head a bit further north and also try to hook up with a few of the RoVing Rods for some fishing at a nearby reservoir.
Prior to coming here, we were camping at Lava Beds National Monument. As we approached the Monument from the south, on a road that was totally deserted and had lots of chunks of asphalt lifting up to create potholes, we were wondering what we were getting ourselves into. Then we found the very modern Visitor's Center with friendly and helpful rangers, and the small but adequate (and nicely priced, especially for us Oldsters) campground, and we knew we would enjoy it there. Lava Beds National Monument has over 500 lava tube caves, and the first day we were there we hiked in one on the guided ranger hike. It was a challenge in several places because the top of the tube was low so we had to "duck walk" for a while to get through it. Good thing they supply flashlights and require hard hats (we used our bike helmets) because nearly everyone was hitting their heads in the low spots! We learned a lot about lava flows and the most important thing we learned was that we didn't really need to hike through the other 500+ caves...
In the following days, daily we drove to one of the park features and did a hike. One day we hiked to the top of Schonchin Overlook, which is a manned fire lookout station with great views. It is at the top of a cinder cone. The view of Mt. Shasta from there was excellent, and we could also see snow-clad Mt. McLaughlin in Oregon in the distance too. There were beautiful wildflowers all along the path. Another day we drove to Mammoth Crater and did the Big Nasty Hike, which was different because part of it was in a pine forest. The variety of wildflowers here was good and different from other hikes. At Symbol Bridge there was a lava cave with lots of pictographs in it, painted by Native Americans from long ago. Lave Beds also has an area where there are petroglyphs but we never drove over there because it was quite far. Another day we hiked to the Thomas/Wright Battlefield, where the Modoc Indians got the best of the army patrol that was trying to catch them to relocate them to a reservation in Oklahoma. That was the last battle that the Indians won and they ended up losing their ancestral homelands. Sometimes we lament that we have such a sad history where the Indians are concerned, and then we remember that they are now getting the best of us at the Indian Casinos! Oh well, enough commentary; please see a few pictures below. By the way, if you ever end up going there, the campground spots look too small for long RV's but there really are about 6-8 spots where you could fit and B-23, which was our spot, was the largest and we even had our slides out. With the Golden Access Pass, it was $5/night. There is no dump station but water is available and there are nice bathrooms.