San Francisco, Crater Lake, and the Northern California Coast

[Midwest Michael]

Well, I'm certainly not going to skip Lassen at this point, and I'm not worried about the travel times/distances. It's more a matter of dividing my time.

I had originally been thinking of doing a quick tour through Lassen, hiking out to Bumpass Hell, and making a quick stop at Burney Falls, as part of a long day on the road to Ashland. However, while all of the roads in the park are open, the Bumpass Hell trail is not yet open, so that might not be possible. There are a few other trails that look interesting, but many of the features that I think I'd want to see aren't right off the main road, so that may force me to spend more time there.

I might trim my time at Crater Lake down to a half day, but I'm not sure yet. I might just play it by ear and decide while I'm actually on the road.

[Southwest Dave]

Off topic, but Congratulations on your 10,000th post !!

Dave.

[glc]

If the East Rim Drive at CL is still closed, half a day should be enough to see the place.

[jm98]

Burlingame hotels south of SFO is good option for staying a night before departure out of SFO. I personally like walking on a Bay Front Park and see 747s take off and land.

The Hampton Inn south of SFO in Burlingame (if you can find rate around $100) free parking and breakfast.

Most other charges $10 nightly parking.

[Midwest Michael]

As time was flying leading up to the trip, I remembered yesterday that I hadn't yet booked my tickets to Alcatraz. Of course, they were now listed as sold out, but I kept checking, and at 7am pacific this morning, a couple of tickets opened up (very briefly.) First minor crisis averted.

I am now leaning more strongly toward reversing direction heading north up the coast. I'm leaning more towards seeing a minor league game at the end of the trip, rather than going to Oakland, and it should be quite a bit easier to go from Lassen straight down I-5, rather than going from the Coast, and have to drive all the way back across the bay area. Plus, that should put all of my time on the coast mid-week, and make it easier to find camping there, and will have me up in the mountains on the weekend.

But it's still a work in progress.

[CAnative]

Hope to hear that you enjoyed Lassen. We went in late August and were surprised at small number of visitors -- perhaps the mid-day snowfall cleared the campground :)

Jessica

[Midwest Michael]

Hopefully I'll have time over the weekend to write up a more detailed report, but I'm still trying to get caught up on all the work I'm behind on.

I will say Lassen did end up being probably the biggest disappointment of the trip. Much of that was weather related, as between the rain, fog, and early season closures, things were very limited on what we could see and do, although some bad information from parks service workers also was a little frustrating...