We went down the Klamath River from near Yreka yesterday so today we turned it around and went up the river. We hopped on the I-5 not far from our RV park and followed it for about 15 miles north where we turned off at Hornbrook. We found the Klamath, but not Hornbrook, and headed east along the north bank. The terrain was considerably flatter than the gorges we passed through further downriver but noted the road was slowly deteriorating as we went upstream. We started out on a nice paved road with lines down the center and fog lines on each side. After a couple dozen miles of admiring the river as it passed through meadows, we entered some more lumpy ground near the Iron Gate Reservoir.
The nice, reassuring lines on the road disappeared, along with about 8 feet of width as we climbed up and around Iron Gate Dam arriving at an absolutely stunning view of the lake behind the narrow earthen dam. There were big aquatic waterfowl everywhere; we spotted American pelicans, feeding and nesting osprey, abundant and enormous Forster’s terns, blue herons, snowy egrets and even a bald eagle. Along the road around the north side of the reservoir, we also spotted an army of squirrels and a small gopher snake sunning himself in the middle of the skinny but still paved road.
From the upper end of the reservoir we were again traveling along the north bank of the Klamath River to Copco where the road really went to doo-doo turning to a very narrow dirt road. A county sheriff pulled up next to us and hobnobbed for a while. We told him we were from Southern California and he replied that everybody was from points south here because we were only a few miles from the Oregon border. We inquired if the road continued further up the Klamath and around Copco Lake. He stated that it did but the road was quite narrow and dirt all the way to the other end of the lake. We felt game so we pressed on. He was right – the road did become very narrow, had considerable untrimmed roadside foliage including poison oak, was bumpy and in a few spots there were big mudholes on the road surface but we charged through and didn’t get stuck. Again, we were amazed at the abundant birds, all fat and happy dining on the lake’s fish. We also noted many turtles sunning themselves on partially submerged logs and rocks.
Once we made it to the east end of Copco Lake, we found paving again and followed it into a little group of houses near a bridge that would allow us to get to the south side of the lake. There were deer everywhere. We spotted both does and bucks. The does were obediantly following their fuzzy-antlered bucks around town and nibbling on the roadside grass. We crossed the bridge and started back west along the south shore of Lake Copco. Not much further up the road we came across a very large coyote that was disappearing into the brush, probably alerted to our impending arrival by our noisy diesel engine. Nearby were more deer who tried to hide behind a rancher’s antique Chevrolet truck apparently figuring since they could not see us that is was inconceivable that we could see them. Their ears stuck up above the bed and their tails were quite visible behind the chassis.
After a few miles we turned away from the lake and started across some beautiful agricultural land with stunning views of Mount Shasta out our left windows. Eventually, we found roads with adequate width and proper striping and followed them back through Ager and Montague to our park in Yreka.
Again we were fortunate to find an absolutely spectacular drive through the country around Yreka that up until a couple days ago we were unaware existed. All of the last few drives we have taken here offered up magnificent scenery and ample wildlife. We have seen so little that we will regret leaving here in a few days. We would be delighted to take the same drives again, maybe tomorrow.
Click the link to check out today’s pix. https://photos.app.goo.gl/naKDLUoG3YA5AhV28