M birthday was last week and I spent the day with my son exploring some of the El Dorado National Forest.
Matt drove and I wasn’t looking at a map so all I know is that we headed up Ice House Road and went beyond some of the other areas we have hiked in the past. The first stop was to look at the Van Vleck Bunkhouse, built in 1957, and now rented by recreational users from the Forest Service.
I had no idea that the Forest Service was in the vacation rental business. This might be a fun place to stay with a group of people. It sleeps six, has propane for cooking, but no electricity, and has running water during the summer.
This is the meadow south of the bunkhouse with Desolation Wilderness in the background.
Matt didn’t care that there was no water. He tried out the bathtub at the edge of the meadow.
This is more of what was the meadow. Matt said that several years ago they did a prescribed burn here to maintain the meadow, but trees are encroaching again.
After leaving the meadow we drove further and then followed GPS coordinates to find the site of a plane crash in 1941. The info at that link tells of the air force pilot and crew that were flying a B-17, known as the Flying Fortress, from Salt Lake City to Sacramento. Due to weather and mechanical issues it went down on November 2, 1941. The pilot had ordered the passengers to put on parachutes. They all made it out but the pilot did not and two days later the crash site was discovered. We were here exactly 83 years later.
There is a trail of sorts to the site, but you’d still have to know where you’re going to find it.
The wing stretches off to the right. The other wing is at a different location.
This is what the remaining wing looks like.
Matt had the coordinates of other parts including the wing, and we walked farther to find the site, but didn’t see it before we turned back.
As we walked back down the trail I turned and could see the plane from an angle where I hadn’t noticed it before.
There were several downed trees in the area. I was surprised to see so many down with the roots pulled out of the ground. I suppose the severe storms last winter were to blame. The root structure of this one is massive.
Check out the size of this tree.
This was my view.
There were some big mushrooms too. You can’t tell from the photo but that one is bigger than my hand.
We drove back towards Matt’s house, but first turned up the road to Big Hill, the heliport where Matt used to work. This is the view of where we had been earlier with Desolation in the background.
View to the west. I wish I could make an arrow on this photo. I’d point it to the mountain top that is Mt. Diablo, the mountain that I see due south when I walk Across the Road at my house. There is a strip of white above the mountains, below the blue-turning-pink part. Do you see a small dark bump just above that white strip, just to the right of center? That is the tip of Mt. Diablo. I think it’s interesting to see it from a totally different vantage point.
Here we go!
All of these photos are “drive-by”, taken with my camera or my phone while in a moving car. They are hazy and the sky is ugly. But that’s how it looked as we drove up the valley. We have been living for most of the summer with smoke-filled skies. Now we were smelling smoke too. This is Shasta Lake and it is evident how low the water level is. A reservoir can be an ugly place when the water is low (in my opinion).
We began to see signs of the Carr Fire which had caused the closure of I-5 in both directions for 5 or 6 days just the week before we left.
One of my son’s manages a USFS helicopter and his crew was on this fire, but that wasn’t the his helicopter. 
The fire had burned right up to the road and had actually burned vehicles that couldn’t get away in time. 
Trees that are near the highway are being removed for miles.
And it’s not over yet!
There were active smokes along several miles. 
My two sons and a daughter-in-law all fight wildland forest fires. This is a scary year.
As we drove further north the skies cleared and the forest again hugged the sides of the freeway.
This isn’t a great photo, but I am usually driving when I see this dragon.There is a metal cow and calf a few miles back that missed. But I got at least one photo of the dragon.
Heading to the Shasta Valley in northern California.
Somewhere in Oregon. It seems like a long time since we’ve had rain here.
Falling trees, high heat, fires, snakes, poison oak, ticks, mountain lions, high water (that would be a different season). Maybe we should just go back home to the couch. 
After the 2015 fire the area was rebuilt to accommodate needed parking. Now we park below the Reserve instead of on the side of the road and walk under the road through these huge culverts. This is also where storm water will go in the winter. What’s with the graffiti? I am not a fan.
Leaving the culvert.
We headed out on the Blue Ridge trail, a five mile round trip. This is three years after the fire. That bush on the right is a CA Bay Laurel growing from the base of the burned tree (it can take on the form of a bush or tree).
Our first hazard, poison oak.
Maybe the next time I go hiking here I’ll count the steps. The trail starts in the canyon and eventually you have to get to the top of the ridge. There may be a million stairs–at least it seems that way when you are half way up. 
Taking scenic photos is a good excuse to stop. This is a panorama looking southeast. 
Our trail continued to the ridgeline. This is the bluest sky that I’ve seen since the fires started in June. We’re up above the smoke and haze here. 
View to the east. That little line on the ridge is our trail.
From the top you can look down to Lake Berryessa. Except for the foreground most of the land was burned this summer.
More of the trail. Keep walking.
California Cudweed.
Toyon berries.
Burned oak.
Fall colors (more poison oak).
From Wikipedia: “… the four parks, together, protect 45% of all remaining coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) old-growth forests, totaling at least 38,982 acres. These trees are the tallest and one of the most massive tree species on Earth.”
In 1850 there were 2 million acres of redwood forest along the northern California coast. After years of unrestricted logging the Save-the-Redwood League, created in 1918, was successful in establishing three State Parks in the 1920’s. 
Redwood National Park was created in 1968 after 90% of the original redwood trees were gone. Now the State and Federal agencies cooperatively manage the forests and watersheds as a single unit.
I’ll mention here that all these photos were taken with my iPhone because the previous night I dropped my camera (on the carpet in the motel) and the lens popped off. I couldn’t get it back on and knew that I wouldn’t be able to get it fixed until after I came back from Texas (where I was headed as soon as we returned from this trip).
We took a side trip to the spot where the Klamath River flows into the ocean and walked down the steep trail to this overlook. That’s Dan looking across the ocean for Meryl (my DIL who is in Australia right now).
We drove farther north to the Stout Grove in the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. 
Every time we stopped we continued to be impressed with the grandeur of these trees and the forest.
This tree had fallen and then was cut to clear the path.
Look at that brilliant color.
We were surprised that we didn’t see more mushrooms and fungus, but this one did catch my eye. Late in the afternoon we headed toward the coast at Crescent City.
Our map book showed two lighthouses so we started with Point St. George. We found that lighthouse (manned from 1891 to 1975 and abandoned in 1995) but it was 6 miles offshore. The Battery Point Lighthouse is accessible at low tide so we were able to walk to it, but we were too late for a tour.
We walked along the breakwater (seen in the lighthouse photo) and then out on a pier. This is a view looking back toward Crescent City.
This is the view looking back toward the breakwater and the setting sun.
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