Tuesday, June 17, 2014 Diamond Lake, OR to Tulelake, CA & the Lava Beds National Monument

This morning I awakened to silence. It truly was golden.

I had heard it raining on and off throughout the night, but the rain had stopped. There was just silence except for an occasional bird chirp. I peeked out of the window only to discover that the rain had turned into snow, which explained the silence.  The trees and picnic tables were covered with a dusting of the white stuff. I let my glaze wander over to the road. It was just wet..whew.

This motivated me to get packed up and out of the Diamond Lake area before any more of the white stuff had time to stick on the roads.

I had hitched up last night, so I just had a few things to do and then I booked it out of there.

Apparently Diamond Lake is not the highest altitude that you reach on Hwy 138 when traveling east.  As I proceeded to climb up the mountain, the snow on the trees progressively increased. Fortunately the roads continued to be just wet. The temperature reading in my truck said 31 degrees F. I was grateful that it was not icy.

About 7 miles east on Hwy 138 the road began to gradually go downhill. The amount of snow on the trees also gradually diminished and the temperature increased.

Hwy 138 ended and  it met up with Hwy 97. I turned south on 97. 97 is generally a two lane, flat, straight road with paved shoulders, lots of passing lanes and a smooth surface.  It made for a very nice drive through south-western Oregon.

At Klamath Falls, OR the signs easily led me to Hwy 140, then Hwy 39 and into California onto Hwy 139.

In Klamath Falls Hwy 97 followed the rim of Upper Klamath Lake for several miles which made for a beautiful drive. Just beyond the lake were several farms. The morning light cast a muted glow over the countryside.  I felt like I was traveling through a painting. Beyond this the land turned from green fields into desert with sage brush and occasional lava rocks.

As I entered California the speed limit increased to 65 mph; however, when towing anything the speed is still 55 mph.  This took the pressure off of me and I was able to cruise along at 55 mph.  The road was still relatively flat and barren except for a few farms.  I passed through Tulelake in a heartbeat.

Tulelake had been my destination goal for the day, but I didn’t see anything resembling an RV park (or a town).

I kept driving.  I passed a sign telling me that there were no more services for 72 miles, after passing the services of course.

Further down the road there were signs for Lava Beds National Monument.  I wanted to see the monument which is why Tulelake had been my destination. So I turned at the signs to go to the monument. I immediately was on a road the width of one lane, but made for two-way traffic.  I drove for a short time.  A pull of area was sighted on the right. I took this opportunity to pull off and take a few pictures, and then I continued on.  There was another sign directing me to a viewpoint. I turned right onto a dirt road with a relatively steep hill.  I proceeded to the view-point, took a few pictures and was regretting my decision to try to check out the park with trailer still in tow.  I made the executive decision to turn around and return to the main road.

I turned right onto Hwy 139 and continued south at 55 mph. In my mirror I saw a very large motor-home approaching. He was speeding and caught up with me quickly. He kept trying to pass, but there was just enough traffic that he wasn’t able to. He chose to ride my tail instead.  In the distance I saw a sign that showed the travel trailer symbol, food, gas etc, but otherwise I was in the sticks.  I opted to turn onto the narrow road and get rid of the motor-home.  I started to have the same regrets as when I headed toward the Lava Beds, but the only option was to proceed forward. About 2 miles down the road was a sign for Hawks Nest RV Park, Eagles Nest RV Park and a general store.

I turned left onto a dirt and gravel road. The general store was on my right. There was a  rope blocking off the first driveway and a gate a crossed the next.  Beyond that was the entrance for Hawk’s Nest RV Park. (I never did figure out if Hawks Nest and Eagles Nest are actually the same park.)

I made the right turn into the drive.  The office was off the left about 100 ft away.  It had an open sign on it, but it was locked. There was another building with a sign that said “open, come in”. It was also locked, but my tugging on the door caused the dog to bark which provoked its owner to quiet it. At least then I knew that there was a human close by.

The owner came out and directed me to an open site. Of course I pulled into the wrong one, so she got on her golf cart and led me past several cabins and empty RV sites to the back 40 to a pull through spot between a large motor-home and a travel trailer that is permanently there.  Then she gave me a lift up to the office to check in.  It was reasonable at $23.00/night with a Good Sam discount and they take credit cards.  I was reassured that I would have internet, “as your neighbors aren’t having any problems”.

