Day 7 - Benna's birthday!

Benna is now 11 years old. I love her so so much! She eagerly opened the card and small gift that Jana thoughtfully sent along.

Before leaving the campground I found myself looking more carefully at some of the other "guests." So many pickup trucks and RV's, and everybody had elaborate setups with generators, folding tables and clothes lines. Many families had dogs, too, and Benna had met most of the already. I couldn't help but notice that one family had an especially large setup and a very strange dog who was tied up on a leash. In fact they had two of these weird "dogs!"

You know how they say that dogs look like their owners? Well, um, I'm going to change the topic before I write anything unkind.

We packed up and started the drive up into the park. Now, our campsite on Hat Creek was at about 5,000 feet. The road went up and up from there. I took some pictures as we got to the rim overlooking the valley.

We now know that this entire area burned just last year. This scene was just an introduction to what was to come. Huge areas were totally burned and other areas were only partly burned, but evidence of fire was all around in the entire northern part of the national park and the national forest.

The drive to our next campground was easy and the national park campground was in my opinion about ten times nicer than the forest service campground on Hat Creek. Sorry, department of Agriculture, but Department of Interior kicks your ass.

We took a short walk to a spot called Bathtub Lake. We did not feel much like swimming (I haven't mentioned that it has been very chilly!) but it was very scenic.

After the fire, stuff starts to grow back. We saw many signs of the forest's rebirth.

The campground is called Butte Lake, and the lake itself is quite nice. Some people were boating, fishing and even swimming but it felt really cold to us.

At the back of the picture you can see black rock piled up. That is part of the huge flow of lava that filled in much of the lake. We tend to think of these things as ancient, but this lava flow happened about 400 years ago. Tomorrow we will climb the "cinder cone" crater that stands about a mile away, and it is the source of is lava flow.

But for now, another dinner of cowboy chow and good night! By the way, Benna has made the fire every night with barely any assistance from me, and she also sets up her own tent and takes it down in the morning. She is a great camping companion (as long as we don't have to wake up too early!)