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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThe nice, reassuring lines on the road\ndisappeared, along with about 8 feet of width as we climbed up and\naround Iron Gate Dam arriving at an absolutely stunning view of the\nlake behind the narrow earthen dam. There were big aquatic waterfowl\neverywhere; we spotted American pelicans, feeding and nesting osprey,\nabundant and enormous Forster’s terns, blue herons, snowy egrets and\neven a bald eagle. Along the road around the north side of the\nreservoir, we also spotted an army of squirrels and a small gopher\nsnake sunning himself in the middle of the skinny but still paved\nroad. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tFrom the upper end of the reservoir we\nwere again traveling along the north bank of the Klamath River to\nCopco where the road really went to doo-doo turning to a very narrow\ndirt road. A county sheriff pulled up next to us and hobnobbed for a\nwhile. We told him we were from Southern California and he replied\nthat everybody was from points south here because we were only a few\nmiles from the Oregon border. We inquired if the road continued\nfurther up the Klamath and around Copco Lake. He stated that it did\nbut the road was quite narrow and dirt all the way to the other end\nof the lake. We felt game so we pressed on. He was right \u2013 the road\ndid become very narrow, had considerable untrimmed roadside foliage\nincluding poison oak, was bumpy and in a few spots there were big\nmudholes on the road surface but we charged through and didn’t get\nstuck. Again, we were amazed at the abundant birds, all fat and happy\ndining on the lake’s fish. We also noted many turtles sunning\nthemselves on partially submerged logs and rocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tOnce we made it to the east end of\nCopco Lake, we found paving again and followed it into a little group\nof houses near a bridge that would allow us to get to the south side\nof the lake. There were deer everywhere. We spotted both does and\nbucks. The does were obediantly following their fuzzy-antlered bucks\naround town and nibbling on the roadside grass. We crossed the bridge\nand started back west along the south shore of Lake Copco. Not much\nfurther up the road we came across a very large coyote that was\ndisappearing into the brush, probably alerted to our impending\narrival by our noisy diesel engine. Nearby were more deer who tried\nto hide behind a rancher’s antique Chevrolet truck apparently\nfiguring since they could not see us that is was inconceivable that\nwe could see them. Their ears stuck up above the bed and their tails\nwere quite visible behind the chassis. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tAfter a few miles we turned away from\nthe lake and started across some beautiful agricultural land with\nstunning views of Mount Shasta out our left windows. Eventually, we\nfound roads with adequate width and proper striping and followed them\nback through Ager and Montague to our park in Yreka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Click the link to check out today’s pix. https:\/\/photos.app.goo.gl\/naKDLUoG3YA5AhV28<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 … Continue reading