Even more state parks...

I woke up fairly early and packed up the things, heading out about 9 that morning. Leaving the park by myself, no one there, was a bit creepy. I continued north...


More plains, but in the distance I saw what appeared to be an odd cloud. It dawned on me; "Holy shit! That's a mountain!" My own personal "That's no moon!" moment. I marked my mileage, just to have an idea how distant I was and mark visibility.

After passing through Redding, it became clearer but more importantly so did the whole of the mountain range. Most of what was visible had snow on it. It dawned on me perhaps there wasn't a clear path across yet. Maybe I would have turn around or stay in Redding. Not cool! After reconsidering, I realized I was on the interstate and it was most likely clear all the way to the 'top', so i pressed on...


Again, I can understand the boredom of Interstates. I specifically avoided I-10 when leaving Phoenix. No real scenery to speak of, long stretches of nothing. I-5 might be as repetitious, but it's definitely more lively with mountain passes like those above and plains right above them like those pictured below...


Yes, a dragon in the middle of nowhere...


I passed about 100 miles and stopped in Dunsmuir to refuel me and Natasha...



It's quite picturesque this time of year, but I can imagine it; Buried in snow with the sun barely peaking over the mountains in winter, just enough to snowblind you for an hour a day and make you snarl in anger and scream at it, begging it to actually melt this shit!!! But that could just be me.

I headed on and came upon Mt. Shasta and an outlying, conical sibling...



Little opportunity was offered to take pictures up til I got to Medford. But imagine again my surprise, 3 miles outside of Medford...


Yeah. Right...

I arrived at Valley of the Rogue State Park, about 15 mileswest north of Medford. Again, brilliant park...


Edit; Please feel free to click on any of the images. They will take you into my Flickr photostream and non-clipped versions of many of the pics. Also of note; I was 90 miles from Mount Shasta when I first saw it. If I had been paying attention it could have been 100 miles. Amazing...