What I did on my summer vacation

With summer starting to wind down Ting, Zoe and I decided to spend a week exploring Northern California. The goal was to head three hours north of Reno up to Lassen Volcanic National Park. From there we would cut across the lower end of Mt. Shasta through Redding and the Trinity Alps range to the California coast. We would emerge at Arcata, CA and work our way into the Redwood National Park. From there it was down HWY 101 and HWY 1 to Fort Bragg and into Sonoma wine country.



Since Ting's sister Dee is moving to China shortly she flew out to join us on our adventures.





Lassen Volcano in the background. Still lots of snow around 10,000 feet. We even saw some fresh tracks from backcountry skiers taking on the August snow.

Lassen has plenty of geothermal activity considering most of the park is on a fault line where the Sierra Nevada mountains to the south collid with the Cascade mountains to the north.

Even at 7500 foot there is snow! Zoe, Ting, and Dee hiking across the snowpack to a geothermal area known as "Bumpus Hell". A challenging hike of 3.2 miles for a four year old!  



Bumpus Hell is the largest geothermal area in the park. Here you can see steaming pools of groundwater seeping up through the mountain.

Where the hot, steaming water hits clay soil mudpots are formed.

From Lassen we drove to the Northern California coast to Redwoods State Park. The campground at Del Norte State Park was filled with Redwood stumps from logging that occurred in the early 1900's. They make a surreal playground for kids.

Zoe working her way up a 20 foot diameter stump from a 500+ year old Redwood that was cut down close to 100 years ago. Note how dark these pictures are. This area is close to the ocean and has a rainforest feel to it.

Here's another view. I've climbed up a Redwood stump and put my foot in the picture for perspective. Dee is on the ground getting ready to take a picture looking up!

Deep in the Jedediah Smith Redwood Grove.

Dee and Zoe hiding behind some monster ferns. Kind of like Jurassic Park!

Aunt Dee and Zoe on a Redwood root that arched across the trail.

Up the coast towards the Oregon border is the town of Crescent City, CA. Their functional lighthouse is on a small island and can only be visited at low tide.

Zoe enjoyed peeking into the rocky tide pools. Here is a colorful starfish she found.

Here is the Crescent City Battery Point Lighthouse at low tide. Note the driftwood that has collected on the rocks over the years.

On the way back to Reno we looped through Sonoma County and hit 3-4 wineries. Here is a final picture of Aunt Dee and Zoe outside the Belvedere Winery's gardens.