May 2026-9. The End: South through California
May 27-28, 2026
Did we really need or want to drive the 9 hours from Goose Lake State Park on the Oregon/California border to home in one day?
Snow prevented our continuing down 395 on the East Side of the Sierras and through Yosemite National Park, but that didn't mean there weren't other routes to home.
Lassen Volcanic National Park was out, too. It had been open a few days but still had lots of snow. Doug suggested Burney Falls, which he'd been to years before and Marilyn had not heard of.
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You may have noticed that I love making maps for our blog. One thing that constantly amazes me is the numbers of national lands in our country. We must do all we can to preserve them, individually as we visit them ,and collectively as forces threaten—and do—take them away.
McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park
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But before we drove in circles in the campground, we stopped at the falls.
Teddy Roosevelt declared Burney Falls the Eighth Wonder of the World. The falls were given National Natural Landmark Status in 1954.
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Burney is one of dozens of water falls in the Shasta Cascades region. The area covers about 1/4 of California's land mass but is home to just 3% of the state's population. Marilyn was talking to her sons recently about how amazing California's geographic variety is and how much wide open space there is. One can forget this when in the state's (over)populated areas.
In 2021, the Dixie Fire in the Sierra Nevada Mountains burned nearly 1,000,000 acres. It burned communities, including the near complete destruction of the town of Greenville, and large parts of Plumas and Lassen National Forests and Lassen Volcanic National Park.
Driving through Dixie Fire burn areas.
Rock Creek Dam.
Paradise
We recalled hearing and reading in horror in 2018 of the Camp Fire in Paradise. The fire was started by a PG&E power line blown down by strong winds. Over 18 days, it killed 85 people, burned over 153,000 acres from just east of Paradise south to the outskirts of Chico, destroyed 18,804 buildings—80% of the structures in the town of Paradise—half of which were homes, and damaged hundreds of other buildings. Jammed narrow roads made evacuation extremely difficult.
The Valley
We meandered south from Paradise to Sacramento. Then it was time to begin our trek down Hwy 99 through the Central Valley to home.
Rich soil prepped for planting.
During a construction project in 2012, Caltrans discovered around 2,000 ice age fossils of extinct animals: the Giant Ground Sloth, the Western Camel, horses, birds, rabbits, and the Columbian Mammoth. This led to design and construction of the Columbian Mammoth silhouettes on an overpass near Merced.
Hooptedoodle
Cascadia Subduction Zone: In brief, the Cascade Mountains run from Northern California north through Oregon and Washington into British Columbia. They lie along a subduction zone caused by the Juan de Fuca plate sliding under the North American Plate. The volcanoes this has created over millions of years are called the "Ring of Fire." Volcanic eruptions have covered areas in lava, with lava tubes forming beneath the surface. Snowmelt and water run through the lava tubes, form pools underground, then bubble to the surface in springs and waterfalls, such as Burney Falls.
Up next: Doug is in Washington visiting his kids and grandkids and getting work done on the van. We had new tires put on by Americas Tire at home. They are a great business. Van was squirrelly on drive to Washington, so Doug took it to Disount Tires—the name of Americas Tire in some states. They determined they discovered the wheels are cupping and one wheel has a small crack. So, today Doug is getting shocks on the van replaced and a new wheel has been ordered.
Meanwhile, Marilyn is taking the train to Davis to visit her kids/grandkids. Then her sons will meet in the middle and she'll go to San Rafael to visit her younger son/wife. Then she flies out of SFO to Bellingham. She's excited to meet Doug's granddaughter, now 7 months old!
Did we really need or want to drive the 9 hours from Goose Lake State Park on the Oregon/California border to home in one day?
Goose Lake straddles the Oregon-California state line.
We left Goose Lake campground, turned right on 395, & were immediately in California.
Lassen Volcanic National Park was out, too. It had been open a few days but still had lots of snow. Doug suggested Burney Falls, which he'd been to years before and Marilyn had not heard of.
Still raining & chilly.
Goose Lake State Park OR to Home: 620 miles/2 days.
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A) Modoc National Forest. B) Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge. C) Black Rock Desert-High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area. D) Six Rivers NF. E) Shasta-Trinity NF. F) Trinity NF. G) Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation. H) Plumas NF. I) Mendocino NF. J) Tahoe NF. K) Stanislaus NF. L) Yosemite NP. M) Sierra NF. N) Sequoia-Kings Canyon NP. O) Sequoia NF. P) Lassen NF. Q) Lassen NP.
You may have noticed that I love making maps for our blog. One thing that constantly amazes me is the numbers of national lands in our country. We must do all we can to preserve them, individually as we visit them ,and collectively as forces threaten—and do—take them away.
Clearing a rock slide near Fall River Mills.
McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park
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The campground at McArthur-Burney State Park was quiet, wet, & cold. Time to plug in & get the electric heater out!
But before we drove in circles in the campground, we stopped at the falls.
Teddy Roosevelt declared Burney Falls the Eighth Wonder of the World. The falls were given National Natural Landmark Status in 1954.
