Next we headed on down scenic routes 299 and 3 through the mountains. We stopped in Weaverville, CA for lunch at a local diner. The food was OK. They also had a museum with an old sawmill that was still operational. The town was very nice and made you feel like you were in Smalltown America.
We ended up in Weed, CA at the end of the day. On the drive in to weed, Mt. Shasta loomed in the distance. I had seen plenty of 14’ers in my day, but not one that was all by itself looming up from a base of about 2000 feet. From that perspective, it was very impressive looking.
We drove on over to the town of Mt. Shasta for supper. We at at a place called the Goat Tavern. It reminded Wendy and I of Outback Pizza, which was a place we used to eat at in Taos, NM when we worked at Philmont. The food wasn’t that great though. I ordered a burger called “The Best Burger Ever”. I’d say it was mediocre at best, but the bacon on the burger was nice and thick. The table was way too short for eating at, even for Wendy. I wanted dessert, and they didn’t have much to choose from for dessert. We decided to try the Black Bear Diner for dessert. There is one of these diners where we live in Sandy, but this one is supposed to be the original. In an interesting turn of fate, every town we went through seemed to have one of these diners. We tried the one in our town a while back, and were not impressed. So we weren’t looking forward to eating at any of the others.
I have to say, the people in this town are interesting. Some rather origional fashion statements were made, and then there was the Barney Fife Sherrif’s deputy we talked to at the diner. Wow, really entertaining. The colors on Shasta from the setting sun were really pretty that night.
Next morning, we headed back to Mt. Shasta for breakfast. We had brought cereal and fruit with us and had eaten that every morning, but I was ready for something different. We ate at a little restaurant called Lily’s. It was pretty good. Probably the best food experience of the whole trip. From there we headed up Mt. Shasta. Once again the snow was an issue and we were only able to drive part way up the road. It was a pretty drive and we got to see some nice scenery.
Next we headed off to see some waterfalls that the visitor center in Mt. Shasta had told us about. There were three of them along this little river. They were pretty impressive. I’m sure the additional water from the Spring runoff helped.
One of the places where we parked to go look at the falls, when we got back to the car some guy was walking past us and the car. He had double parked behind us. Thankfully, Wendy noticed it as he was walking by us and he moved his car at our request. What, does this guy think he’s in Manhatten where you can just double park and get away with it? There were even empty parking spaces in the lot. I have to say, the CA drivers were some of the dumbest people I’ve yet to run into. Must be why they were dumb enough to elect the waste of space that is Nancy Pelosi into office. How in the world this state houses great minds like those at Facebook, Google, and Apple is beyond me.
From there we headed back to Lassen NP, but to the other side of the park. It wasn’t as pretty as the first side we visited. We were able to drive up to the area where Lassen had erupted and the mudslides had taken everything out. That was back in 1915, so trees have started coming back up, but it was just not as scenic as the other side of the park.
We then headed back towards a place outside of the park where there was an underground lava tube. It was about 1/3 of a mile long and was open for the public to walk through it. It was like being in a cave. It was at about 45 degrees temperature which felt great.
That was the last of our sights to see as we began our drive back towards UT. We spent that night in Susanville. It was not an impressive town. The hotel was ok, but the choices of restaurants were very slim. We decided on this little diner called Heart’s Cafe. It’s hard for me to believe this place remains open. Wendy and I both ordered pot roast which was bland and not exciting at all. The menu claimed it was a “old family recipe”. If your recipe is to cook beef with no seasoning and serve it, then you family needs a new recipe .The vegetables were all canned without even so much as salt or pepper, the mashed potatoes were instant, and the gravy was definitely from a “just add water” package. I don’t know how you can plate a salad which consists of iceberg lettuce and squares of toast for crutons, but they did. The desserts were good, but how can you mess up a milkshake and a sundea? In all, I was surprised when they handed me the reciept for $45 with tip. I’ve eaten some meals at that price and I can tell you, this meal didn’t deserve a $20 price tag. As Wendy and I both decided, a restaurant shouldn’t serve food that is worse than what you can make yourself at home.
The last day, we drove all the way back to Salt Lake City. In all, we drove 1810 miles. We were afraid we would miss the fireworks for the 4th of July, but we made it back into town around 8PM. We grabbed some supper, dropped off our luggage at the house, and then went up to the trailhead for Bell’s Canyon to watch the fireworks. Not long after we got up there, around 9PM, we started seeing fireworks going off. It was a great show from up there. We could see the whole South side of the valley. There seemed to be more shows than there were towns. We found out from our neighbors that they decided to allow the big arial fireworks to be sold to the public this year. It was quite the show. It finished up with us watching the Sandy show from up there.
We had a great trip. Wendy and I really enjoyed getting to spend some time together. Our experience with dining on this trip was abysmal, but the nice scenery made up for it. We would like to go back some day to explore more of Lassen.
Pictures are here.