The Hall Family Travels Blog

This post is our family travel journal — every campground, every hike, every lesson- the whole story. If you’re looking for specific campground or location reviews and tips, I will be posting separate blogs and will link them throughout!

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Seventeen days.
Over 2,100 miles.
Seven campgrounds.
And by the end of it, none of us wanted to go home.

My family has always loved camping and long road trips, so when my best friend, Alex, from Oregon had her first baby, it was a great excuse to take a couple weeks off work and travel up there to see her, while making many stops along the way!  We toyed with the idea of just myself hopping on a plane and flying there for a quick weekend visit and back, but my husband, Dustin, didn’t blink an eye when I suggested possibly taking a family road trip there instead. He had the vacation time, the kids were on summer break from school, and we all had the desire to get back on the road and back into the dirt! 

However, being that Dustin only had two weeks to take off work and we had over 2,000 miles to travel, we were faced with the challenge of a lot to see and not a lot of time! Good thing we were up for that challenge. I mapped the route, researched cool sights in the area, and planned out every day of the trip! In 17 days, we made a round trip of over 2,100 miles, stayed at 7 campgrounds, and explored National Parks, waterfalls, lava caves, rivers, hot springs, and redwoods.

Here’s our 17-Day Route at a glance:

Starting point: Santa Maria, CA

Campsite 1: Ponderosa, CA (381 miles, 5.5 hours, 2 nights)

Campsite 2: Cave Campground, Old Station, CA (208 miles, 4 hours, 3 nights)

Lassen’s Volcanic National Park- Paradise Meadows and Bumpass Hell
Burney Falls
Lava Beds National Monument

Campsite 3: Bend-Sunriver Thousand Trails, Bend, OR (270 miles, 4.75 hours, 2 nights)

               Little Deschutes River

Campsite 4: Mt. Hood Village Campground, Welches, OR (140 miles, 2.5 hours, 3 nights)

Multnomah County- Horsetail, Ponytail Falls, and Wahclella Falls

Campsite 5: Diamond Lake Campground, Crescent, OR (215 miles, 4 hours, 3 nights)

Crater Lake National Park
Umpqua Hot Springs
Clearwater Falls
Trees of Mystery

Campsite 6: Heart of the Redwoods Cottages, Orick, CA (220 miles, 4.25 hours, 2 nights)

Fern Canyon

Campsite 7: Lake Minden Thousand Trails, Nicolaus, CA (312 miles, 6 hours, 1 night)

Ending Point: Santa Maria, CA (354 miles, 5.5 hours)

Campsite 1: Ponderosa Thousand Trails (Northern California)

We had a long way to go and a deadline to get there, so we made our first stretch of driving a long one, driving nearly 6 hours to Lotus, CA. We chose the Ponderosa Thousand Trails campground because: One, we are Thousand Trails members so the campsites are free, and two, because we had family nearby the area so we could make the most of our visit.

The campground was right off the highway, but it wasn’t a heavily trafficked route so the road noise wasn’t too bad. Luckily, I booked our site months in advance because evidently there was some construction going on in the campground and there were only a few sites, as well as cabin rentals, available and they were completely booked. We lucked out with a large corner space, but really most of the sites seemed to be pretty decent size. There were some tight roads and turns up the hills and around the trees within the campground but we were able to maneuver our 37-foot trailer no problem. The campground had a heated pool which the kids loved, as well as a game/lounge room but we didn’t check that out too much.

South Fork American River

Along with visiting with family for the one full day we were there, we made the most of our stay by exploring the campground. We were located in a forestry area right along the South Fork American River. A short walk through the grounds and we were on a private little beach along the cold flowing river. The water was cold but the weather was nice, so we waded through the water and went rock hopping for some fun before picking wild black berries along the shoreline and heading back to our campsite. That night we were surprised with thunderstorms and stood out in the light rain for a while listening to the rumbles and watching the flashes of lightening across the sky before turning in for the night, ready for the next destination.

Campsite 2: Cave Campground (Old Station, CA)

The 4-hour drive to our next destination was absolutely beautiful once we got into the Lassen National Forest. A two-lane highway through a dense forest of tall pine trees on either side of us, we felt like we were already in Oregon. We made note of the many signs and turns off the road of the several other camp areas available because our next site was on a first-come, first-serve basis so we weren’t quite sure what we were going to show up to.

