On the road

The 9 hour drive from Florence, OR, to Reno, NV, could easily become 11 hours if I would stop at all the places where it is beautiful. Unfortunately there is rarely a good place to stop. I wish I could fix my camera on top of my car and just press the button whenever needed.
The morning drive along my favorite majestic Umqua river was a symphony in silver, grey, white and very dark green. Low hanging clouds between the pine tree ridges, the river a silver mirror of trees, bridges and impressive rock borders. A little more inland , between Elkton and Sutherland, the landscape was lying in the sun and looked like the old fashioned "Voralpen Bauern Landschaft Bilderbuch" - children's picture book landscape with little green hills, beautiful farmhouses, the trees full od these delightful light fresh green leaves, barns, sheep etc. Nearly no cars nor people. This pittoresque landscape continues until the road hits the Klamath river, where we always enjoy a great rest area, long walk along the river, in the sun. Then the rain started and forced me to concentrate on the driving. It is a very winding road through the mountains north of Medforth which normally opens a view upon the first volcanoes of the trip but not this time. The climb over the pass south of Ashland was wet and grey, but on the other side of the pass I was in California, the sun was out again and beautiful wide landscapes begged to be photographed. Green, wide and mountains and volcanoes in the distance. I often wonder how it must feel to live alone so far out with such views.
Thanks to my little radar trap warner I was a lot faster than the allowed 65 miles per hour.
After passing Mount Shasta I left the I 5 for the 89 and drove for 2 hours past my beloved little lumber town McCloud, through dark pine forest, only alternated by big open flats that always make me think that the only thing missing there would be a couple of Indian tents.
Towards Susanville you can all of a sudden overlook the enormous valley that opens up , showing the town and the surrounding rural areas. It's so beautiful.
From there it's the 395 that takes us into Nevada and the dry climate shows . Big flats again, this time not surrounded by forests but by naked rocks and mountains. Only alongside the road there are some old trees, again with the new leaves, some little farmhouses, one big ranch which is where I took this picture. 40 minutes later I was home in Reno.
I was only once visited by a state police car, when standing aside the road. When he saw me fiddling with my camera, he just wished me luck. :-)

Thank you very much for your kind comments, stars and hearts. Made me happy! And sorry for my more than occasional commenting and visiting of your journal. I enjoy your pics, leave stars often but don't have enough time to comment as much as I would like.