So I settled in. Got the internet to work on my phone and did a few things, then headed out to the Lava Beds National Park.

The south entrance of the Lava Beds National Park is the same road that I turned onto to get to the RV Park. That was convenient, but I was concerned about gas. I had a ½ a tank, but the park is really big and I didn’t know where a gas station was.  There is not a gas station, by the RV Park like the road sign indicated.

I took my chances and headed into the Lava Bed National Park.  Once I passed the entrance sign to the park, there was another sign warning about “Bat Disease” and instructing guests to check in at the visitor center to be screened.

On the way to the visitor center there were a couple of side roads going to caves.  I checked in at the visitor’s center, but opted to not go to any caves.   I hadn’t really eaten yet today and was still concerned about the gas situation. I drove through the park and took several pictures.  Then I couldn’t figure out how to get out. The signs were vague and I muddled my way out to the main road through the northern entrance/exit. I was down to a 1/4 of a tank of gas.

The north entrance is only a few miles south of Tulelake. I turned north with the intent of getting food and gas. There was a sign pointing to the downtown.  I cruised through downtown. It was about 3 blocks long and consisted of many old buildings, probably the original buildings in the town.  It was sad. Most of the store fronts  were boarded up.

There was one restaurant open. It was a burger place.  I considered just going into the grocery store a crossed the street from it, but didn’t.

I entered the restaurant. There was a lady sitting on a stool back in the kitchen. Menus were lying on the counter. I started to look at the menu, but the lady approached. She was telling me that she had one order of chicken tacos left and it was the special of the day.  I had noticed on the menu that she had gluten-free options, but I really didn’t get a chance to look at the menu. Chicken tacos sounded good. She mentioned that she didn’t have any more salsa, but she had “several other options for the chips”.

I of course have in my mind what chicken tacos should be and I didn’t ask for details.  Several minutes later she brought out a basket with 2 chicken tacos and freshly deep-fried “chips”.   A man walked in about the same time that must have been one of her suppliers. So she placed the food in front of me and went to the counter to talk to the man.

The chicken tacos were in corn shells, which sort of made sense if she was really into gluten-free.  I should not  have gluten either, but really dislike corn shells and think that tacos should come in flour shells. Then the “chips” looked and tasted like flour shells cut in triangles and deep-fried. May be they were corn, but they didn’t look or taste like it. The chips were pretty good, but the tacos were not.  Besides the corn shells, the chicken was over cooked and dry.  There was no guacamole or sour cream or anything to overcome the dryness.  It was the worst food that I have had on this trip so far!

I ate because I was hungry and then left. I did not mention how horrible it was.

From there I wandered around town, took a few pictures, got gas at a ridiculous $4.39/gal and headed back to the RV Park.

As I was traveling south, I noticed a sign for an RV park right after Tulelake.  I’m not sure how I missed it earlier when driving through town.  I thought about going and looking at it, but didn’t want to waste any of my $4.39/gal gas.

Further south, I passed by 2 roadside diners that were open.  I of course had just eaten, so I don’t know how good the diner’s are. I would suggest to anyone going through this area to give them a shot and to pass up on the burger joint.

I returned to the RV park. My neighbor was hitching his car up to his motor home. We talked for a while and then he helped me hitch up.

I tried to get online in the trailer and it didn’t work.

I really needed to do laundry and there was a facility on site. While my laundry was washing I was able to use the internet from the laundry room. It is much closer to the Wi-fi antenna than my trailer is.  When I finished with the laundry, I returned to the trailer and had good internet strength. I was briefly happily surprised and settled down to work on-line.  It worked for about a minute and then someone must have turned the router off. The signal went away and the router name was no longer on the list of available Wi-fi. Actually the only thing showing up was my neighbor’s Verizon hot spot (which is why they didn’t have any problem with the Wi-fi, they were not using the parks).

Other than the Wi-fi not working, I liked the RV park.  It was quiet and peaceful.  There are several cabins also on the property.  It is convenient to Lava Bed National Monument which is worth stopping to see.

I would recommend both the RV park and Lava Beds National Monument.

Thanks for reading! Pictures to be posted later. Please check back frequently for updates!