When we finally made it to our intersection, there were two signs going in opposite directions. The sign to the left pointed to “Campground” while the sign to the right pointed to “Cave”. I knew our camp was called “Cave Campground” so my brain read cave and I navigated for Dustin to turn right towards “Cave”. This was the wrong choice. Cave campground gets it’s name because it is right across the road from Subway Cave, a free to enter, .3 mile underground lava tube. And the destination we just turned toward. Good thing Dustin is good with maneuvering our long trailer because it was a short road that led to a small parking lot and a very tight roundabout at the end. Whoops! Nonetheless, we made it out and across the road to our actual campground (go figure, the side labeled campground!)

Spoiler Alert: This was our favorite campground of the whole trip. We found a secluded little corner space about 50 yards from the deep flowing Hat Creek, surrounded by tall pine trees. The area was so beautiful with all the trees, the flowing river right outside our door, and with only $16 a night and hardly anyone else there, it was a perfect location. We even noticed on the reservation post that the site became available that very day and had we gotten there any sooner, it may have still been occupied. We lucked out with our timing!

Hat Creek Trail

After setting up camp, we walked down to the creek and quickly noticed a bridge crossing over the water where we found a single-track trail that paralleled the creek. The kids loved this narrow trail and enjoyed rock hopping around the creek and climbing on fallen trees. We hiked the serene little trail for a long while before crossing a fallen tree back to the other side and trekked back to camp.

Subway Cave

Once we made it to camp, we decided we had to go check out the cave! Another quarter-mile walk across the road led us back over to Subway Cave where we got to explore the cold, dark lava tube. It was a short walk through the cave, only about .3 miles to the other side where you could exit the cave and continue hiking outside, or turn back and walk back through the cave and out the way you entered. Of course, we all wanted to walk back through the cave because that was way cooler than being above ground! One thing to remember with lava tubes and caves, bring a jacket and a flashlight because it does get cold underground and very dark! We finished our travel day with dinner by the campfire and a homemade cobbler with the fresh black berries we picked in Lotus.

Lassen Volcanic National Park

Day two in the Lassen Forest, we ventured into the Lassen Volcanic National Park, which was only a 15-minute drive from our camp. We had no idea what to explore here so we stopped at the visitor center and got a map and talked to the staff about recommendations on what to hike. We knew we wanted to see the geothermal activity I had read about online so we got the name of that hike, Bumpass Hell. The staff member also gave us some general information about where most tourists liked to explore, but the park was really so huge with a lot of options so it was hard to recommend specific hikes. The boys are also Junior Rangers, so we made sure to get them the booklets so they could complete their tasks during our visit and earn a badge.

Paradise Meadows

Bumpass Hell was a ways up the road so we figured we’d do a different hike first that was on the way. We started driving up the road and picked a random hike on the map called Paradise Meadows. Spoiler Alert #2: This was our favorite spot of the entire trip. The trail was like something out of a magazine, surrounded by tall trees, a pine needle forest floor, a babbling creek accompanying us the whole way, and completely secluded. We didn’t pass a single other hiker the entire 1.5-mile hike in. We did however have the company of mosquitos the whole way. They seemed to enjoy Dustin’s scent the most!

We really didn’t know what to expect for the end of this hike. We wondered when we would reach the “paradise meadow” and if it would really live up to its name and feel like paradise. Every once in awhile we would pass a small clearing with a few flowers and ask “Is that the meadow?”. Even though the hike was beautiful and enjoyable (minus the mosquitos), we were hoping we wouldn’t be underwhelmed with this paradise we were supposed to find. Boy, were we surprised! It was pretty obvious when we reached Paradise Meadows, and it did not disappoint!

The trail opened up to a huge, lush green field littered with wild flowers, surrounded by rocky mountains and trees with a gentle stream snaking through the grass. We all stopped and stared in awe for a few minutes at the amazing scene in front of us. It wasn’t until now, at the end of the hike, that we finally saw some other hikers. They had stopped in the meadow for a picnic (good choice!). We stayed here taking in the scenery for a while, all agreeing it was one of the most beautiful things we’d ever seen. Pictures just don’t do it justice and even describing it, I can’t detail how beautiful it was. I highly recommend this hike if you’re in the Lassen Volcanic National Park. We thoroughly enjoyed it and being a less popular spot, the seclusion made it that much better!

