California-Oregon National Parks Trip: Afterthoughts
I could think of no better way to feature the scope of my trip to the California and Oregon national parks than to use the GPS map generated by Piwigo of the photos I uploaded to the app. All of those photos are accessible at https://singin1.click/piwigo/index.php?/category/10. I try to learn from each trip, the things that go really well–sometimes despite me, I admit–and the things that don’t go well. Some of this is to set into writing for my own recollection, and some is for those of you who share in my adventures. Let’s get the not-so-good stuff done first. On One Hand,… I had purchased the Amtrak USA Rail Pass, honestly, to save money using a mode of transportation I usually enjoy using. I used my pass for the Washington to Chicago and the entire Portland to Washington trips (see the blue-marked routes on the map to the right).…
California-Oregon NPs-Gettin’ Home-0428-050226
By the time I reached the Portland, Oregon, Amtrak station on Tuesday afternoon, I had completed the drive from Crater Lake, boxed and mailed the items I had purchased during the trip that I didn’t want to carry with me on the train, cleaned up eight days of mostly living in my rental car and turned it into the Enterprise dealer in Portland, then gotten a free ride to the train station from Enterprise. (BTW, my compliments to Enterprise for their service throughout the rental process. I’ve been using them for years and will continue to do so.) When we pulled into the station, I had to take a couple of pictures of the tasteful, old-fashioned building. I was lucky on the trip back that the staff at Portland went out of their way to get me seated in the lower car level, which is for those who need accessible…
California-Oregon NPs-Pinnacles, Lassen Volcanic, Crater Lake-0426-2726
I had a lot of factors to consider when I planned this trip. One of them was timing. I expected to be covering a wide area, with a climate ranging from southern California’s Pacific coast and the deserts of Joshua Tree and Death Valley to the potentially still snow-bound mountainous northern California and southern Oregon parks, that is, if I wanted to avoid the expected summer crowds. I had gotten as good as I could reasonably expect by coming in mid- to late-April and had high hopes that the warm weather would continue with Pinnacles, but I would soon hit the cooler end of the situation with Lassen Volcanic and Crater Lake national parks. Each park had a high likelihood that at least one section would be closed due to snow. Plus, as part of my need to pack lightly for the trip, I was traveling with only a jean…
California-Oregon NPs-Gettin’ There-April 17-20, 2026
Departure day finally arrived on Friday, April 17th, but I wasn’t ready. While I had worked on prepping equipment and information for the trip to California, I hadn’t packed anything. This is not much of a problem when I am driving SB for the duration, but when I am reliant upon mass transit (Amtrak in this case), I have to operate under their schedule. I managed to finish laundry and gather things, but I accidentally left four important items: my tablet–which contains several downloaded files about my anticipated stops–and its peripherals, my handicap parking tag, my print 2027 atlas, plus the dash camera I wanted to use to video some of the scenic routes I would drive in my rental car. More about the impacts of these missing items in later posts. My youngest brother got Debra, my eldest sister, and me to Washington Union Station in time to catch…
More Updates for California and Oregon NPs
From the Beginning As I am prepping for the trip to California and Oregon, I’ve tried to remember which national park I visited first. Eventually, I realized that my first park was Rocky Mountain National Park, which I visited with my mother in 2013. We followed that a couple of days later with Zion National Park, then added a tour of Grand Canyon National Park shortly afterwards. We also passed close to Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountains NPs. However, visiting the parks as a project wasn’t in my game plan at the time, so we didn’t stop. So much has changed about what I want to experience when I visit parks that I want to revisit them, both Zion and Grand Canyon, later this year. The other parks are also in the plan. In the meantime, prep work continues. Presently, I’m fleshing out non-national park sites I would be interested…
Countdown for California & Oregon, Plus Two DC Productions
The Final Frontier There are a lot of not-so-good things going on as I write this, but one of the few exceptions is the launch of NASA’s Artemis II. As of Day 7 of its mission, it had taken its four crew members around Earth’s moon to a point further than humans have traveled to date. They have generated lots of pictures, but my favorite is this one. As one poster commented, I’m pictured there on Earth, you just can’t see me. Trip Prep My preparations for the train trip and extended drive to California and Oregon are progressing. As much as I am aware that I can’t take a lot of stuff, even if I expect the trip to take a couple of weeks to complete, I know I will have to do at least one weeding before departure time arrives. One significant change in plans. My eldest sister…