Alaska Part 6 - the Long Way Home
Finally, it was time to head back home. I spent the last 9 or so days of the trip working my way south thru Washington, Oregon and California, camping the first two nights in Washington at pretty, if not awe inspiring places in the Colville and Winatchee National Forests. Then I crossed into Oregon where I got a flat tire on the road next to the Columbia River. I managed to get a new set of tires put on the van in short order so that I could boondock that night near Mount Hood at an abandoned campground near Timothy Lake, on Shellrock Creek. Then I crossed the Cascade Mountains three times in two days, as one of the roads on the eastern side of the mountains turned out to be too rough for the van and I had to backtrack north and come down on the western side instead. I crossed thru McKenzie Pass and the Belknap Lava Fields to camp at a really nice, completely out of the way place called Skookum Creek on the western side of the Cascades. The next day I crossed the mountains yet again as I made my way to Interstate 99 and Crater Lake, before visiting the Rogue River Gorge and leaving Oregon. Then, finally back in California again after 5 weeks on the road, I boondocked on the Smith River and explored some real-estate near Crescent City before camping for a night in Redwood State Park where I went for a cool 14 mile bike ride. The last three nights of the trip were spent, respectively, at Lake Mendecino, in central California, then spending a night at the famous Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco, and finally visiting my old stomping grounds in Salinas and Monterey. I ended up the trip with a drive down California's famous Coast Highway with stops at Moro Rock and Santa Barbara before finally getting back home to San Diego after 42 adventurous days on the road! 
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