Bumpass Hell

We couldn’t stay in the meadow forever so we eventually hiked back down the 1.5 miles to the truck. The kids were tired after hiking 3 miles, but we wanted to make the most of our time here and do one more hike, the one we knew as a more popular destination for its geothermal activity: Bumpass Hell. It was another few minutes up the road so the kids were able to rest their legs and work on their junior ranger booklets.

Bumpass Hell was another 3-mile hike roundtrip, but we were able to convince the kids it would be worth it with its bubbling mud pits! The hike was a little more treacherous, being up a mountain with a drop on one side, but nothing too difficult or dangerous. We noticed right away that this was definitely the more popular destination as we had other hikers walking along with us and others passing us on their way back the entire hike. The kids kept asking if we were almost there, but they kept forgetting the name of it and we ended up renaming it as “The Devil’s Butthole” (#boymom). But we could tell when we were getting close to the end by the smell of sulfur in the air and we could start to see steam coming from down the mountain through the trees.

Even though it was a more crowded hike, the end was worth the site. It was sort of like a mini-Yellowstone with mud pots boiling and steaming out of the ground. It was weird passing by a flowing stream that felt like bath water to the touch! The trail led down to a manmade boardwalk and was a nice little walk through the steaming mud pots before going back up the mountain. It started raining on us on our hike back with thunderstorms in the distance. We didn’t mind though- it turned it into even more of an adventure! The kids passed out on the drive back down the mountain and back to camp. We finished our day with some fishing in Hat Creek, and even got to cook up some of that fish for dinner!

Burney Falls

On our last full day in the Lassen Forest, we decided to drive about 30 minutes in the opposite direction of the national park and check out the Eighth Wonder of the World: Burney Falls. We entered the park, a $10 day fee, and parked by the visitor center where we picked up junior ranger books for the boys to complete. We were surprised by what we saw outside right away- the falls! Though beautiful, I can’t say we weren’t a little disappointed to see the main attraction right away instead of it being a rewarding end to a long hike. We walked down the paved pathway to the bottom of the falls. I can see why it was labeled as the eighth wonder of the world. The water comes out of the mountainside from many different spots and they all crash down into a deep crystal blue pool. The sight is stunning. Once you’re at the bottom of the falls, you hike back up away from the falls and then cross over the top of it.

The whole loop was about a mile long and we were pretty much done after about an hour. There were many other tourists on the path and spread out across the rocks in front of the falls which took away from the majestic beauty of it all. If you’re passing through the area, definitely make a stop to check it out, but it’s probably not something I would go out of my way to see. Maybe we were spoiled with the other amazing sights we had already seen, but we felt a little underwhelmed with this stop and though I’m glad we got to see it since we were in the area, I think we definitely could’ve spent another day just touring the Lassen Volcanic National Park as there was so much more there we didn’t explore.

Crystal Lake Fish Hatchery

We tried to make the most of our trip out that direction and stopped to check out a fish hatchery nearby. We had never been to one before, so it was cool to see so many fish of different sizes in the different raceways. The first one we went to was loaded with small rainbow trout which we thought was cool, until we went to the next one and saw it loaded with huge rainbow trout! We don’t often get to see such big fish up close, so we found it very cool. There wasn’t much else to do other than walk around the raceways, all of which looked pretty much the same with different size fish in them. It was a self-guided tour and probably would’ve been more enjoyable had we had someone guiding us and informing us how the hatchery works. After walking around a bit, we finally made our way back to camp.

Surprise Hail Storm

We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the warm weather and the boys did some more fishing. I was relaxing and reading in our hammock when I started to feel a couple light rain drops hit my forehead. I figured I better put the hammock away so we wouldn’t have to pack it up wet later on. Good thing I did, because what started as a few raindrops quickly turned to a downpour of hail! We rushed inside and watched the storm quickly make puddles on the ground and watched as our awning tipped down to one side, a waterfall pouring off of it. It was so random and unexpected after our 80-degree day and we enjoyed all ten minutes of it before the sun popped back out! It was gone as fast as it came. We spent out last night roasting hot dogs around the fire. We all loved this campsite so much and were sad to leave the next morning, but still excited for the rest of our trip. Our stay at Cave Campground was definitely one we will remember and come back to one day. 

