19 May ‘07
Saturday
Last night we met a great couple and will look forward to staying in touch with them as we travel. This morning we are once again underway. Back onto Hwy 139 and heading towards Klamath Falls Oregon. One thing that is nice about not having a schedule to keep, we were able to divert our first route and take another. This one will take us off 139 and deep into the Lava Beds National Park. We almost went passed the turn off, but Louise was quick to call my attention to it just in time. The road off of 139 turned out to be much narrower and filled with a heck of a lot of pot holes. None the less we were on our way (hell we couldn’t have turned around if we had wanted to…). We traveled this “roadway” for about 15 miles and then, just out of nowhere, the road turned to a very nice and wide 2 lane. As it turned out, this nice new and wide 2 lane was the “rear” entrance to the Lave Beds National Park…we had come in the back door. After finding the Visitors Center, checking in to their campground, and having lunch, we were on our way to see some of the many sites they have here. The first site was a 2 mile hike that took us up to Schonchin Butte. The Butte was made of a lava push that extended up to 5302 feet or about 400 feet above the valley below and housed the fire lookout for the area. From there we headed onto Black Crater (which also spurt lava over a huge area), and the Thomas-Wright Battlefield (this is a very important battle area between the Modoc Indians and the U.S.Army in 1872). Next we were off to see the petroglyphs at Petroglyph Point. We have been very fortunate in seeing some wonderful petroglyphs in Arizona so we were a little disappointed in these here in the Tule Lake area. I guess I have to take into consideration that these petroglyphs date back much farther than any we have seen before. These petroglyphs have been dated by “wave cut analysis back to a period between 2500 to 4500 years ago. One thing that was unusual about these, they were scribed into the soft rock of a large and tall “island” that sat in the middle of a large lake (Tule Lake). At that time Tule Lake was more than 5 time larger and deeper than it is today. We were able to drive to the base of this “island” and observe the carvings high on the walls.
Saturday
Last night we met a great couple and will look forward to staying in touch with them as we travel. This morning we are once again underway. Back onto Hwy 139 and heading towards Klamath Falls Oregon. One thing that is nice about not having a schedule to keep, we were able to divert our first route and take another. This one will take us off 139 and deep into the Lava Beds National Park. We almost went passed the turn off, but Louise was quick to call my attention to it just in time. The road off of 139 turned out to be much narrower and filled with a heck of a lot of pot holes. None the less we were on our way (hell we couldn’t have turned around if we had wanted to…). We traveled this “roadway” for about 15 miles and then, just out of nowhere, the road turned to a very nice and wide 2 lane. As it turned out, this nice new and wide 2 lane was the “rear” entrance to the Lave Beds National Park…we had come in the back door. After finding the Visitors Center, checking in to their campground, and having lunch, we were on our way to see some of the many sites they have here. The first site was a 2 mile hike that took us up to Schonchin Butte. The Butte was made of a lava push that extended up to 5302 feet or about 400 feet above the valley below and housed the fire lookout for the area. From there we headed onto Black Crater (which also spurt lava over a huge area), and the Thomas-Wright Battlefield (this is a very important battle area between the Modoc Indians and the U.S.Army in 1872). Next we were off to see the petroglyphs at Petroglyph Point. We have been very fortunate in seeing some wonderful petroglyphs in Arizona so we were a little disappointed in these here in the Tule Lake area. I guess I have to take into consideration that these petroglyphs date back much farther than any we have seen before. These petroglyphs have been dated by “wave cut analysis back to a period between 2500 to 4500 years ago. One thing that was unusual about these, they were scribed into the soft rock of a large and tall “island” that sat in the middle of a large lake (Tule Lake). At that time Tule Lake was more than 5 time larger and deeper than it is today. We were able to drive to the base of this “island” and observe the carvings high on the walls.