We left from Davis at 7 am on July 2nd, and right about 10 am we got to Penny's Diner (carefully selected to assuage the kids for the long drive) for a simple breakfast of Fluffy French Toast and vegetable
hash-browns. After a half hour, the kids were well fed - and ready to return to their audio-story (Percy Jackson & The Last Olympian). The book is supposedly
designed for a 12+ age-group, but Pranav (9) convinced Mallika (7) that
she'd enjoy it too. So, after a few pictures we boarded the van again at
10.45, turned on Percy Jackson and set off for the rest of our morning
drive to Winema Lodge. The route had already turned quite scenic even an
hour ago, as we passed Shasta Lake and got into the higher elevations,
with views of mountains, enormous greenery, water, and ponderosa pines.
And soon after departing Dunsmuir we also began to enjoy views of the
beautiful Mt Shasta.
Our next destination, Winema Lodge, was an interesting place, found through
Internet search and couple of Yelp reviews. It is near the Lava Beds
National Park, in an area (town ?) called Tulelake and Lower Klamath
Basin and Wildlife Refuge. Wildlife as in birds, tens of millions of
them at different times in the year, drawn to the shallow - but quite
enormous - lake and wetlands. The area (and indeed Winema Lodge) is a
destination for hunters - who are allowed to hunt certain types of
waterfowl, perhaps at certain times of the year. July is probably not
one of them. We did see and hear quite a few birds, especially in the
evening and morning, but certainly not tens of thousands.
The name TuleLake rang a bell for me. I'm a sleeping member of the
Tuleyome organization which - among other things - tries
to conserve Northern California wilderness regions, especially (closer to us) Berryessa Lake and the neighboring hiking trails and
wilderness. I learnt that Tule is the name of the local grasses -
long reedy grasses, actually perennial herbs which
grow abundantly along the marshy
areas of California. It was used by the
California Indians to make shelters, boats,
and sleeping/sitting mats. Oh yes, this entire region was home to
various native Indian tribes including the Modocs, Wintun, Shasta, Maidu
and Yana (all these are street names in Davis) - and the region has
quite a few historical sites from various wars and other events. But
that will be for another visit.
Winema Lodge is run by an elderly couple, of whom we met the better half, Verna. During the reservation process, Verna had offered to make us a pack lunch so we could quickly head off to Lava Beds. There's absolutely nothing else around, the place is total desolation. When we got there, right at noon, Verna had a big bowl of twisty pasta ready, plus a bunch of sandwiches. Having driven long enough we decided to eat a little, filled up our water bottles, and carried away the sandwiches for the afternoon.
This not being prime hunting season there were relatively few
guests in
the Lodge. Verna got us our room, we checked in, freshened up, and got
ready for the remaining 20 minute drive to the National Park, with
fervent hope (but little reason to believe) that we'd get the 2pm guided
tour. The Parks office, when I had called them, had suggested getting
to the Visitor's Center 2 hours ahead to reserve our spot - so the plan
was to first get there, reserve our spot, then drive back 20 minutes to
Winema Lodge and return close to 2pm. But as you read, we decided to
stop at the Lodge first and got to the Center a little after 1pm. The drive to the Park entrance and the Visitor Center was a foretaste of the landscape ahead of us - patches of crumbly volcanic rock, moonscape, a few grasses, and lots of rocky "hills" (formally called buttes).
Fortunately we were still able to get on the tour, which turned out to be a fascinating experience. And more on that later.
Our next destination, Winema Lodge, was an interesting place, found through
Internet search and couple of Yelp reviews. It is near the Lava Beds
National Park, in an area (town ?) called Tulelake and Lower Klamath
Basin and Wildlife Refuge. Wildlife as in birds, tens of millions of
them at different times in the year, drawn to the shallow - but quite
enormous - lake and wetlands. The area (and indeed Winema Lodge) is a
destination for hunters - who are allowed to hunt certain types of
waterfowl, perhaps at certain times of the year. July is probably not
one of them. We did see and hear quite a few birds, especially in the
evening and morning, but certainly not tens of thousands. The name TuleLake rang a bell for me. I'm a sleeping member of the
Tuleyome organization which - among other things - tries
to conserve Northern California wilderness regions, especially (closer to us) Berryessa Lake and the neighboring hiking trails and
wilderness. I learnt that Tule is the name of the local grasses -
long reedy grasses, actually perennial herbs which
grow abundantly along the marshy
areas of California. It was used by the
California Indians to make shelters, boats,
and sleeping/sitting mats. Oh yes, this entire region was home to
various native Indian tribes including the Modocs, Wintun, Shasta, Maidu
and Yana (all these are street names in Davis) - and the region has
quite a few historical sites from various wars and other events. But
that will be for another visit. Winema Lodge is run by an elderly couple, of whom we met the better half, Verna. During the reservation process, Verna had offered to make us a pack lunch so we could quickly head off to Lava Beds. There's absolutely nothing else around, the place is total desolation. When we got there, right at noon, Verna had a big bowl of twisty pasta ready, plus a bunch of sandwiches. Having driven long enough we decided to eat a little, filled up our water bottles, and carried away the sandwiches for the afternoon.
This not being prime hunting season there were relatively few
guests in
the Lodge. Verna got us our room, we checked in, freshened up, and got
ready for the remaining 20 minute drive to the National Park, with
fervent hope (but little reason to believe) that we'd get the 2pm guided
tour. The Parks office, when I had called them, had suggested getting
to the Visitor's Center 2 hours ahead to reserve our spot - so the plan
was to first get there, reserve our spot, then drive back 20 minutes to
Winema Lodge and return close to 2pm. But as you read, we decided to
stop at the Lodge first and got to the Center a little after 1pm. The drive to the Park entrance and the Visitor Center was a foretaste of the landscape ahead of us - patches of crumbly volcanic rock, moonscape, a few grasses, and lots of rocky "hills" (formally called buttes). Fortunately we were still able to get on the tour, which turned out to be a fascinating experience. And more on that later.
No comments:
Post a Comment