After Klamath Falls our next destination was Lava Beds National Monument.
Unique is the best way to describe this National Monument. We have seen a lot of various lava places. On our ride here from Klamath Falls, OR we were treated to a ring necked pheasant flying right across the road in front of us. Now we have seen these beautiful birds before but not like this.
Just before reaching the Visitor Center that was apparently just completed in 2004 we had two mule deer jump out in front of the coach and right behind them was a rabbit.
At the campground we found an abundance of scrub jays and ravens so we knew this was going to be a fun visit. The jays are such curious birds and the ravens make a funny noise. The American robins were here too which surprised us in this desert of lava rock. I had thought their main diet was earthworms but guess they eat berries too and insects and there are a lot of juniper berries here.
Our first visit here in 2001 we explored all the caves in the park so this time we took a drive out to Tule Lake to the Wildlife refuge. This doesn’t look like much because of the farming around the lake but after spending several hours along a gravel road that went several miles we had a good view of this area. Mainly we saw coots with a good number of white pelicans and western grebes. Ducks too numerous to name and the white faced ibis which we have only seen one other time in Florida. A few hawks were scared out of their tree but the water.
This area is a “shared” community. The farmers are allowed to farm here but they are required to leave part of their harvest for the wildlife! It’s a great concept and seems to work well. This is a HUGE stopping ground for migrating birds in the Spring and Fall. I would love to see all those baby white pelicans but you can’t have everything. Ha!
We did hike up to the top of Schonchin Butte which is about 0.7 mi. of a very steep trail that is a fire lookout station on top. The CCC built the trail and then hand carried all the needed supplies to build the lookout station! Imagine having to do that?! It was a lovely day and we were able to get a pretty view of Mount Shasta from there so especially made the trip worthwhile.
Just before reaching the Visitor Center that was apparently just completed in 2004 we had two mule deer jump out in front of the coach and right behind them was a rabbit.
At the campground we found an abundance of scrub jays and ravens so we knew this was going to be a fun visit. The jays are such curious birds and the ravens make a funny noise. The American robins were here too which surprised us in this desert of lava rock. I had thought their main diet was earthworms but guess they eat berries too and insects and there are a lot of juniper berries here.
Our first visit here in 2001 we explored all the caves in the park so this time we took a drive out to Tule Lake to the Wildlife refuge. This doesn’t look like much because of the farming around the lake but after spending several hours along a gravel road that went several miles we had a good view of this area. Mainly we saw coots with a good number of white pelicans and western grebes. Ducks too numerous to name and the white faced ibis which we have only seen one other time in Florida. A few hawks were scared out of their tree but the water.
This area is a “shared” community. The farmers are allowed to farm here but they are required to leave part of their harvest for the wildlife! It’s a great concept and seems to work well. This is a HUGE stopping ground for migrating birds in the Spring and Fall. I would love to see all those baby white pelicans but you can’t have everything. Ha!
We did hike up to the top of Schonchin Butte which is about 0.7 mi. of a very steep trail that is a fire lookout station on top. The CCC built the trail and then hand carried all the needed supplies to build the lookout station! Imagine having to do that?! It was a lovely day and we were able to get a pretty view of Mount Shasta from there so especially made the trip worthwhile.
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