Trip Journal: Day Four-Rogue River to the Redwoods

Tuesday, September 13th

Our camp in the early morning taken from in front of the bathroom

The night was not too cold, and the air felt pleasant when I first got up in the morning, but seemed to get a little colder after that, before the sun got high enough to start warming things up. As soon as the sun got higher though it quickly got warmer. We had our usual breakfast of cereal, milk and fruit. I took a couple of photos of our camp before we started to break it down. Once we had everything stowed away, I spent a pleasant fifteen minutes or so down by the river taking some photos. The shadows were still on the foreground and the slowly flowing pools of water, but the sun was shining on the beautiful trees on the far bank and they cast beautiful reflections in the still water. It was lovely and peaceful.

The road we followed is known as the Rogue-Umpqua Scenic Highway. Wayne had done research and had printouts of the different sections of the route. We were on the southern section and as we passed through the little historic CCC camp town of Union we were going over the different stops on the printout and deciding where we wanted to stop and what we wanted to see. We wanted to make good progress towards reaching Redwoods state park in California so we did have to watch our time and make choices about what we did and didn't do along the way while still seeing at least the highlights if we could decide what the highlights would be for us. We looked at the relative scenic value of different spots and what kind of hikes were needed for the ones we thought we might want to stop for. We needed shorter hikes with not too much elevation gain or loss so we could manage physically, take a reasonable amount of time and see the highest scenic value sights that we could get to. We were still at a fairly high altitude so our hikes this day continued to be difficult, not for our muscles, but for our cardio-vascular systems. We were huffing and puffing and had pounding hearts with way less effort than we would have been at our respective homes. Then, even with our time considerations we wanted to feel leisurely in our experiencing of each place and not rushed. All along the way on this trip we talked things over and had no trouble coming to a consensus. We ended up feeling like we made good decisions and made the best of the day.

Rogue River Gorge

Our first stop was at Rogue Gorge Natural Bridge. This spot has an easy, level, loop trail that goes right along the side of the river, looking down into the narrow gorge and leading to Natural Bridge where the river runs through a lava tube out of sight for a couple of hundred yards before reappearing. Our meander along the river and gorge was perfect for taking dramatic photos of water rushing over boulders and of lava tubes and pot holes created by the water in the basaltic rocks. The weather continued with sun and clear blue skies. We marveled at our luck in getting a week with days and days of perfect weather.

Rogue River

The river goes through a lava tube underground for several hundred yards before reappearing. Native people and white settlers used this natural bridge to cross the river. 

Our next stop was in the little town of Prospect. We were looking for stops to see the Avenue of the Boulders, and Mill Creek Falls, a 174 foot plunge falls with a short hike to reach it. We first found a wayside stop by a lovely bridge at the far end of town that had a great view of the Avenue of the Boulders. We explored and took photos before heading back to the main road. It turned out that if we had stayed on the this side road through town we would have found our main stop without having to backtrack. We found a wayside that turned out to be the trail head we were looking for to take the hike to see Mill Creek falls and nearby Barr Falls.

Avenue of the Boulders

Avenue of the Boulders

Bridge over the Avenue of the Boulders

The wayside had picnic tables so we made this our lunch stop.  Yellow jackets were very interested in our picnic, but I showed Wayne the trick of putting out a little lunch meat nearby on the table that the insects could go to unmolested by our waving them away. They soon learned to go to the bits of meat there and it was entertaining to watch them slicing off their bits and struggling to get airborne with their little loads of protein. We were able to find out from some hikers who passed our picnic spot that this was the trail to see Mill Creek falls.

After packing the lunch things away we headed out on the trail to find the waterfall. We were surprised when I suddenly got a phone call from Harry. We hadn't had any cell service for awhile, so after I had a conversation with him, Wayne made a call to Amy, keeping to the spot on the trail where we knew we had service.
The Mill Creek falls was impressive, both in setting and in the rushing length of it. We were pleased to find that Barr Creek falls was only a few hundred yards up the trail, so we were able to see both falls after all. We had thought the second falls would be much further and an additional hike.

