Friday, October 9, 2015

Gorgeous Crater and Diamond Lake

The drive between Lassen National Park and Crater Lake National Park was as scenic as we hoped our road trip would be. Endless miles of Wild West beauty, with not much civilization in between. Crater Lake's camp ground was already closed for the season, and the lodge on the main park road will close a week after our visit. While this park sees an average annual snow fall of 44 feet per year, and already had some snow storms, we just walked in light clothes.




The park ranger informed us that Diamond lake was well worth a visit, and that the camp ground was open for one more month. Wow, are we glad we went there. Prime spot, on the lake, with no neighbors close by, an inspiration for the cabin that Tod would like to build some day.  The bikes came out for a partial trip around the lake next day







Wednesday morning we left early, to make our way to the border of Oregon and Washington State, finding another state park on the Colombia River. We passed through Bend, OR  (not much charm IMHO), but did manage to spend some money at the Columbia Outlet store. Tod just parked Betsy in the parking lot of Trader Joes (you gotta love a smaller RV), and we loaded our fridge up with another week worth of food.



After being on the road for a week, we can say hat we like traveling with a RV so far. Sure, we are consuming quite some fuel (like 8 miles/gallon!): dealing with our grey water waste  (for shower/dishes) is a bit more challenging because we are mostly dry camping: Betsy is much smaller than Bliss and has no privacy to speak off. But it's easy, and you get to see great landscapes. You see something you like, you just stop,  park, and enjoy! No wonder we see so many RV's on the roads we travel. When you do this outside main travel season, you get to enjoy lots of beauty without the crowds.  With little miss Social leading the way, we still get to meet new people too.

8 comments:

  1. Glad to hear your travels north are going well! We are looking forward to seeing you.

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    1. Thanks Gwen! What a great time we had with you all!

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  2. Hey, Great photos, and great diary! (Somehow I missed yesterday's post till now). Diamond Lake looks like a gem - good tip for our next trip up there ( in another lifetime?)! One can sense the peacefulness from your pictures. Tessa looks happy, as do the two of you. - And Bumpass Hell - well better now than in the summer (=hot days).... I can imagine the cold nights. We spent a freezing august night on the trail years ago with very little clothing/sleeping gear. I thought the gear was just old, but when we woke up in the am, there was about 3/4 inch of ice in our pots and pans... - No bears yet? Love from Berkeley. P@A

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    1. Thanks pal! no bears seen yet, but the signs to watch out for them are everywhere!

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  3. Hey Amigos! So your trip looks good, but not the gas mileage. Same for us. We just had to slow down to 55 and then it got way better, 8-11 mpg when we're zooming 65-75 or 11-14 when we're rolling slow off the highway. Our other note was that adding some air to the airbags made the ride smoother and might have improved our economy. Enjoy the ride and head south soon! We're launching Astraea in the next week after Astraea mobile sells.

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    1. Thanks for the tips, Nate, and good luck with the launch. See you sometime this winter!

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  4. Great photos! So nice to hear that you're all enjoying your RV life. Those are beautiful areas to visit! Safe travels!

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