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Burny Falls from viewing area. Springs from the basalt cliff face join the falls plunging to the pool below.
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As a 2021 article in National Geographic states, "Burney Falls doesn't cascade—it explodes.
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Burney Falls drops 129 feet from Burney Creek.
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The falls flow at an almost constant rate of 100,000,000 (one hundred million gallons a day!
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Burney is one of dozens of water falls in the Shasta Cascades region. The area covers about 1/4 of California's land mass but is home to just 3% of the state's population. Marilyn was talking to her sons recently about how amazing California's geographic variety is and how much wide open space there is. One can forget this when in the state's (over)populated areas.
From Burney Falls, wishing to continue avoiding freeways, we meandered through national forest lands.
Lake Almanor.
One of many Dixie Fire burn areas.
Post Dixie Fire.
Train trestle near Indian Falls.
The highway through Feather River Canyon is bordered by walls and runs through tunnels and across bridges constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) created in the 1930s by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Howell's Bridge, 1934.
North Fork Feather River.
Feather River near Belden.
Rock Creek Dam.
CCC/WPA walls were works of ingenuity & art.
Railroad bridge crosses over Tobin Bridge, 1936.
Storrie Bridge, 1934.
Rock Creek Power House.
Railroad trestle. Along the highway contemporary wall, nothing like CCC walls.
Rock Creek Bridge, 1936.
Dredging near Rock Creek Bridge.
Elephant Butte Tunnel, 1937, & PG&E Cresta Creek Dam.
Railroad Tunnel, opposite river bank.
Grizzly Creek Tunnel, 1932.
Grizzly Creek Bridge, 1931.
Arch Rock Tunnel, 1937.
Berry Creek.
Buckeye were in bloom; they'll be dormant in winter.
Lake Oroville State Recreation Area.
Lake Oroville.
Paradise
We recalled hearing and reading in horror in 2018 of the Camp Fire in Paradise. The fire was started by a PG&E power line blown down by strong winds. Over 18 days, it killed 85 people, burned over 153,000 acres from just east of Paradise south to the outskirts of Chico, destroyed 18,804 buildings—80% of the structures in the town of Paradise—half of which were homes, and damaged hundreds of other buildings. Jammed narrow roads made evacuation extremely difficult.
The first thing we noticed driving into Paradise was an Evacuation Zone street sign, new since 2018.
8 years later, the town & surrounding countryside still show signs of the fire.
Barren hillside with mostly abandoned homesites.
The Valley
We meandered south from Paradise to Sacramento. Then it was time to begin our trek down Hwy 99 through the Central Valley to home.
Rice paddies north of Sacramento. Rice is widely grown in Sacramento and Yolo Counties.
Rich soil prepped for planting.
Columbian Mammoths walk along Hwy 99 overpass.
During a construction project in 2012, Caltrans discovered around 2,000 ice age fossils of extinct animals: the Giant Ground Sloth, the Western Camel, horses, birds, rabbits, and the Columbian Mammoth. This led to design and construction of the Columbian Mammoth silhouettes on an overpass near Merced.
"I'm coming, Mom!"
Hooptedoodle
Cascadia Subduction Zone: In brief, the Cascade Mountains run from Northern California north through Oregon and Washington into British Columbia. They lie along a subduction zone caused by the Juan de Fuca plate sliding under the North American Plate. The volcanoes this has created over millions of years are called the "Ring of Fire." Volcanic eruptions have covered areas in lava, with lava tubes forming beneath the surface. Snowmelt and water run through the lava tubes, form pools underground, then bubble to the surface in springs and waterfalls, such as Burney Falls.
Cascadia Subduction Zone (Modified from “Beauty from the Beast: Plate Tectonics and the Landscapes of the Pacific Northwest,” by Robert J. Lillie, Wells Creek Publishers, 92 pp., 2015, www.amazon.com/dp/1512211893).
For more maps and information see the NPS article Convergent Plate Boundaries—Subduction Zones.
Up next: Doug is in Washington visiting his kids and grandkids and getting work done on the van. We had new tires put on by Americas Tire at home. They are a great business. Van was squirrelly on drive to Washington, so Doug took it to Disount Tires—the name of Americas Tire in some states. They determined they discovered the wheels are cupping and one wheel has a small crack. So, today Doug is getting shocks on the van replaced and a new wheel has been ordered.
Meanwhile, Marilyn is taking the train to Davis to visit her kids/grandkids. Then her sons will meet in the middle and she'll go to San Rafael to visit her younger son/wife. Then she flies out of SFO to Bellingham. She's excited to meet Doug's granddaughter, now 7 months old!
The plan? Yukon, ho! Alaska! And if wildfires and smoke rule them out, well, we'll let you know where we went.
Thanks as always for reading, commenting, following our meandering travels.
Dear Marilyn and Doug- As always, your post is well-written, well-illustrated and an interesting read. Thanks for sharing your travels and your knowledge. This is much more interesting than any geography book, and it’s nice knowing where you’ve been and to see the country through your eyes.
ReplyDeleteJane