Day 12
We finally reached our first waterfall, Burney Falls, which is designated a National Natural Landmark and part of the National Park Service. It’s beautiful!
Next, we drive over to McCloud Falls, not far from Burney Falls. McCloud Falls is another iconic Northern California waterfall system. It actually consists of three falls along the McCloud River – Lower, Middle, and Upper Falls. They’re only a few minutes drive apart, each with its own parking lot, hiking trail head, and scenic viewpoint that is easy to walk to from each lot, so you can visit any of them separately. However, if you’re ambitious, you can try to hike to all of them from one end to the other. We just drove this time.
Here are pics from Lower Falls. Another beauty!
Then, we drove over to check out Middle Falls. Beautiful too! Doesn’t that part of the river look like a heart?
Finally, we arrived at Upper Falls! We’ve now seen all three waterfalls of McCloud Falls! They were all beautiful and unique! Definitely try to see all three next time you’re in the Mt Shasta region.
After doing all three waterfalls, we headed towards Mount Shasta itself, but since the days were getting shorter, we didn’t have time to get to it before dark. We were able to catch a glimpse of it amidst an awesome sunset though.
Off to Oregon tomorrow!
Day 13
We’ve reached our first National Park in the Pacific Northwest! This is also the first time we’re visiting the states of Oregon and Washington so we can check off some more new-to-us states as well!
Drumroll… We’re at Crater Lake National Park!
To say the lake is stunning is even an understatement. Walking to the overlook behind the Visitor’s Center, we caught our first glimpse of the brightest, bluest water we’ve ever seen! It was a perfectly still, almost glass-like, huge round lake. These pictures don’t even do it justice. It was amazing!
Crater Lake was formed by snowmelt and rainwater that collected in the caldera/crater of a dormant volcano, hence the name. There are no input and output streams to this body of water. This is why the surface is so perfectly still. Visit my National Park Week post on Crater Lake NP for more details about this park.
The National Park Service has done a great job showcasing this lake. The Visitors Center has exhibits to learn more about the lake, in addition to the usual park merchandise. There is also a staircase down a little section of the rim to a closer viewpoint with some exhibits also.
I don’t believe you can go all the way down to the lake or do any activities in it, but there is a hiking path around the rim. There are hiking trails and options for other outdoor activities in the surrounding area too. There’s also a driving loop that you can do all the way around with scenic viewpoints at various points along the way. All in all, this was a serene park to visit when you visit Oregon. Check it out. It is amazing!
Next, let’s start driving towards the Oregon coast. It was a pretty long but scenic drive.
After about 5 hours of driving from Crater Lake National Park, we finally reached Cannon Beach off the Oregon coast just in time for an amazing sunset!
This is Haystack Rock, one of the keys for the treasure hunt in the movie Goonies!! I’m so excited! I’ve always wanted to see this in person. Who else loves that movie?? You can visit the Goonies house and other filming sites in nearby Astoria too but it was already too late by the time we got here for today. Next time…
Haystack Rock is an imposing 235 feet tall monolith right along Cannon Beach! Amazing! Don’t miss it! The entire Oregon coast is a beautiful drive.
We ended up spending more time than expected here walking along the beautiful beach and taking a million pictures. It was kind of mesmerizing. So, that’s it for tonight. We’ll continue north into Washington tomorrow!
Good night!
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Adventures By Anne 