Crater Lake, Oregon - Day 2

We were up early and headed back to Crater Lake National Park as we wanted to beat the heat in hiking Garfield Peak. We were on the trail by 8:30 am and basically had the whole trail to ourselves until our descent. Garfield Peak is a 3.4 mile round trip hike that affords great views of Crater Lake.

A quick pic before the hike

The trail

Stopping to catch my breath

The view from the top of Garfield Peak

Crater Lake, Oregon - Day 1

Yesterday, we drove most of the day from Fresno to Weed, California. We stayed the night at The Friendly RV Park and then drove on to Diamond Lake RV Park which was our home base for exploring both Crater Lake and Diamond Lake. After unhitching the trailer in the campground, we drove the short distance to Crater Lake National Park, stopping at a few of the scenic overlooks.  Even though Jim and I were here with our girls over 15 years ago, the first sight of the gorgeous deep blue lake took our breath away. Since it was a very warm day, we thought it would be fun to hike down to the water’s edge to dip our feet in. So we hiked The Cleetwood Cove Trail down to the water. Lots of people were swimming in the cold water, but we were not that brave. We were content to just sit on the rocky shore and dangle our feet in the water. After an enjoyable rest, we had to hike the strenuous trail back up to the lake’s rim. Jim felt the hike was much easier this time around as opposed to 17 years ago when he hiked the trail with 4 year old Brooke on his back!

Beautiful Crater Lake!

Look how blue the lake is!!

A selfie at a scenic overlook

Cooling off

We spent a few more hours in the park making our way along the eastern rim stopping at more overlooks, taking pictures of Vidae Falls, and visiting the Crater Lake Lodge and Visitor Center.

A view of Phantom Ship between the trees

The Crater Lake Lodge

Social distancing at Crater Lake National Park

After we ate dinner back in the trailer, we got our bikes out to tackle the 11 mile loop around Diamond Lake. It was the perfect time for a ride - no one else was on the trail and we had beautiful sunset views as we rode along the lake. 

The bike path around Diamond Lake

On the shore of Diamond Lake

You can't tell from this picture that I wiped out on my bike a few minutes earlier. The bruises were not pretty!

The sunset over Diamond Lake. The perfect end to a fun filled day!

Pinnacles National Park

We entered Pinnacles National Park from the west entrance and, after some guidance from a park ranger, decided we would do the Balconies Cliff Trail (the cave portion of the trail was closed due to Covid). This 2.5 mile hike provided picturesque views of the Pinnacles’ rock formations. We even saw several of the endangered California Condors circling way overhead as we hiked. By the time we finished the hike, the temperature was really heating up. So we found some shade by the visitor center in which to eat our picnic lunch. Then, it was time to end our weekend adventure and head back to Fresno.

Ready to start the hike

Big Sur, California

For our day in Big Sur, we started with a 4.8 mile hike of the Buzzard’s Roost Trail in Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. It is a wonderful hike that starts out following the Big Sur River, climbs through the shady redwood forest to a sunny ridge that provides a panoramic view of the ocean and mountains. It was gray and foggy when we began the hike, but by the time we reached the ridge, it was a nice sunny day that afforded beautiful views. After the hike, we found a picnic spot by the car where we enjoyed lunch before heading to the next stop - the Partington Cove Trail. We parked along Highway 1 and followed the steep dirt path down to the isolated cove. 

The fog was just beginning to burn off as we made it to the top of the ridge.

Hiking back down through the redwood forest

Brooke standing inside an old burned redwood tree

The Big Sur River

Looking down at the Partington Cove trail

Partington Cove

We wish Katie had come on this trip with us!

After a day of hiking, we decided that dinner in Monterey sounded really good, so we headed north with one last stop to take pictures at Bixby Bridge.

Bixby Bridge

Monterey and Carmel, California

We arrived at Yanks RV Resort located in Greenfield by 3pm, quickly disconnected the trailer, and headed toward Pacific Grove. We enjoyed scrambling over the rocks and taking in the ocean view at Perkins Park. Back in the car, we headed toward 17 Mile Drive - the scenic route that hugs the Pacific coastline between Monterey and Carmel. It is a beautiful drive that takes you past dramatic coastal cliffs, multi-million dollar mansions, the Lone Cypress Tree, and the Pebble Beach Golf Course.

Perkins Park

The Lone Cypress Tree

After 17 Mile Drive we drove back to Monterey where we spent some time along Fisherman’s Wharf before eating dinner and heading back to the trailer for the night.

The Monterey Fisherman's Wharf

The Monterey Bay

Saguaro National Park

Before leaving Tucson for the drive back to Fresno we wanted to have a chance to see Saguaro National Park. This park is broken up into two sections - the Rincon Mountain District on the east side of Tucson and the Tucson Mountain District to the west of Tucson. Since we had a full day of driving ahead of us (11 hours back to Fresno) we knew we would barely scratch the surface of this unique park, but opted to visit the west side of the park since it was more or less in the direction that we needed to travel. We started at the visitor’s center, but once again, because of Covid-19 restrictions, it was closed. We were able to grab a brochure/map and decided that the Bajada Loop Drive would give us a good overview of the park. This 6 mile loop was great! We were able to stop and wander around the Saguaro Cacti and take a bunch of pictures. Many of the cacti were beginning to flower with a pretty dark red bloom. By 9am we had completed the loop and were back on the road headed home.