The Road Trip Begins!

The house is packed, cleaned, and our stuff is off!  We started our cross country move on Tuesday, with a 12 day road trip planned with several national parks and over a week at Ben's parents in Ely, MN.  The first step was a drive to Lava Beds National Monument.

 

We had to drive past Shasta on the way, and Shasta lake with it (where you can see how low it is!)  We stopped at a rest area aptly named grass lake.  This apparently was a lake and had resorts on it until the early 1900s.  It was formed when a lava flow blocked the natural drainage, but the underlying volcanic rock is very porous.  Over time sediments had built up and allowed water to collect - but then a dynamite blast poked a hole in the sediment and all the water drained out!  Now it's a large wetlands... and looks like a lake of grass.  Robbie didn't care, he was just happy to be out of the car!

We had dinner in our campsite, and were very happy to be at altitude, as the weather was much cooler than the heat of the central valley.