SoCal to Jasper and back

[W. Larrison]

Second Drive Day - Sacramento to Mt Shasta via Lassen

Instead of heading for the Canadian border in a 2 day speed run, this trip we picked to go via a slightly more meandering route. From Sacramento we headed back north on the I-5, continuing into the northern half of the 600-mile long Central Valley. The valley has a southern section which feeds the San Joaquin River, and a northern section which feeds the Sacramento River. The two rivers come together near Stockton, and then flow out to the Pacific through the river delta, and then San Francisco Bay. The entire length of the Central Valley is highly productive farmland, and as you drive through at 70 mph you pass through mile after mile of orchards and vineyards and cattle ranches. North of Sacramento you see more nut crops (pistachios, walnuts, and almonds) as well as vast expanses of olive orchards and rice fields.

Corning California, about 2-3 hours north of Sacramento calls itself “The Olive Capital of the US” and its always fun to stop there to pick up some of the local Olive oils and specialty nuts which are hard to find elsewhere. California is on the only state in the US which produces olives, with about a half dozen different species of olives being grown, and produces about 70 to 80% of all ripe olives sold in the US. Most olive oil and canned olives come from overseas where costs are lower, and olive production is subsidized in some areas. But if you know where to look you can find some amazingly good olive oils in California – Corning being one place. There’s a largish facility in town called “the Olive Pit” which advertises along the freeway for miles. They have a restaurant and gift store and sell olives and olive oils, but are pretty touristy (“Olive Girl” hats, for example). We typically stop at the smaller “Olive Hut” on the south end of town since they only carry local olive products and aren’t as touristy. We loaded up on dried fruits and nuts, several different types of olives and olive oils (including some very spicy, but very good, chipotle pepper-stuffed olives), rices and rice snacks, and hit the road again.

Not continuing to the end of the Central Valley, we headed north east at Red Bluff, starting up towards the mountains from the flat plain of the Sacramento Valley, taking the road up to Lassen National Park. You can see the snow on Mt Lassen on the eastern edge of the Central Valley for hundreds of miles, but the National Park is not heavily traveled. About an hour out of Red Bluff, after driving across miles of old lava flows we reached the National Park.

Even in the middle-end of June there was significant snow on Lassen. The road was clear, but there were large snow banks along the road at higher elevations, and several of the lakes along the way were still frozen over.

Mt Lassen was home to large, explosive volcanic eruptions in 1914-1915. These explosive eruptions were larger in scale than Mt St Helens and continued over a period of about a year, through 1915. Fortunately, the area was sparsely populated, so almost no lives were lost. And today, 90 years later, the remains of the eruption are almost completely covered by green forests and sparkling lakes. But even today, there are sometimes jarring reminders of the volcanic pass. On the main road through the park, there are 2 areas of boiling mud points and steaming ponds, heated by the heat of the earth below. About a mile or so off the road, is a larger valley of bubbling hot ponds, mud pots and a large stretch of sulfur and mineral streaked hillsides called “Bumpass Hell”. But this time, the trail down into the valley was still covered with snow, and the parking lot for the trail head was filled with picnickers, so we didn’t stop to take the couple of hours needed to hike down into the active geologic area.

We continued up over mount Lassen, stopping to several lakes to take pictures and to have lunch, and continued north. The old Emigrant Trail into California came into the north end of the Central Valley after passing near Lassen. We found an old trail marker indicating we were in the right area, and the road generally follows the path of the trail on the north side of the park, but other that what might have been a glimpse of the old wagon road, we didn’t seem much evidence settler's path.


[Photo by Jon R. Vermilye]
About an hour north of Lassen is another interesting volcanic-based feature in the landscape. This is Burney Falls in the McArthur Burney State Park. The falls are large, falling about 130’ and are about 50 yards wide. What’s different about them, is only about one-half of the water actually goes over the falls – the rest goes through the rock face of the falls, spurting out and falling in a series of smaller falls along the entire rock face the water tumbles over. This is due to the porous volcanic lava that underlies the water’s course, which lets the water down through the rock, instead of tumbling over the top. It’s quite interesting and unique. Teddy Roosevelt called these falls “the 8th wonder of the world” when he viewed them a hundred years ago.

Today the area is a developed state park, and after you pay your $6 for day use of the park to the ranger, the trail down to the base of the falls is well established and paved – although its still a moderately steep walk down. The pool at the base of the falls and the river below are also known as good fishing grounds, and we saw several persons fishing in the river below the falls. I even talked to a young man who attempted to snorkel in the large pool at the base of the falls. He reported seeing very large fish in the pool, but quickly gave up the attempt to swim due to the rather cold water, the turbulence from the thundering falls, and as he reported: “getting dive bombed by these big fish!”

But while the MacArthur Burney State Park has a nice campground, we headed another hour onwards to the north west to Mt Shasta to spend the night. Had a nice room in a Best Western with Mt Shasta looming in front of us as we ate in the motel's dining room. What was interesting was the “Redwood Empire Mini Cooper Club” was having a weekend run, and staying in the motel. But then, finding 20 highly polished and brightly colored Mini Coopers all parked next to each other in the front of the motel was a good clue to this....