June 27, 2010 / Amy Lucas Photography

Truckee, CA – Redding, CA

Today’s Highlights: Donner Pass and Lassen Volcanic National Park.

Since yesterday was such a long day, we decided to have a nice shot day today so we could catch up on our rest. We started out heading North on 89 where we went by Donner Pass. We stopped and checked out some of the memorials and then headed off to Lassen Volcanic National Park. We continued on 89 North into Lassen. Unfortunately, it was closed due to 108 inches of snow on the road. SInce we couldn’t follow 89 through Lassen we asked the park rangers the best way to get to 44 West. They were nice enough to give us a handy map and told us some back roads that would get us there quicker. So we went back down 89, turned right onto Lanes Valley Rd, turned right onto 86 and then turned left onto Wildcat/Black Butte Rd. Although these roads took us a little while to get through they were really pretty and fun to drive through. There was this one hill that we went over, that you couldn’t even see the other side until you were RIGHT on top of it. It was such a steep grade! The only downfall was that it was 106 degrees and I was getting pretty hot and tired. We eventually made it to 44 West which led us to Redding where we went up interstate 5 North 2 exits to our hotel.

Dad had been feeling pretty awful since we got to Lassen. He had an awful sore throat and ear ache. So once we got to our hotel, I looked up some walk in clinics and found one that was open. We went over there and found out that he has an ear infection. The doctor wrote out some prescriptions and we drove around looking for a pharmacy that was open. We found a 24 hour Walgreens and got them filled. Since we were out and about we went out to dinner and eventually made it back to the hotel.