road trippin' day 6

 

On day six we left the San Francisco Bay area and enjoyed another "short" day's drive to reach Medford, Oregon (approx. 346 miles). The highlight of this day's journey was a side trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park in northern California.

By pure luck we happened to be in the park the day before the centennial celebration of its eruption back in 1915. How cool is that?? As you can see above, this national park could be called "Little Yellowstone." In fact, it's the second largest area of geothermal/volcanic activity in the country (with Yellowstone being number one). 

 Despite this distinction, there is very little actual geothermal activity you can get up close and personal with in the park that is easily accessible. These two pictures of fumeroles and bubbling mud were from one road side stop. The rest of the park is winding roads that circle the main volcano, Mt. Lassen.

 

It's stunning and beautiful country, but basically a drive-thru park unless you like to backcountry hike. So a little disappointing in that aspect. But I'm still glad we managed to visit, especially on the centennial anniversary!

Finally, a photo of the second pair of socks! This is White Birch Fiber Arts self-striping yarn (colorway: what the puck?), and the pattern is called Chains by Simone Drager. I made a major modification to the pattern here to make it more easy (and brainless) for car knitting--normally you'd move the slipped stitches with a cable to make them spiral around your foot. I love the effect, but just wasn't in the mood to do so many tiny cables at that time.