Lava Beds National Monument

When I was a kid, my family went to Oregon every summer to visit my uncle. One thing I remember from Oregon, was walking through the Oregon Caves and it was something I knew my kids would love. Unfortunately, I discovered the Oregon Caves were only open for tours on the weekends and we would be travelling through on a Wednesday. I was disappointed we wouldn’t get to experience that, but quickly found an alternative solution! I found a slight detour about halfway on our way from Old Station, CA to Bend, OR that passed right through the Lava Beds National Monument in Tulelake, CA. I figured we could get our cave experience as well as break up the long drive to the next campsite (this ended up making for a very long travel day!).

Being the planner that I am, I had called ahead and made sure this area was accessible with an RV and that we would be able to leave our trailer in the parking lot as we toured the caves. The lady on the phone was very pleasant and welcomed us in! We pulled in to the visitor center and detached our trailer in the parking lot. Evidently, they must see this a lot as the parking lot had multiple large spaces for RVs. We rented flash lights at no charge, picked up another couple Junior Ranger books, and got a pamphlet of all the different caves we could drive to and self-tour. It was very cool! The caves were categorized by how challenging they were and there was a total of 24 caves in a quick 3-mile loop drive that brings you right back to the visitor center. We chose a handful of caves at random to explore and walk through before finally feeling satisfied with our cave fix and headed back to the parking lot to pick up our trailer, get the boys their badges, and continue our drive to Bend, Oregon.

Campsite 3: Bend-Sunriver Campground

By the time we got to our Thousand Trails campground at Bend-Sunriver, we were all pretty exhausted! The drive was about 5 hours, plus the 2-hour break we took to tour the caves, it made for a very long travel day. The main purpose of this 2-night stop was to break up the long distance traveling as well as catch up on laundry and any grocery shopping we needed to do, but for the first night, we decided to just set up camp and then go relax in the hot tub!

The next day we made sure to get all our laundry done and refresh our food storage. While out in town, we stopped at Walmart and bought two boating tubes. Why? Well, while we were at the hot tubs the previous night, another regular camper there told us about a place in the campground where you can get in the Little Deschutes River, float for about a half an hour, and get out only a few yards from where you got in! So, we had to try it.

Little Deschutes River Float

We drove over to the river on the campground and found where to drop our tubes in and start our float. The kids sat on our laps because we weren’t sure they could manage their own large tubes. The float was very slow and peaceful and there was no one else around. A dragonfly landed on my knee, and then onto Colten, who was on my lap. As a lover of bugs, Colten thought this was so neat. Jax, on the other hand, not so much the bug lover, drifted a far with Dustin, not wanting to be anywhere near that friendly dragonfly.

After about 30 minutes, we started to wonder where we were supposed to get out and questioned if we were even in the right spot! It was pretty funny as we imagined the possible scenario of us getting out of the river and having no idea where we were! But lo and behold, we saw a wooden post that said “Get out here”. We climbed out of the river and walked along the grass for a couple yards when we saw a familiar object: Our truck! We were so thrilled that the float worked and spit us out practically right where we started, so we hopped back in our tubes and did it a second time. Maybe we’re just easily entertained, but this little float experiment made this stop on our trip quite memorable! Unfortunately, we didn’t get to take any pictures on our float because we didn’t want to risk dropping our phones in the water!

Campsite 4: Mt. Hood Village RV Resort

The next morning, we got back on the road for our shortest drive, just two and a half hours to the Mt. Hood Village RV Resort in Welches, Oregon, which happened to also be part of our Thousand Trails membership so, once again, free camping. The campground was pretty large with multiple different camp areas, but the rigs were a little more tightly spaced. The scenery was beautiful though being all through the forest with wild black berry bushes all around with the nearby Salmon River. This campground also had a very large, nice lounge area, workout room, and large swimming pool with an indoor spa.

It was all very nice, but this stop was where we planned to finally be visiting my friend, Alex, with the newborn (the whole initial reason for this trip!), so we didn’t plan to spend a whole lot of time around camp over our 3 nights here. We set up camp and then drove 30 minutes into the town where Alex lived to see her for the first time in maybe 6-ish years!

