I take the less traveled and more scenic route – north out of Sierraville to north edge of the Sierra Valley, then due east to Chilcoot, then left to Frenchman’s Lake, where I am having perfect and unmatched (and slightly boring) solitude! My Big Excitement of the evening was to bushwhack over the peninsula (super easy in that vegetation) to the lakeside over there and follow the shore around the point back to my site. There were a couple of moments of concern (it does get really dark this time of the month), but that just gave it a little (very little :) spice!
WHUFU page for: Frenchman's Lake
A simple loop campground on an east-facing hillside above Frenchman's Lake. I like the inside of the upper loop with my living room facing the lake. It's quiet and pretty and the sun is on the other side of the van.
Eight very scenic miles north of Chillcoot. For much of the drive the beautiful Sierra Valley spreads out to your left. Then you enter the canyon of Last Chance Creek, the outflow of the lake. Hundred foot lava cliffs, dramatic formations. Then boom! you're at the dam.
The other two lakeside campgrounds have flush toilets. Maybe they are more deluxe?
tonight:
This campground is open through the winter with no services and no fee. Pretty awesome.
There is literally not a human or a human sound in my little cove tonight. Nary a vehicle has driven the loop here since I arrived.
The also keep one bathroom open.
Friday (Feb 13)
Very restful and quiet here, much warmer than I had any right to expect. I can see how this spot be gloomy on gloomy-trending days. The sun sets here about two hours before real sunset, since we’re on the east side of a pretty big hill. Typical Sierra granite ecosystem – tall pines, almost no underbrush, almost no wildlife to speak of. The duck population seems to consist of a few grebes for entertainment and a flock of canada geese who seem to really love the sound of their calls echoing across the lake valley.
There are a few fisherman out on a Friday morning. As I drive around the bend and over the dam there are 3-4 cars parked in the overlook lot, so there is stuff going on at Frenchman’s Lake today!
The last few miles of the drive in and out of here is pretty cool. All the rock from here through all of Oregon and much of Washington is lava flows, good old basalt (or maybe andesite). This whole part of the country got covered with hundreds of feet of basalt at some dramatic point in the past. Frenchman’s Creek has cut a steep and narrow canyon through the basalt that is quite scenic and cool looking. This morning I am fresh to driving so I take my time and soak it up and quite enjoy it.
Then the valley opens up to be the north edge of the mighty Sierra Valley, and a few miles of prosperous looking ranch houses, each a half-mile or so apart from the next. Each has a horse barn and a corral, and from one to three motor boats, so these good ole boys are winning the race for most toys.
Turn right at Chilcoot junction. If I wasn’t aiming hard for wifi in Susanville, I would stop for coffee and the quaint looking general store. Next time… Join the traffic stream on 395 North, and make the familiar trip to S-ville. Straight to the Starbucks were I caffienate and plan the rest of the day. I finally make it to the Courthouse Cafe, which was ok but not special. Friday afternoon at the Safeway was very busy – lines of grubby working fellows at the florist shoppe grabbing a bouquet for Valentines Day, because it would be their ass if they don’t.
I don’t really need diesel yet, but I’ve had my share of annoying experiences getting it in Klamath Falls, so I think I’ll get it here in Cali, where I can operate my own pump.
On to Eagle Lake. The BLM campground is closed for the season, so I press on to try out the shoreside camping that BLM alleges.
WHUFU page for: Eagle Lake beach
The BLM campground is closed for the season, so I pressed on to the free camping along the shore. Pretty cool! I'll bet it would be really buggy in the summer. The lake level is very low and the last 50 yards or so of shoreline is quite boggy and churned up by the cows, so there really isn't a "beach" per se to get to, but it is a very pretty, quiet stop for tonight in any event.
tonight:
The BLM campground is closed for the season, so I pressed on to the free camping along the shore. Pretty cool! I'll bet it would be really buggy in the summer. The lake level is very low and the last 50 yards or so of shoreline is quite boggy and churned up by the cows, so there really isn't a "beach" per se to get to, but it is a very pretty, quiet stop for tonight in any event.
Saturday
This is a very nice spot, if kinda boring. Eagle Lake seems to be super, super shallow at this end. No boats (and today’s Saturday!) no bird life to speak of … really not much going on up here at the north end. My sleep schedule seems to be getting on track – I am up and stirring at 10:30 instead of noon.
Pretty drive.
