8/26 - Klamath Falls to Old Station, California

The closer we got to Old Station (population 51) on Friday, the less cell and data service we had…..until there was none at all.  I knew there would be no cell service at the campground but hoped we'd be able to get our Verizon hotspot to work. No such luck. We thought we’d at least be able to get a signal at the park’s visitor center but no luck there either. The campground supposedly has satellite wifi and TV but it’s the worst we’ve ever seen (as in non-existent).  

Our hotspot suddenly came on this afternoon (Sunday) so I’m putting up Friday’s blog while it's working. 

Except for eleven miles on I-5, the rest of our 170-mile drive Friday was on very good secondary roads with very little traffic.  It was picturesque and enjoyable.

Leaving Klamath Falls we crossed the Klamath River which gets its water from the Upper Klamath Lake we saw Thursday.

Before long Mount Shasta jumped up out of nowhere.  It’s so big it's surprising when it suddenly appears from behind other mountains.

As we got around to the west side it became much clearer and the cinder cone to the side of the main peak was much more prominent.  Shasta is 14,127 ft high, second only to Mt Rainier in Washington.  Shasta and Lassen are considered the two Cascade volcanoes most likely to erupt in the coming decades or centuries.  Volcanoes don’t erupt on schedule so no one has any idea when it will happen but all the Cascade volcanoes are constantly monitored for signs of activity.

We passed many miles of burned forest going south from I-5 on Hwy 89.  In places the fire had come within a few feet of homes and even the volunteer fire department.  Actually, the fire department building looked quite new so it might have been replaced after the fire.  We found out later from a park ranger that there was a very large fire in 2012 in the national park and that what we passed was likely part of the same fire. 

After set-up and lunch we went to the park’s visitor center which is ten miles further south.  On our way Lassen Peak suddenly appeared the way Shasta had done.  

Lassen is 10,457 feet, the largest plug dome volcano in the world.  It last erupted in the 1914-1921 period with a particularly large and violent eruption in 1915. This eruption is what caused the creation of Lassen Volcanic National Park which was done so that the area around the volcano would be left undisturbed for observation and research.

Tomorrow (Saturday) we’ll do the 33-mile main road through the park.  It’s a large park with one main road and three smaller non-connecting roads.  Most people, like us, probably do only the main road because the drive around the outside of the park to get to the other roads is so far.