Dustin and the kids came in for a little visit but then left to give me time to catch up with my middle school bestie. We sat on the couch as I held her new baby daughter and we talked like no time had passed at all. Meanwhile, Dustin and the kids went into town in search of an axe (because we didn’t have one and he wanted one) and eventually came back with pizza in tow for dinner!

Multnomah County Waterfalls

The next day, we decided to tour the famous Multnomah County waterfalls, just an hour away from our camp. We invited Alex and her family but understood they had a two-month-old and going on long hikes wasn’t ideal. We were, however, joined by Serenity, another friend that had been staying with Alex for a while and opted to join us on our hike. We decided against going to the famous Multnomah Falls, knowing it would be packed with other tourists, and also knowing you needed a parking permit in advance to go there. Plus, we could see it from the road and it looked just as it did in the many pictures and post cards I’m sure most people have seen with the waterfall behind the arching bridge. We didn’t feel we missed anything big by not going there.

Horsetail and Ponytail Falls

We drove a little further to hike Horsetail Falls, which ended up being coupled with Ponytail Falls so it was sort of a two-for-one deal! Ponytail Falls was very cool because you actually got to walk under the rock, behind the waterfall. The upper end of the trail has a lookout with a beautiful view of the Columbia River. It’s crazy to think on the other side of that river is a different state than where we were standing! But we didn’t step foot in Washington on this trip, even though it was so close we could see it!

Eventually the trail came to a bridge that crossed over the Oneonta Creek where you could follow it all the way back down to the road, or turn around and go back the way you came. We stepped down to the side of the bridge and explored a little ways along the Oneonta Creek. It was so serene and peaceful and led to another small waterfall streaming off the mountainside and a small swimming hole. The water was icy cold, but tasted so good and refreshing! We dipped our feet in and had a little snack before heading back out the way we came.

Wahclella Falls

We drove further down the road deciding which waterfall to hike to next. As it was getting to be the afternoon, the small parking lots were filling up quick and we had to pass up many hikes just due to lack of parking. We ended up going to Wahclella Falls, a 2.4 mile round trip hike. The hike was nice and the waterfall at the end was beautiful, but there was a lot of people scattered around the waterfall, some people even swimming in the freezing water, and so we didn’t get the super serene, peaceful vibe like we had near the Oneonta Creek. I think we all preferred Horsetail Falls over this one, but we weren’t disappointed to do both!

On our way back to the truck, we picked a lot of wild black berries along the roadside. We couldn’t get enough of these sweet, fresh berries and literally picked them every chance we got. On our way back into town, we decided to make a surprise visit to my uncle since he wasn’t far and popped by for a quick hello.

Oregon Zoo and Washington Square Mall

The next day we thought we’d tour the city a bit and visited the Oregon Zoo. They happened to have a baby elephant there at the time, so that was fun! The kids always love going to the zoo. After the zoo, we went to the Washington Square Mall in Tigard to surprise the kids with the Lego Store. They are obsessed with Legos and were so excited to get a new set to build. We meandered around the mall for a bit, eventually getting some ice cream before heading out. We stopped back at Alex’s house for another, final visit before heading back to camp for our last night.

Hidden Trail and the Salmon River

Once we were back at camp, Dustin and I decided to go for a ride, me on my bike, Dustin on his One Wheel, around the campground. We discovered a hidden trail through one of the campsites that was so cool we had to go back to get the kids! They joined us on their bikes and we all took off for this trail. It was still daytime and the sun was shining, but this trail was in such a dense forest that it was dark inside. We were surrounded by trees and everything green: ferns, moss, ivy, trees, and bushes. It felt like a scene right out of Jurassic Park!

The trail winded, up and down, through the trees until we found a segway that led out to the Salmon River. We parked our bikes (and One Wheel) and walked along the river where we spotted some crawdads and did a little rock hopping around the water. Then we got back on our bikes and started heading back to camp when we saw a sign for an underwater viewing area. We decided to check it out and were surprised to find, in the middle of the forest, a man-made viewing area that allows you to see the wildlife under the surface of the Salmon River! It was like a little mini aquarium! There wasn’t a whole lot of action happening underwater at the time, but it was still a very cool and unexpected find. We rode back to camp and had a relaxing last night.

