Day 12



It’s another gravel road this morning as we head to Owyhee canyon overlook, it’s such a long road that we have a crisis of confidence and stop a truck coming the other way to ask him… we’re all good and a few minutes later we’re there.

It’s possibly even more remote than yesterday, but we don’t stay too long as we’re both really looking forward to our next destination.



Malheur Wildlife refuge covers a vast area of land and requires time and patience in equal amounts to get the best from it.
It’s located along another 20 miles or so of gravel road and consists of a visitors centre with a scenic drive taking you through different landscapes, guided by a map and booklet.

This would be a much better place to visit in the Spring, as it was there was virtually no wildlife in evidence and the lakes were almost totally dry.
It was a fun afternoon though, capped off by the sight of some turkey vultures sitting high up on a pylon.

Driving through Southern California we don’t have a planned spot to end our day. We need to be in Shasta in the morning so we aim roughly for the Redding area.
First we need to get fuel, my sat nav says there’s a gas station on the junction in Denier where we need to turn off.

Pulling in on fumes we’re out of luck… they have no gas and tell us that the closest is a 23 mile backtrack to Fields…. Back we go.

Having wasted an hour we crack on through Nevada. There’s not much in this corner of the state but the scenery is beautiful as the sun goes down.

Throughout this trip we’ve heard about the appalling wild fires in California (indeed they were visible from our flight from LAX to SEA) this is the first time on our trip that they have a chance to affect us.

Stopping in Alturas for an Italian dinner we decide to stay the night and complete the final 2hrs or so to Redding in the morning. Unfortunately it’s not to be as all the hotels in the area are full of firefighters so we have no choice but to press on to Redding.

It’s a nice drive though and we arrive at the hotel shortly before midnight.