Ah, being retired has its advantages.  After a leisurely weekend in Portland, I ambled home to Monterey, arriving last Friday.  It's a rather easy two day drive, but I took five.  I took two days just to drive from Bend to Red Bluff,  a distance of only about 310 miles via the shortest route.  But there is so much to see that you could take a week to make the journey.  The most direct route would be US 97 and I 5.  But I took the Cascade Lakes highway out of Bend instead.  The first stop was Sparks Lake, a neat blend of volcanic and alpine scenery.  Lava in the foreground, South Sister peeking out of the clouds.

Broken Top looms over the forest.

Another detour off 97 that's an absolute must is to go to Crater Lake.  It's a power spot.  I love to sit high above the lake and simply gaze upon it and soak up its beauty and uniqueness.  The day I visited was not ideal, though...only about 60 degrees and very windy.  Blow up this pic and you'll see many whitecaps disturbing the azure surface.

Gnarly whitebark pines struggle for survival above the lake.

Phantom Ship.  It looks tiny, but is actually longer than a football field and 160 feet high.

This shot is looking almost straight down from the rim to the lake.  The deep blue color of the lake is derived from blue light in the spectrum, which is retained far below the water surface while other colors are not.  In the shallows, such as at the water land interface in this pic, some of the other colors of the spectrum, like green and red, are apparent.

The next day out of Klamath Falls I visited Lava Beds National Monument.  Like Crater Lake, it is also a surreal scene, with the added historical attraction of the Modoc War of 1872-73.  I need to spend at least one entire day here, instead of  just passing through like I've done on all visits so far.  This is Schonchin Butte, a cinder cone.  You can hike a trail up to a fire lookout on the summit.

One of the fine aromas of the West is that of sagebrush.  You rub your fingers against the leaves and inhale the strong, semi-sweet scent...beautiful!

Late August and the sage was in full bloom at Lava Beds.

Passing through the town of Adin, in southern Modoc county CA, I came upon this relic...a wigwam burner!  50 years ago these were common on the west coast, used to burn slash wood left over from logging operations.  They put a lot of smoke into the air and were phased out in the late 1960s and 70s.  But this one endures...no longer in use, of course.

There is a lot of natural smoke in far northern CA these days anyway, due to numerous lightning caused fires.  Blow up this pic and you'll see the summit of Mt Shasta rising out of the terrain like an apparition.  The rest of the mountain is shrouded in smoke...evidently there's an inversion layer topping out around 10-12 thousand feet that keeps the smoke confined below that level.

In Lassen Volcanic NP I came upon this unusual feature...a rock whose age is precisely known!  This rock was born on May 14, 1915, when Mt Lassen erupted and sent a mass of lava into the mountain's crater.  This rock was part of that lava.  It was deposited here, about 3 miles east of the mountain, five days later, when an explosive eruption shot it out of the crater and down the slope in an avalanche of snow, water, and rock.  Three days later a photo team found it here, still hot.  A few hours later the mountain erupted again. 

The previous rock, 97 years old, is black dacite.  This is a closeup of red dacite.  It is 27 thousand years old, the product of an earlier Lassen eruption.

A gnarly whitebark pine rises near timberline at Mt Lassen.  These are tough hombres in the tree world.

The lizards are hangin' out on my car, with Lassen in the distance.  Elevation here is a little above 8000 feet.

Lake Helen, with Lassen.  The first time I visited this spot was in early July 1967.  It was 100 degrees down in the central valley, but the lake was still frozen!  I was impressed. 

This is a bubbling mud pot in Lassen NP.

Thermal areas always have cool colors from the minerals. 

At the end of the day, a smoky sunset in Red Bluff.  Most of the rooms at my Best Western were taken by fire crews.