Campsite 5: Diamond Lake Campground

We had made it to the northern end of Oregon, visited friends, and now it was time to start our trek back towards home. But our trip was not over! We still had many adventures planned for the trip home, starting with our next stop: Diamond Lake. On this leg of the trip, Serenity, originally from California and planning to head home anyway, decided to join us at Diamond Lake and take part in our adventures over the next couple of days before making the rest of the drive home. The boys were so excited to have a guest stay with us!

The campground was very spread out, not a lot of other campers, and we were right on the lake. It was beautiful! Honestly, every stop on our trip thus far had been great and we weren’t disappointed with any of them! As usual, after setting up camp, we did a little exploring of the campground and went for a bike ride down the road to the nearby convenience store and back. We finished the day with collecting wild flowers, reading, and chopping wood (with Dustin’s new axe), since there was an abundance of stump rounds around the campsite! We enjoyed a BBQ dinner and roasted individual berry pies with our wolf’em sticks around the campfire.

Crater Lake National Park

Our first big adventure in this part of Oregon was to check out Crater Lake, and I am glad we did! It was only later that I found out it was the last summer it would be open to get down to the lake before they do some renovations on the trail. We drove to the Rim Visitor Center and toured around the Crater Lake Lodge, once again getting the kids a Junior Park Ranger booklet. This would be the fourth badge they earned this trip! There were a lot of hikes to choose from and had we been able to stay longer (or not had the kids with us the whole time) we might’ve opted to explore more and do many of the hikes, but since we only planned to be here the one day, we wanted to hike down to the water.

Cleetwood Cove Trail

We drove down the road and parked outside of the trailhead to Cleetwood Cove. Immediately upon getting out of the truck, we were amazed to see so many monarch butterflies flying all around us! Well, most of us were amazed. Jax, our oldest son, is not a fan of bugs and was not at all amused by the deathly, hideous butterflies circling him. Colten on the other hand, our youngest son, was in heaven! That was until he noticed a lot were getting hit by cars or laying dead in the road. I had to keep reminding him that we couldn’t save them all.

We finally made it to the trailhead and continued to walk the mile down the mountain, a 700 foot descent, down to the water. There were many, many people on this trail and around the rocks lining the shoreline at the bottom. We spent a little time finding an open spot to lay down our clothes and dip into the water. The water was so, so cold, but we were determined not to come all the way down here and not swim in Crater Lake! We finally plunged in and swam the lake. It’s hard to explain, but the water felt so good and clean! It was very different than swimming in any other lake and the coldness wasn’t an issue for long. It soon felt very refreshing. We all swam for a bit and then had a snack on the rocks before climbing back up to the top of the mountain, past the butterflies, and back to our camp at Diamond Lake.

Umpqua Natural Hot Springs

The next day, we drove into the Umpqua National Forest to the Natural Hot Springs. It was a fun, short little trail that led to these really neat little pools of natural hot springs. There were a few other people in the pools when we got there but it wasn’t overly crowded (yet). It felt so weird to be in the middle of the forest climbing into what felt like a hot tub! The water felt nice and warm, but they were not at all clean feeling. The water was murky and muddy and the kids weren’t too crazy about that.

We walked down the hillside to the lower pool that was right next to the North Umpqua River. We decided to do a little more exploring instead of just stopping at the hot springs like most people do. We crossed the river to the other side- something that proved to be more challenging than it looked because the water was so freezing cold that by the time we reached the other side our feet and legs hurt with icy numbness! But it was worth it, because we found a neat little waterfall on the other side that was tucked behind trees and streaming down the mossy mountainside. We all took a drink from the fresh falling water before crossing back through the icy water and back up to the hot springs, which by this point, had many more people in them!

Clearwater Falls

On our way back towards camp, we saw another sign for Clearwater Falls and took a little detour to check it out.  Even though this waterfall didn’t come up as a popular hit on my google search, it was just as beautiful as any of the other waterfalls we hiked to in Oregon. Also being lesser known, there was no one else around this waterfall which made the scene that much more peaceful. There were fallen tree trunks spanning across the fall and most were covered in moss. We walked above the falls where the water was much more gentle and formed a shallow pool. Poor Jax fell into the icy water while attempting to cross on a fallen log. Luckily the water was shallow, but again, so cold it was painful! We noted campsites in the area and thought this would be a really cool area to camp in, right near the waterfall!

