Mammoth Lakes/ Eagle Lake, California & Winema National Forest (outside Klamath Falls), Oregon

North to Alaska or “on the road again” for the Beckmans. We left home on Wed., May 23 heading north on Highway 395. We decided to take the slower, but more scenic drive up through California. We have driven this stretch of highway many times, but it is always breathtaking to see the snow covered Sierra Nevada Mts.

We camped in the national forest campground in Mammoth and found the campground to be not very full, but gearing up for the Memorial Day weekend. Oh, how we miss that clean, crisp, mountain air (especially living in the L.A. basin). The skies were blue and the temperature during the day was in the low 70’s with 30’s at night. It was great for taking a walk, and wonderful for sleeping.

The next day we continued our drive north on 395. It took us up and down through mountain passes and thickly wooded forested areas with lots of babbling brooks and streams. We commented repeatedly about how much nicer it was driving on 395 rather than on Interstate 5.

On Thursday we crossed into and out of Nevada and headed to a private campground on Eagle Lake, just north of Susanville, CA. This area is very popular with fisherman and the trout season was scheduled to open on Memorial Day weekend. We were lucky to get a site for one night because everything was booked for the weekend. The campground host was looking forward to all those fools crashing their boats into one another with the start of fishing season.

Friday, May 25 we left California and crossed into the great state of Oregon. (Where Pris was born.) We broke the rule of not moving on a holiday weekend, but we were trying to reach Portland in order to spend the holiday with relatives Laddy, Susie, Doug Ginger and Arnie.. Sure enough, the state campground we were headed for was full, so we stayed at a much more secluded, national forest campground just a mile down the road. This area is loaded with national forest campgrounds, and this particular one was free with free downed firewood. Now we can use the saved money to get the very dusty CRV washed. The national forest campgrounds are more primitive than state campgrounds, and usually have pit toilets and no showers. We are completely self-contained, so that doesn’t bother us. (Although, we could have done without the dusty, gravel road.)