Day 7: Umpqua Hot Springs, OR to Crescent City, CA
Umpqua Hot Springs, Crater Lake National Park, Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park
Just after sunrise, Mason and I hiked to the Umpqua Hot Springs that were not far from our campsite. There are multiple springs, each with water that is about as warm as a hot tub. The location is a bit dirty from heavy use, but overall is pretty nice considering it’s a natural hot spring.
We spent about a half hour at the hot springs then went back to the campsite and woke the others up. The four of us then hiked to Toketee Falls, which is also near the campground.
Next we drove to Crater Lake National Park. The main road winds up the side of the mountain and follows the caldera rim for a while. Around 7,000 years ago there was a large eruption that caused the magma chamber underneath to become unstable. The volcano collapsed and formed the water-filled caldera that everyone is familiar with.
From Crater Lake we started our drive toward Redwood National Park. However, things didn’t go quite as planned. While on Highway 195 we got stuck in a traffic jam. We couldn’t turn around and take another route as the nearest highway behind us was 3 hours away and a detour was at least 6 hours. We were stuck in traffic for over 4 hours which caused us to need to revise our plans.
After getting past the accident we drove into dense fog around Crescent City. Since the plan for the day was beyond repair and we weren’t sure how far the fog would go for, we decided to find a campground near Crescent City.
We found Mill Creek Campground in Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park and decided to stay the night there. The campground had trails into the surrounding redwood forests and we hiked a little over a mile before sunset.
After dark we drove back into Crescent City, watched the fireworks, and found a McDonald’s with free wifi.
Tomorrow we’ll see Redwoods National Park and Point Reyes National Seashore.
