Photography, Fun, and Adventure in the U.S.
This stop took us back inland from the Oregon Coast… camping just outside Salem, Oregon, located in the soil-rich Willamette Valley — located between the Coast Mountain range and the Cascades. While we had originally planned to dive deeply into this region known for Pinot Noirs, we found ourselves drawn
We spent a week driving along Highway 101 and camping on the rainy and stormy Oregon coast… and while it was chilly and grey most of the time, we did get some sun — and we always had great adventures, including amazing vistas of the shoreline and historic lighthouses. We
This journey began in southern Oregon, from which we went west toward the Oregon Coast, traveling back into California along US-199, the northern portion of the Redwood Highway, and the only highway that passes through the Siskiyou Mountains. Amusingly, we hit a snowstorm in the Smith River National Recreation Area
This stop on our adventure was partly an interim breather — between Crater Lake and the Oregon Coast, along the often spectacular Rogue-Umpqua Scenic Byway — but also a chance to explore the amazingly beautiful Rogue River Valley, as well as a relatively unknown (to us at least) wine region.
Ah, the Pacific Northwest in all its glory… that was the theme of this, our 20th stop, on this 2-year+ journey across the continental United States. It also was the continuation of our journey along the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway… including a stop at National Park #10 on our list:
If you are like us, you would certainly expect to find lava and signs of volcanic activity at Lava Beds National Monument (established in 1925), but never in our wildest dreams did we expect to find such diversity — from more than 20 caves to explore to a Civilian Conservation
We knew this stop was all about the volcanic mountains — Lassen and Shasta — but we truly found beauty all around us. We used a cute campground in Mountain Gate, CA, just north of Redding, as our home base after traveling through the Shasta Trinity National Forest along CA-299