USA - The Land of Giants

July 9-10

Hello everyone!

I said goodbye to Bend and to Kelly, striking off south on my own in a rental car. The reason was to allow me to visit two places of natural wonder that are tricky to enjoy without your own wheels.

Crater Lake National Park, Oregon 

Redwood National Park, California

The first stop in my Nissan Sentra was a place called Crater Lake National Park. A windy drive up what used to be a large mountain takes you to the top and this view.

The drive from Bend was 147 miles

A violent volcanic eruption 7700 years ago triggered the collapse of a tall peak called Mount Mazama, making the crater

It was thought to be the largest eruption in the US in the last half a million years!

I’m not a poet, I don’t have the words to express how beautifully blue this water is. The crisp contrast with the sheer rock faces is something that I could have stared at for hours.

Fed by rain and snow, it is the deepest lake in the US

Its greatest depth is 592m and its maximum width is almost 10km

I’m not sure whether you can go to the bottom, though there was a boat moving in the deep waters when I was there. Deep is the word - this is the deepest lake in the country, and the ninth deepest worldwide. If you drop something in, you ain’t getting it back.

There is 19 trillion liters of water in the lake

AI tells me that this is equivalent to 7.6 million Olympic swimming pools!

Or if you fall down, you ain’t coming out alive. There is a road that circles the crater, allowing for amazing views from all angles, but the eastern section was closed for safety. Possibly it’s connected to there still being snow. I find it quite funny to touch snow on a warm summer day.

Trails are often closed due to inclement weather

A man died in 2017 after falling from the rim 

I did a bit of that rim drive on the western side, which gives different panoramas of the lake. You can also get a little bit closer to Wizard Island, a cinder cone formed over the course of the few hundred years after the massive eruption of the mountain that used to exist here.

Wizard is 223m tall and its crater is 90m wide

There is a similar cone, called Merriam Cone, hidden from view beneath the lake

I would have liked to stay longer but needed to get going as I still had a long drive ahead. I was heading into a different state, after all!

Not a bad spot for lunch!

The road was studded with large
trees - a sign of things to come

Soon after entering California, I started noticing an increasing number of trees. Hard to miss them actually with their size, even as the weather became misty. These trees are redwoods, and the reason I was heading to a place called Crescent City.

179 miles from Crater Lake to Crescent City

Not what I expected from coastal California! 

Is there another reason to visit Crescent City? Possibly not. I’m surprised that it’s a city in California that will be the coldest place I visit, with the temperature staying in the teens in Celsius the entire time I was there. It has a cool old lighthouse, a nice brewery and very little else. It is, however, the main place to stay if you want to explore the Redwood National and State Parks.

Battery Point Lighthouse was opened in 1856, and cannot be accessed during high tide

Birria ramen and a beer at Seaquake Brewery. Worked out cheaper than
the Pizza Hut I got the previous evening, and was much better.

These towering trees are called Coastal Redwoods. The fog that I had driven through when arriving is needed to help them grow and survive. 

Evidence suggests that redwoods were prolific across the northern hemisphere in the time of the dinosaurs

The dense fog keeps these trees moist - redwoods only grow in the southwestern US and in the Hubei province of China

There isn’t one single spot to see these enormous trees that can grow to over 100 metres in height. This is because the whole area - and much, much further beyond - was solely the preserve of the trees. Then…you know…humans…logging… 

The land originally belonged to the Yurok tribe, the largest Indian tribe in modern-day California

Those patches are examples of areas
that are in the process of being restored

They think this protected area - which stretches for dozens of miles down the western coast - accounts for 4% of the original amount of trees. Four per cent. It makes it hard to comprehend how many there must have been in the past. Protection has been at the forefront of the minds of many since the start of the twentieth century, from the Save The Redwoods League to First Lady Bird Johnson.

The League was established in 1918. The land they purchased

forms the basis of much of the national park today.

First Lady Bird Johnson helped to dedicate Redwood National Park in 1968 - an area is named after her.

The National Park Service - well, what’s left of it after DOGE - has an app that recommends some particular points of interest along a driving route mostly using the 101 Pacific Highway. Using that as a guide, I would find a parking spot nearby, have a short wander (still have an ankle to look after) and then gaze up. In wonder.

Trees on the highway

This was an area called Prairie Creek

Pictures don’t do these trees justice, even in panorama mode to fit the whole thing in a picture. Walking through any section of forest results in sudden silence, with only the noise of your footsteps and occasional birds tweeting. Thankfully, I didn’t come across any bears - apparently they are around.

The forest sometimes looked quite haunting

Other times the sun shone to illuminate the trees

One of the more famous redwoods is creatively called ‘Big Tree’. In reality, it’s a pretty average height for a redwood, standing 87 metres tall. Special things about it are its diameter (over 7 metres), its estimated age (1500 years) and the fact that there is a new ecosystem and trunk growing high above the forest floor.

The man at the bottom gives you some
perspective on the size of the tree

Huckleberries and ferns grow over
60 metres above the ground

If I was 100% fit, I would have spent a lot longer trampling along the numerous trails, seeing as many redwoods as possible. I was glad that my ankle has recovered sufficiently for me to be able to walk for a while through this land of the giants. 

There are a variety of walking and biking trails

Standing under a particularly tall tree

Two quite different places under the protection of the US National Park Service, and two places that I hope continue to be treasured and thrive in the future. Both Crater Lake and Redwoods are worth a visit and showcase a couple of examples of the stunning natural beauty of this enormous country.

The stunning Crater Lake

Enjoying the panorama of the redwoods

Worth the long drive!

Love you all,

Matt