This is the trip for today:
So, after a short trip, I arrived the entrance of the Mt. Lassen Natural Park, and felt happy to see I was starting to make use of my US National Park Annual Pass and didn’t have to pay the $15 entry fee at the kiosk, although there was no guard present and nobody checked anything anyway, so I assume most people probably weren’t paying…
There was a sign at the entrance of the park informing the road was closed 15 miles further, so I went to the visitor center and asked if there was a way to cross the park to go down to Chester on the other side, and the guide present answered that no, I’d have to go around the park for that. Yet I was there, so I decided to go and see the view of Mt. Lassen, which was open.
After a ride that seemed to last an eternity, despite being just a dozen miles or so, and the fear – again – to meet a bear somewhere on the deserted road – just a few visitors were there – I finally reached the parking at the end of the road, and could appreciate the view of Mt. Lassen, unfortunately a bit foggy at the top:
After returning to the entrance, I took the highway around the park in direction of Chester, with lots of pines and another view of Mt. Lassen.
Continuing, I traversed various landscapes, all with their own charm,
I even made a quick attempt to some light off-road to get a better view of a lake, a bit before reaching Reno:
Reno didn’t seem very attractive to me, and the hotel I stayed at, Sands Regency, relatively cheap, was just an old hotel on top on a casino full of people that seemed to believe their lucky day was close – mostly old and poor people from what I saw… I rode a bit through the main streets of downtown Reno, then stopped at a Starbucks, but unconvinced came back to my hotel room for a night of sleep – with the unfortunate smell of cigarette smoke (I didn’t chose the room, I just took the cheapest and I suppose it was a smoker one).