Firewood and Forty-nine Dollars

On our last evening back at camp, we had A TON of firewood. Let’s just say all the boys were excited to use the new axe and went a little overboard with chopping wood. So, we told the kids they could go around to the other campers that were here and see if anyone wanted any. So, Dustin took a nap, and the kids, Serenity, and I all carried some bundles of wood and walked around to the other campsites offering firewood and accepting donations. Some people didn’t want any, some paid $5 and some even paid $10. The boys only asked for donations and knew it was possible to receive nothing in return. We were just happy to disperse most of the wood. After about an hour, the kids were so excited to tell Daddy that they made $49 selling the wood! I kept $1 as a Mom tax fee for carrying the wood so that they could split the profits evenly. They surprised us all when they came out and handed Serenity $4 ($2 from each of them) for walking around with them and helping to carry the wood. They must’ve really enjoyed having her company! They became little entrepreneurs at Diamond Lake Campground and it’s definitely something they will remember for a while.

Trees of Mystery

Serenity left the next morning and it was time for us too to head back to our home state and leave the beautiful state of Oregon. Our next campsite was a little over 4 hours away. We decided to make a stop just a little before our camp at the Trees of Mystery in Klamath, California. It was definitely our more expensive adventure of the trip, being almost $100 for admission for all of us, but it was one of the kids most favorite parts and hard to pass up when we were right there in the area. The path was well maintained and had so many wood carved creatures and interesting looking trees. The coolest part was the Canopy trail where you actually got to walk on suspended bridges 50-100 feet high in the trees. We also rode the gondola on the Skytrail which was cool because the kids had never been in a gondola before. Just the site of the trees that were hundreds, maybe even thousands of years old, was just amazing and humbling to be in their presence. It was well worth the stop.

Campsite 6: Heart of the Redwoods Campground

Our next campsite was just another 30 minutes past the Trees of Mystery. This was the first site on our whole trip that we were not crazy about, but I chose this location because it was a good driving distance, being not overly far, and it was close to Fern Canyon, which I was very excited to check out! Plus, there just wasn’t a lot of campgrounds available in this whole area on the coast. We pulled off of 101 and onto the campground. The 6-acre property sunk a little lower than the highway and was surrounded by black berry bushes along the highway side (and yes, we picked a bunch again!) and Prairie Creek on the other side. The campground was fairly small, only allowing a handful of RVs (full hook up) along with a couple cottages and vacation homes. There wasn’t much area to explore being that we were right off the highway on one side, but on the creek side, Dustin decided to pull out the fishing poles again and give it a shot! Him and the boys were able to catch a few small fish before we settled in with some card games for the night.

Fern Canyon

Our last big adventure of the trip was one I was most excited about! When researching fun areas to explore, I came across Fern Canyon, a 1-mile loop trail with 50-foot walls covered in ferns and moss. The trail alone looked beautiful, but then I also read that it was a filming location for one of the Jurassic Park movies, which my kids love, so I was super excited to surprise them with that. Upon further research of the canyon, I learned that you needed a permit to access the trail and that the trail was often times wet, so I made sure to reserve the permit ahead of time and purchase us all water shoes to hike through the canyon with.

The access to the canyon is right off 101 (and was actually the very next turn from our campsite), but then it takes a winding dirt road for 7 miles before you reach the parking area for the trailhead, so even though the trail was very close, it still took us about 30 minutes to drive there. The trail starts out walking through the forest on a well-maintained path and, though still a beautiful green forest, looks pretty similar to other hikes through the woods. But then, as you get to the canyon part, wow! It’s like you’re walking through a creek bed, with water in some areas and dry rock bed in others, and the walls just tower above you and are covered with beautiful lush green ferns!

As we walked through, there was some fog and a few fallen tree branches and I could definitely picture it as the landscape for Jurassic Park. We were so glad to have our water shoes because, even though a lot of the areas had wooden boards or logs to walk across the water, being able to just walk right through the creek was a lot of fun! This hike was like no other hike we’d ever been on and we all would’ve loved for it to last longer than a mile. We tried to take it as long as we could go, even venturing the overgrown part of the trail where most people turn around and loop back out at, but eventually it became evident that we were no longer on a trail and just attempting to trek through the creek and forest.

