After the small gas issue of Sunday morning (that is, running out of gas) it was a big relief to get gas, not have the turd roll over on top of us (it was parked on a bit of an angle by the side of the road) and finally make it to the tiny village of Tionesta (population 28) and the RV park.
It was a bit disconcerting to be told that there was no gas within 20 miles (and that they only took cash or cheque) so we had to do a little road trip back over the Oregon border to get both.
On the way back from Oregon for the second time that day we stopped at the "Petroglyph Area" of the Lava Beds National Monument. I don't know about you but I had no idea what a petroglyph was until a couple of days ago - and for those not in the know - it's basically a fancy name for a rock carving.
The petroglyph area is a giant rock that used to be an island in the middle of a lake, before someone had the bright idea to drain it for agriculture. Never mind.
Carved around the base of the rock are various symbols and such, thought to have been left there by the American Indians of the area between 4500 and 2500 years ago.
There's also plenty of graffiti, but strangely some has now become part of the history of the rock itself, as it was carved by Japanese people when they were interned here in camps during the Second World War.
Apparently nobody knows what the symbols mean - they might be ancient graffiti for all we know.
It's a really large rock, and we climbed to the top.
I thought I was going to have to have a little lie-down when we got there.
Looks like my conquest of Everest is going to have to wait until next week.
There are many birds that inhabit the rock, from the little swifts that next on the rock face, to eagles and owls. If you look closely around the base of the rock, you can see little bones of unfortunate rodents that have been consumed.
I thought this was an interesting contrast to the ancient Chinese art we saw of similar ages - I wonder if the sophistication of your art is a reflection of the sophistication of your culture.
But look what happened to the brothers since, bowl-hair cuts, red dye and big wings on crappy cars. The fall from grace is complete.
The RV park here is kind of out of the way I guess, but it's very peaceful. These little fellas aren't poisonous thankfully.
It was quite nice to be making my previous blog update while the sunset looked like this:
This is a turkey vulture sitting in a tree. Do not be fooled by its diminutive appearance in this photograph. This bad boy has a wing span of up to 1.8m according to the oracle, Wikipedia - and let me tell you when they're quite close they look massive. Good thing they only eat dead things. Bad thing is when Kat tells me to go pretend I'm dead.
Monday - Caving, Driving
Not surprisingly the focus of our first full day here at the Lava Beds was to explore some of the lava tube caves. As you might imagine it's pretty darn hard to take a photo in the pitch black.
But Kat gave it a go anyway. It was very cool (literally and metaphorically) in the caves, and a bit scary too.
Some are massive, but some get really small very quickly and branch off in many different directions. It's again hard to describe how strange the landscape is, especially underground.
Some parts look like rock-ropes, some look like rock-frosting on a rock-cake. There are strange golden bacteria on the ceilings that glimmer in the torch light.
It's also hard to imagine how much lava was flowing, and hard to imagine what lava looks like as it flows. If you can explain "thixotropy" or "shear thinning" to me, then you'll get a prize.
This is the Skull Cave - so named because there's a whole bunch of animal skeletons in it, along with two human ones also - this cave is also the home to a permanent floor of ice as it never gets above freezing in the bowels of it. Apparently you used to be able to see several feet into the ice because it was so clear, now you can't walk on the ice because it's all messed up. Still it was certainly cold and a bit eerie, there were a few bones still lying around.
Given the Jeep was built to be an off-road vehicle, we thought it was about time that it did some off-roading. So when presented with a dirt 4WD track that lead into the desert, we took it - and a few miles later arrived at the East Sand Butte.
Unfortunately the light wasn't great for feature/sky photos, but hey. The ground is small pebbles of pumice-like volcanic material, and the butte itself features strange stripes of yellow/orange/red colour.
I guess someone had been doin' some shootin' and drinkin' around here at some stage...
I'm pretty sure it wasn't this little fella though.
Unless ladybugs have developed arms technology while we were worried about the middle-east, I'm also sure we can rule this guy out as the cause as well:
In these next pictures you can see the colours that I refer to a little more clearly.
Except for the fact that I'd have to get up at 4AM, it would be great to shoot this site at sunrise. Then the rocks would be nicely lit up with the early morning light, and the sky would be a cool colour. Oh well, you'll just have to make do with a nice sky.
This is the sand butte viewed from the Jeep as we head back down the trail which would have taken us to the top. It was super steep and rocky, and I wasn't comfortable tackling it without someone with more experience there with me - another vehicle might have been a good idea too.
Another feature on the way back down.
Astonishingly in this rock-strewn desert, wildflowers grow.
The Jeep, at home on the range.
That's all folks!
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