Collier Memorial State Park OR

From Tule Lake we drive north through Kalmath Falls and along the shoreline of Kalmath Lake.

Mt. Shasta reflected in Klamath Lake

Since it's the Saturday of the 4th of July weeek, we stop early to make sure we get a "walk-in" campsite at Collier State Park.

Our campsite at Collier

We're starting to get the hang of traveling without reservations down.  We tend to stop in the mid to late afternoon to score a "walk-in" campsite as many campgrounds keep several sites available on a first come basis for last minute travelers and over-nighters... but to get these sites, you've got to arrive relatively early, especially on Fridays and Saturdays to beat the weekend crowds. This practice is doubly important on holiday weekends, unless you want to end up in a Walmart parking lot.

Since we're settled by mid afternoon, we decide to take a hike up Spring Creek to see the Logging Museum. On the way, we meet a young family on a short raft trip. Spring Creek is so large, we wonder where the line is drawn between a "creek" and a "river."

Raft at the bottom of a small rapid

Coming ashore

A little farther upstream, we spy an Osprey nest with two fledgelings practicing their flying lessons.

First - exercise those wings to get them strong

then take off for a short trip around the nest

and land safely back in the nest.

We cross over a bridge to the logging museum which has mostly outside exhibits we can walk around. First we come on several examples of early log cabins.

A small explorers' cabin (notice short door)

An early grocery story

I check out a hand made log homesteader's cabin

Then we see early equipment used logging with oxen...

Ox drawn log hauler

Ox drawn snow plow

Yes - ox drawn snow plows - they had to get rid of snow

... and all kinds of ox drawn carts and wagons

Cart with wood wheels rimmed with iron

not a smooth ride

More modern ox cart

The next big innovation was steam driven logging

Steam driven tractor

and skip loader.

Of course, the main innovation was gas driven logging...

Early Caterpillar tractor

Chain saws

and machines to drive massive saw blades

Some of the trees those early loggers felled were enormous, like this one on display.

tags denote it's 1240 birth to it's 1964 demise

Peter shows it's huge girth. Too bad not more of these giants were left behind for us to enjoy

After starting to get eaten by mosquitos (where did we stash the deet?) we decide it's time to head back to camp.

Back over the lovely wooden bridge

over the clear waters of Spring Creek

and beside the small rapids.

Walking back through camp, we get a kick out of the locals we see along the way...

A young chipmunk checks out the world outside his borrow

Santa Claus kicks back on his vacation

The next morning we meet George who's camped next to us.  He's a retired from Search and Rescue from the Sheriff's Department in Glendale, AZ and has lots of stories to tell including of his trips to Alaska. His tales send us off packing and heading north once again.

George spinning his tales to Peter (notice mosquito netting jacket)