Day Five
My 4 y/o daughter woke up early this morning which was a good thing since we wanted to leave a little early anyway to head to Burney Falls State Park and spend the day. The drive took a whole whopping five minutes to get to the main entrance from our RV park. This was kind of funny because my daughter said "Daddy, that wasn't very long, I didn't see much scenery this time". All I could do was laugh.
I spoke with the Park Ranger at the Entrance and she asked me "Are you overnight camping or Day use only?" I said just Day use. Now the price for day use is $8 so I already had a $10 bill ready. Just as I was handing it to her she said it is $16 so I asked why, your board says $8, she says for cars but your ride will take up two parking spaces so it is doubled. Well, this was one of those times I wished I had a tow vehicle to get around with easier and cheaper.
We proceeded and found an RV parking space at the Visitor Center so we parked and walked to the top view of the water falls. We walked the Falls Loop to the bottom of the falls and the temperature felt like it dropped about 10-15 degrees which was very refreshing. My daughter and I walked out on the rocks and touched the water and it was freezing and my daughter asked if she could swim in it. I was mesmorized by the beauty of the falls and feeling the cool breeze coming from them. We stayed at the bottom for about an hour just admiring the scenery all around us and relaxing. We finally started hiking again around the loop which led us over an arched bridge where we could see a little more of how long the water flows were. The hike going back up was not too rough which made me happy because I was just waiting for the moment my daughter would ask me to carry her on my shoulders. Fortunately she never asked, she hiked the entire trail and never slowed or complained, she was just having so much fun. The trail was 1.2 miles around. When we arrived back at the Visitor Center I noticed a sign next to the RV parking space which I was parked in that said "RV parking for Visitor Center only" (Well, I'm glad I learned to read finally). We drove through the park and finally decided to back into a campsite with a picnic table which are suppose to only be used by overnight campers not Day Use. Well, we stayed there for the next three hours to eat lunch, walk around the campgroun and hike another trail. I guess they don't really check the sites too much.
We finally left the Burney Falls State Park and drove to Burney to replenish some groceries and gas. The town has plenty of large parking spaces so I had no problem parking my rig anywhere in town. While pumping gas an older man pulled up next to me to get gas, when he arrived I was already pumping then he finished and I was still pumping. When he finished, he looked over at me and asked how many gallons of gas does that beast take, I kindly replied 55 sir. He just looked at me and said, "I'm glad its you and not me, I couldn't handle standing there waiting that long to fill up."
Well, we finally arrived back at the RV park and hooked up again and ate a nice bbq chicken dinner. We laid down with my daughter at 9pm and she was asleep by 9:05pm, she was knocked out from all the excitement.
Tomorrow we are planning to go to Lassen Volcanic National Park and check out some trails and the lava tubes, it sounds like another great fun filled day ahead. I need to get ready for bed myself, good night.