Pacific Time Part 2

I was writing the last post on shaky Mcdonalds wifi, so I was having a hard time uploading the pictures.  Now we're just outside Yosemite.  We had originally planned to go to Yosemite right after King's Canyon, but they require reservations because of COVID so we visited Lassen Volcanic and Redwood first.

On Saturday we drove the last few hours to Lassen Volcanic National Park.  I hadn't read much about this park so I didn't know what to expect.  Bumpass Hell is one of their most popular areas with a short hike leading to some sort of thermal activity up in the mountains.  Unfortunately, the trail was closed due to snow.  We were thinking that we should've told them we lived up in the UP and they would've let us through.  We did visit the Sulfurworks area that had a violently bubbling mud pool and a few other spots where steam came out of the ground.  I was expecting a emtpy mountain of black volcanic rock, but I was wrong.  There were great views of the wooded valley as we drove up to the mountain to an elevation of 8511 ft.  On the way down the far side of the mountain, we stopped and hiked around a small lake.  One of the park signs recommended a trail outside of the park that went through a lava tube cave called Subway Cave.  After leaving the park, we explored that and it was really cool.

The next park is Redwoods.  We drove along a very slow and winding through the night and stayed near the park.  Our campsite was near the ocean, and in the morning, we walked along a path and saw sea lions on the beach.

We had hoped to go the Tall Trees portion of the park, but you needed to register at least 2 days in advance.  Tall Trees is home to the tallest tree in the world.  I also learned that redwoods and sequoias aren't the same thing, but are related.  After a stop at the visitors center, we hiked the Lady Bird trail.  Fern Canyon was the next stop.  We walked through the canyon and both sides were covered in ferns; it was cool.  They filmed part of Jurrasic Park Lost World there and filmed part of Star Wars: Return Of the Jedi somewhere in the park. After that, we drove the Newton B Drury Scenic Parkway and then headed back south to Yosemite.

Today we're planning the whole day for Yosemite and will head back up the coast tomorrow.