Day 23 – Drive to Portland

632 Miles

The next few driving segments of our journey would be long ones. On this day, we had at least ten hours ahead of us without food, bathroom, and sightseeing stops. Chances were good that we’d be in and out of the car for the next twelve to thirteen hours. We knew from the start that some of the travel days would be long, and were fine with it, but we also knew that after Portland, there would be several more of these days ahead. 

To make things a little faster, we decided to forego a stop in Napa valley, and stayed mostly on I-5, which offered its own beauty on the outskirts of the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge (some pictures below). 

As we continued north, we saw endless miles of scorched, deforested mountain slopes. After looking it up, we realized that this was where the monstrous Carr fire had burned nearly a quarter million acres of pristine nature in late summer, 2018. It was scary to think what the area must have looked like in the midst of the disaster, as we passed mile after mile of burned woods less than a year after the fire was finally contained.

When we exited the affected area, it opened up into the magnificent Shasta Lake National Recreation Area. Interstate 5 doesn’t go past the dam that created the reservoir, so it was a total surprise to us, coming across what looked very much like an alpine glacial lake in Northern California. We stopped at a small rest area to take some photos before heading on.

Eventually, the snowy peak of Mount Shasta itself popped into view, and as tempting as it was to take a detour, we instead stopped for a burger and briefly enjoyed the scenery. This was the first of the volcanoes we would see on our route, followed by Lassen Peak (which was actually closer, but we saw it second) and then Black Butte. 

Black Butte is near Weed, California. I just wanted to put that in writing.

We stopped to refuel in Medford, Oregon, which might possibly be a town that was formerly in rural Alabama, but which was deposited via tornado in to Southern Oregon. I’ll just leave it at that.

A mere four hours later, we arrived at the home of my former guitarist, Donovan, and his wife, Val. How lucky we are to have good friends across the country, with room to put us all up!

Val and Donovan are proud of their adopted home, and the next days were a brilliant whirlwind of nature and cityscape that were uniquely Oregon.