So, we were forced to turn back, which we had the option to go up and out of the canyon to loop back through the forest, or head back the way we came through the canyon. We opted to walk back through the canyon because it was just way too cool to pass up! The whole Fern Canyon outing only took about two and a half hours so we were back to camp before noon and spent the rest of the day exploring the Prairie Creek and other trails around our campsite.

Campsite 7: Lake Minden

By this point in our trip, we were all feeling pretty down knowing it was coming to an end. I had no more adventures planned and it was pretty much just the drive home that was left to do. We were still a little ways away from home so we couldn’t make it in one day and drove to another Thousand Trails campground called Lake Minden in Nicolaus, California.

Calling this body of water at the campground a lake was a bit misleading. It was more like a manmade swamp. It was almost 100 degrees outside when we arrived so we tried to go swimming in the “lake” but the lake floor felt like slimy mush squishing between our toes and the water was so murky and dirty that we didn’t last long. Instead, the kids played around the sprinklers for a while before we rented some golf clubs and played a round of mini golf while our clothes were in the laundry.

A nice staff member noticed us outside trying to stay cool in the sprinklers and brought out otter pops for all of us, which was very nice. We still had two days before we needed to be back home, but felt this campsite didn’t have much to offer us and was way too hot to enjoy the next day, so we only stayed the one night and made our final drive back to Santa Maria, thus ending our road trip. 

Trip Reflection

Our trip overall, we all agreed was amazing. We loved almost every bit of it, up until the end, and none of us wanted to go home. When I was planning it, I thought it was going to feel very rushed and busy because we would be driving a lot and only staying a few nights and had adventures planned every day. But to our surprise, for the most part it didn’t feel that way at all! Because we really only had one major adventure planned each day, it gave us all day to do it! We took our time in the mornings, ventured out of camp whenever we felt ready, took as long as we wanted doing whatever it was we were doing, and then came back to again, do whatever we wanted to do.

Because it was the summer time, it didn’t get dark until after 8:00 pm so we found ourselves having late nights around the campfire and just soaking everything in. The days felt long, full, and rewarding, not overly busy. Nearly every campsite we stayed at was a shot in the dark while planning, but proved to be so amazing and we found something (sometimes multiple things) to love about each one.

If we could do this trip again, which we probably will, I would love to be able to do it without a timeline. Because Dustin was still working, it really limited how long we could be out and we had to pass up on a lot of areas we would’ve loved to explore had we had more time to do it.

From our very first stop in Lotus, California at the Ponderosa Thousand Trails, because we spent the day visiting with family, we really didn’t get to explore the area at all. I would definitely spend a couple more nights there and tour around the town and wilderness.

We could’ve easily spent two or three more full days exploring the different trails at the Lassen Volcanic National Park, and we all would’ve welcomed staying longer at Cave Campground.

Our stay at Bend-Sunriver, was always just meant to be a laundry and food refresh stop, so we didn’t plan any adventures there, but so many people at the campground were recommending we check out all these nearby places. We would definitely have full days of exploring nearby lava tubes, Paulina Peak, and the many rivers and trail systems in the area.

Crater Lake was another location with so many different hiking trails that we didn’t get to experience and could easily be explored over multiple days if you’ve got the time. Diamond Lake was so beautiful, we would’ve happily stayed longer, and we would’ve loved to bring our tubes out to float on the lake.

One of the areas I would’ve loved to spend more time in was the California Redwoods. We got to go through the Trees of Mystery and Fern Canyon, but we missed the entire Redwoods National Park! Being in the presence of those huge, ancient trees was truly humbling and we would’ve loved to walk through them and spend some time in their woods. We will definitely be back there again someday when we have the time to appreciate them.

Overall, our trip was not a disappointment from all the things we didn’t get to do. It was amazing for all the things we did get to do and only made us want to do more of it! It opened our eyes even more to just how many beautiful places there are in the world, and so many within just a few miles of our reach! It made us resent even more having to go back to “life” of sitting in meetings at work or mowing your lawn on the weekends and all the regular life obligations that hold such little value in our hearts, but take up so much of our time. Every time we go on trips like this, we never want to come home. This trip was so amazing and worth it and further proved to us that working towards this life of full-time RVing, raising our kids on the road, having these experiences over things, and just being together and going through life together as a family, is where we truly want to be.