The Bend area is magnificent for scenery, there are ample shopping opportunities, a variety of great restaurants and an assortment of attractions adequate to address any tastes. This year, however, our time here has had mostly sunny skies but it has been miserably (for us) cold. During this visit, we didn’t get out of the trailer much except to go to other heated indoor venues or cruise in the heated truck because we are wimps and uncomfortable in temperatures down around freezing.
Today we left the truly gorgeous but currently frigid area and continued our trip toward warmer climes. We drove a few miles east to US-97 and turned toward California. It is a gorgeous, although chilly, highway that passes through alternating high grass prairies and hilly, forested slopes.We passed through the small Oregon towns of La Pine, Chemult and Chiloquin before pulling over in Klamath Falls after about a two-hour drive. Klamath should maybe called Klamath Lake because we didn’t see any falls around, particularly because the surrounding territory is mostly flat. We stopped to pick up as much fuel as we could carry because we soon crossed the border into CA and diesel prices instantly went up about 95 cents per gallon. We also enjoyed the superb luxury of having an attendant pump the fuel as required by law in Oregon and have become resigned to pump our own for a while.
Shortly after crossing into California, we entered the tiny town of Dorris where the US-97 route obliges all motorists to drive down the main and only streets and around a couple of 15 mph curves before allowing traffic to resume highway speeds. Unfortunately, right after we got Charlotte and the Barbarian Invader up to speed, we were stopped again and necked into an official-looking building where a nice lady in all her clothes asked us if we were smuggling produce or livestock turds. We answered that we weren’t and were quickly waved through to continue toward the California town of Weed. We wandered through more high prairie countryside before starting a long decline from around 4500 feet, passing right next to the stratovolcano Shasta, which was amply covered with snow. We continued our descent until we were maybe 10 miles from Weed where we turned northwest off on a two-lane blacktop road through the last of the pines and into the juniper forests. At the other end we popped out on I-5 where we went north to Yreka and the Waiiaka RV park where we have stayed a few times previously. They have a very orderly and clean facility with cable TV, screaming WiFi and full hookups. The staff is very nice and when we arrived, they already had an envelope outside the office with our space number, receipts and assorted blurbs from local businesses. I think Yreka is at about 2500 feet.
Most importantly, it was 71 degrees when we arrived, only about 40 degrees warmer than where we started today’s trip. According to the weather report, it will still be around freezing at night here but we have heaters. The skies are crystal clear and a most attractive blue without any hazy stuff in sight.
Peggy got a few snapshots out the truck window as we drove south. Click the link. https://photos.app.goo.gl/6rHRRJQv31zzaB2z5