Mill Creek Falls

Barr Falls

Another view of Mill Creek Falls

I was really happy with the amount of hiking we were getting in every day. Some days I was getting over 11,000 steps, even 15,000 one day. To hike these beautiful trails and see amazing sights made the exercise easy and fun, even with the huffing and puffing.

The rest of our afternoon was mainly driving and enjoying the scenery on every side. The forests along this section were a continual delight to our eyes and we were sad to leave it all behind and join I 5 again, but we needed to make a stop in Medford Oregon for some more groceries and supplies before heading further south as far as we could get before making camp for the night. We found a Walmart right away and split up our shopping to be more efficient. I worked on replenishing our grocery supply while Wayne went to find a sturdy Buck knife for breaking up firewood into kindling and tinder. He wanted to teach me the knife and baton method for breaking split wood down into smaller parts and planned to gift me with the knife for my camping supplies. When we joined up again he had also picked up a gift for Harry and I that would also benefit he and I at our remaining camp sites. The compact folding chairs I had brought were not very wide or comfortable so he found a couple of inexpensive folding chairs with much wider seats and cup holders in the arms. They were a real improvement. I then got some collaborative input from him on menus and food and we finished our shopping and got back on the road again.

From Medford we headed south and into California. As we approached the border I suddenly remembered the 'Fruit Police', the border stop where we would have to declare whether or not we had any produce with us and possibly give it up to be discarded. Having just filled the cooler with more fruits and vegetables (some of which certainly were grown in California and shipped to Oregon) we were dismayed at the prospect of possibly having to give them up and buy everything again. Wayne was amazed. He'd never heard of the fruit police before. We resolved to be honest when questioned, but happily when it was our turn to be questioned the officer just smiled and waved us through.

As we headed south towards Yreka I started looking for places for us to camp. I was concerned that it was getting late and was not finding a lot of good options on Google Maps for further down the road. Wayne thought we should push on and just get a motel if we got stuck, but I warned him we were going into more rural areas and sure enough couldn't find motels farther ahead of us either. I found a commercial camp in Yreka, but it was near the freeway and would have been noisy, so we continued on. I searched and searched the few options I could find where we could stop soon enough before dark to set up camp and make dinner and clean up before it was pitch dark and we settled on a commercial RV camp in the little town of Etna. As we drove in I also spotted a nice little motel we could use as a back up if we couldn't get into the RV park. It was a pleasant little town with a feeling of a past history of the old West in its buildings and surrounding ranches and mountains. Getting a spot was handled by the nearby gas station, there was no onsite office or anyone who owned it around seeing to things, but the place turned out to be clean and well kept with spotless bathrooms and good hot showers.

We picked a site where we could have electricity for Wayne's CPAP. We had brought a battery charger to power it, but the connection was loose and failed part way through the first night of camping. It turned out we had to use a grassy area with no power because we were tenting. The gas station clerk called the owner who said no exceptions because the sprinklers came on to water the grassy medians between the pull through spaces at night. We quickly set up the tent and then since the sun was dropping behind the mountains we moved the van a little ways over in front of the nearby restroom where there was a picnic table and made dinner. We had bought Napa cabbage and I used that with onions, cut up Aidell's chicken bacon and pineapple brats and a packet of pre-made rice to make another skillet meal. We ate it all up again and I used hot water from the bathroom to wash the dishes while Wayne set up our beds in the tent.

There were no mosquitoes in this camp either, so that was nice, because we had no fire ring to build a fire in. We set up our new chairs though and sat and talked until we got sleepy enough to settle into our cots in the tent. We were enough lower at this spot that it didn't get too cold during the night and we both made middle of the night trips to the bathroom without getting too cold to be able to drop right back off to sleep.  The only thing that would have been more perfect is if the moon had gone down before we went to sleep so we could see the full glory of the stars.