Lava, luck and lakes

When we found out that Lassen volcanic park was closed for the winter we set our pilot on course for the Lava Beds National Monument in the far North of California. To get there we straddled the Oregon state line and drove through some stunning volcanic scenery. What we didn't realise was that we should've been prepared to go caving as the highlight of the park is a score of very accessible lava tube and similar underground caverns. We toyed with getting out our snowbaord helmets but when we realised our torches had flat or no batteries and we were frankly clueless (and in my case well lanky for the narrow caves) we had to duck out and just do the one kiddies cave that was lit. We pushed on to Reno in Nevada and then to Lake Tahoe. Regarding media, our trip so far has been dominated by watching the weather channel and listening out for local radio stations traffic and weather reports (so far no rain in California and no notable traffic jams either - touch wood). We found that we were in Tahoe for the last weekend of some resorts but we still had about 15 possible resorts to choose from for a saturday of spring skiing. We plumped for Squaw Valley which had the most lifts open, including a cable car and gondola and hit the slopes in the sun. We followed up by driving round the gorgeous Lake Tahoe and trying to shop in the South Tahoe City, only to find that it is way behind Whistler in development and not able to satisfy our shopping lust. Our eyes were just starting to get trained on the outlet stores we heard were coming around Vegas.


Cycling in Sonoma (previous entry)

The big prize in Sonoma's Ravensbrook winery

The Finlandia motel - with jacuzzi and sauna

Boom - Mount Shasta - check your aura at the gate