The tiny town of Adin contains the only services to speak of between Susanville and the Oregon border. Now I have another choice – the burger and ice cream joint or the Adin General Store. I have never had a bad experience at either, but these little choices stress me out way more than they actually matter. Since I probably won’t be back here for months or years it seems like a really momentous thing to decide which one to miss (weird, right?). In any event I chose the burger place – Oney Frosty – not Only Frosty, and not One-Y Frosty, rather the Frosty place founded my Mr and Mrs Oney. It worked out real well. The coffee was old but they made a new pot, the burger was pretty good, and when a cowboy couple came in and whipped out their laptops I discovered that this funky little place in the middle of nowhere has wifi!!! That seemed so unlikely I hadn’t even bothered to think about it, but it’s great to know for next time!
More pretty drive … past the still-closed Howard’s Gulch campground then Lava Beds. Absolutely NO cars on the southern access road, then the Visitors Center campground area and plenty of cars! I almost got tricked by a three day weekend again. Since they’ve closed half the campground for the winter, the open half is almost full! I am happy to have come early enough (3:30!) to get a spot.
I decide I want to go to the VisCen. I won’t make it fi I walk, so I hate myself a little, but I do drive up. I soak up knowledge at my leisure until it closes, then drive back the hill and start relaxin’! Relaxin included a very, very pleasant walk part way down a lateral trail, then up the short trail back to the VisCen, then back down the campground road in the pretty complete darkness. I really like this place.
WHUFU page for: Lava Beds Campground
Really nice place, quiet and well maintained and a beautiful situation, on the side of a high hill overlooking a huge, arid valley.
Wildlife refuges right down the hill.
tonight:
B loop closed this time! Must experience A loop for the first time!
Very good experience as it turns out. One of the few spots left on Presidents Day Weekend had really the best Sprinter-spot in the whole place. Very nice night.
Sunday
The campsites are pretty intimate here. I share a parking spot with my neighbor, and as luck would have it, my neighbors – a nice city-looking couple – are sleeping in their car. I have the blank side of the van pointed at them, so I think that part of the privacy angle worked out pretty well. I forgot to take pictures, sigh, so here a pic of the National Park kiosk at the northern entrance.
I know I’m going to spend hours in the wildlife refuge before I get to civilization, so I’m actually having breakfast at home, as it were. Today is the day I will kill that leftover smoked salmon and cream cheese I brought along. I uUse one of those ancient 4 cup coffee-bags I have hanging around to make some pretty sad coffee. It was a delightful party, but I shoulda started a little earlier, because I didn’t get rolling till almost 1.
This area is for me, a hidden gem, a place that I always want to spend a day or two of I am in the neighborhood. There are:
- the Lava Beds, which has an amazing campground, is a national park with all the elevated level of services that you expect at a national park.
- the geology, Gillem Ridge is incredibly dramatic from the Lava Beds road, and is the westernmost edge of the Basin-Range geology!
- South Tule Lake NWR – my old favorite auto tour.
- Lower Klamath NWR – my new favorite auto tour.
- the lowlands between the above and Klamath Falls
- Upper Klamath Lake
So today I drove slowly through 1, enjoyed the drive past 2. Did not stop at 3 for a change – not enough time today. Spent most of the rest of the day on the auto tour of B. Now it’s too late too late and I’m too tired to enjoy 5 much. After late afternoon Mc D’s in Klamath Falls, I am camping at a remote western arm of 6.
I took a bit of a gamble tonight and it paid off! The USFS website said this spot closes in September, but I gambled that it would not be physically closed, and that worked out! This place has the look of being overlooked and ignored, out of the way and undervisited. It’s a modest little woodland on the edge of farmland and a little waterway called Odessa Creek that feeds into mighty Upper Klamath Lake. I think it’s created as a place for birders to put into the water. Works for me!
WHUFU page for: Odessa Campground
a real find! On a stretch of road otherwise bereft of camping, maybe 3 rarely traveled miles off the busy highway. Not a soul has been here in my 18 hours or so of residency.
Sites are primitive. There is a place to put a kayak into the slough. The site is right on the edge of USFS property, there are barns and farm buildings 1/2 mile away.
Bathroom is unlocked!
tonight:
a real find! On a stretch of road otherwise bereft of camping, maybe 3 rarely traveled miles off the busy highway. Not a soul has been here in my 18 hours or so of residency.
Sites are primitive. There is a place to put a kayak into the slough. The site is right on the edge of USFS property, there are barns and farm buildings 1/2 mile away.
Bathroom is unlocked!