Post by bobby1 on Jul 20, 2008 11:51:08 GMT -5
Last Monday my 11 year old grandson and I started our adventure through Northern California and Southern Oregon. We travelled from the Bay Area through Sacramento to Yuba City where we visited a fellow rockhound (with a really big pile of rocks) for a few hours. Contiuing North I wanted to pass through Biggs, CA to see if the local newspaper print shop was still there. Back in 1962 when I was in the Navy and I was being transferred from the Navy's Nuclear Engineering Training School in Vallejo to the Reactor Training Site in Central Idaho I was visiting my girlfreind/fiancee and on a spur of the moment we decided to get married. My future mother-in-law searched in the late afternoon for a justice of the peace to perform the ceremony. She found one at the print shop in Biggs. When we got there the fellow who ran the place turned off the machine, took off his apron, washed his hands, put on a jacket and performed the ceremony. I was wearing my uniform at the time. I asked him what his charge was and he said there will be none, so my wedding cost nothing. It has lasted almost 46 years so far. Nonetheless I didn't find the print shop because I wasn't familiar with its location. We were in a hurry to keep going so I will have to search another time. Our next destination was Red Bluff. There is a great rockshop and museum there called Gaumers. They have fantastic examples of the old stuff they collected 50 or 60 years ago such as Priday Plume, Carey Plume and Graveyard Plume. It was close to closing so I didn't take time for pictures, though. Thank goodness the motel had air conditioning because it was 102 degrees outside. This is typical for Central California though. The next morning our destination was Lassen National Park to see the volcanic features there. It is a dormant volcano now though it had a major eruption in 1915. Here are some pictures of the park.
Here is my grandson ready for the fun.
Here is a steaming sulphurous vent along the road.
There is a feature in the park called Bumpass Hell. It was discovered in the mid 1800's by Richard Bumpass. How would you like to have a name like that? He was going to file a claim on the area and mine it for the minerals until he walked on the sulphur crust, broke through into the 240 degree sulphur mud, severely burned his leg and had it amputated. The area involves a 3 mile hike from an altitude of 8000 feet up to 8500 feet and down 250 feet into the "hell hole".
We are resting up just before the hike.
We encountered some patches of snow along the way.
There is a lake along the hike called Lake Helen.
My grandson thought this tree looked like a woman.
I went crazy with so many rocks around. I picked this one to take back with me.
These pictures are of the sulphur vents, bubbling mud, pools of turquoise colored water and such.
On the way back we stopped and had a snowball fight. Tristan also made a snowman.
After we left the park we headed for Alturas, which is near the Davis Creek Obsidian site. Here is a picture of a river long the way.
In Alturas we checked out the local hotel. We opted for the Sleazy 8 Motel instead.
In the next post I will show pictures of the Davis Creek digging site.
Bob
Here is my grandson ready for the fun.
Here is a steaming sulphurous vent along the road.
There is a feature in the park called Bumpass Hell. It was discovered in the mid 1800's by Richard Bumpass. How would you like to have a name like that? He was going to file a claim on the area and mine it for the minerals until he walked on the sulphur crust, broke through into the 240 degree sulphur mud, severely burned his leg and had it amputated. The area involves a 3 mile hike from an altitude of 8000 feet up to 8500 feet and down 250 feet into the "hell hole".
We are resting up just before the hike.
We encountered some patches of snow along the way.
There is a lake along the hike called Lake Helen.
My grandson thought this tree looked like a woman.
I went crazy with so many rocks around. I picked this one to take back with me.
These pictures are of the sulphur vents, bubbling mud, pools of turquoise colored water and such.
On the way back we stopped and had a snowball fight. Tristan also made a snowman.
After we left the park we headed for Alturas, which is near the Davis Creek Obsidian site. Here is a picture of a river long the way.
In Alturas we checked out the local hotel. We opted for the Sleazy 8 Motel instead.
In the next post I will show pictures of the Davis Creek digging site.
Bob