Day 2, Up and Over

Traveling up 5 in Northern California can be beautiful. Today, it was dramatic: very low water levels in lakes, evidence of last year's wildfires, and decreased visibility as a result of this year's fires. The air quality was bad enough it prevented us from seeing Mount Shasta through the haze.


And sadly, there are mountainsides of dead trees, the perfect tinder for a stray spark. It is easy to understand how wildfires are so hard to contain.

While the dry landscape and warm temperatures followed us over the Siskiyou Pass into Oregon, the air was clearer as the winds pushed the smoke east.

We visited with Denis's sister and brother-in-law who had spent over two years living in an R-pod smaller than ours as they traveled across the United States. They have since settled in Ashland but continue to spend lots of time traveling in their home on wheels. It was a great stop before traveling most of another hour to the campground.

Our site at Valley of the Rogue State Park thankfully has some shade. And, it cooled off enough (86 down from 100) for us to take a walk along the river before using our griddle to make sausage with peppers and onions for dinner. Good Italian comfort food.


There is a burn ban, no wood or charcoal fires, in many of the parks on the west coast. On addition to receiving an email from the campground last week, there are yellow notices attached to fire rings in each site.

We again have hookups. While we are fans of dry camping, that means no electricity/shore power, water hookup, and no sewer, I am thankful for those conveniences to provide us comfort in this blazingly hot weather.

Location: Valley of the Rogue State Park, Gold Hill, OR 97525, USA

Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 25, 2021 at 5:32 PM

    great to read. I wonder where the smoke and haze started on the 5. Hope you're out of that now. Can't find your itinerary Can you post it here?

    ReplyDelete

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