Category Archives: RV camping

13 – 16 Nov RV outing to Yanks in Greenfield CA

On Thursday Nov 13 we piled Suzette (the cat), Molly (the dog), Tico (the parrot) and us into Nellie the Navion and drove about 2 hours south to Greenfield CA for a planned outing with the Lone Cyprus Winnitascins RV club at Yanks RV park, located next to us 101.

The RV park is a newly created, beautifully designed and impeccably groomed, although somewhat spartan looking because the plentiful trees are still young.  The park sits among acres of flat farmland between the mountain ranges hemming in the Salinas Valley.  The Yanks RV park is the first stage of an ambitious plan to build a destination resort with an aviation museum as the centerpiece.

Thursday evening we joined the club for diner at the Windmill Restaurant in near-by Soledad. The restaurant was near empty except for the the LCW group of about 40, but everyone agreed that the food was delicious and the service excellent.  Another night we grilled our own choice of meat & enjoyed a pot-luck choice of dishes at the spacious Yanks club house.

On Friday afternoon we drove Nellie to near-by Pinnacles National Park (until recently a National Monument) via CA 146 to the western entrance.  We hiked along the Balconies Caves trail to the cave and look some pictures.  The unusual rock formations are the key ingredient to the park.  John climbed into and through the cave while Jessie waited outside.  The trail to the cave was easy, but the cave itself was not easy to get into or out of and definitely needed a flash light in the interior.  The “Talus” cave is formed by boulders & rock jammed atop a narrow canyon.  It is home to Townsend’s big-eared bats but none were seen.

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11 – 14 September 2014 Lone Cypress Winitascans outing, Gold Strike Village, San Andreas, Calaveras County, CA

22 LCW members were at this gathering in gold country. We were based at Gold Strike Village, which has a handy group site with a good club house and an “interesting” swimming pool (built into a hill next to the club house, which has a viewing window into the underwater deep end of the pool). For an outing, we traveled over to the Ironstone Winery in Murphys for a buffet dinner and silent movies (The Great Train Robbery and The General with Buster Keaton) with musical accompaniment on a huge, very versatile pipe organ.

On Saturday, John and I went over to BellaGrace vineyard in Plymouth to hang out at their open house and pick up my wine share.

Top to bottom: Open house at BellaGrace, BellaGrace vineyards, Gold Strike Village group area with club house, and pool view inside the club house.

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17-18 August 2014 Grass Valley, CA Nevada County Fairgrounds RV Park

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The Nevada County Fairgrounds has a great RV park. Lots of trees, a lake, and lots of Canada geese.

While here we looked at some real estate in Grass Valley. Very tempting. Great values (compared to the Bay Area) and a nice town with lots to do.

19 – 21 August 2014 Truckee, CA

We traveled from Grass Valley to our friend Cheryl’s home in Truckee by the scenic route – State routes 49 and 89. We stopped at the growers’ market in Nevada City at the start of the trip. Along the way there were many wondrous sights but one that was surprising was the Sierra Valley. We passed through Downieville, which looked intriguing and on the way home, we stopped there.

In Truckee, we had some great meals and good chats with Cheryl and a call to the other member of our travel book group, Gloria in Illinois. We took a hike – a short one since it was quite warm, visited Thunderbird Lodge on Tahoe’s east shore, and attended As You Like It at the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival. Two highlights of the trip were introducing Cheryl’s grandkids to Tico, the African Gray, and her grandson’s amazing dominos tricks.

On the way home, we once again took the scenic route and this time stopped in charming Downieville. A well known place to stop in Downieville is the wine store 49Wines. We intended to check it out briefly but ended up chatting for an hour and a half with the proprietor Will Clark who is a renowned host. We talked about wine and beer and oh so many more topics. John brought Molly the dog and Tico in and they joined in. And we got some great wine and beer recommendations.

16 August 2014 Canyon Creek Resort

We are at Canyon Creek Resort on Putah Creek near Lake Berryessa for two nights. This is a private park on Putah Creek at the bottom of a dam. Lots of families here and lots of fishing – catch and release – but not much catching perhaps because the water is so low. It’s quite pleasant here but quite warm (91 deg-F) so we lazing about.

We heard there was another African Gray in the park so we took a walk with Tico to find it. We found the site with the parrot but nobody home. We’ll probably do another try at finding the other parrot.

Here’s a photo of John and Tico on our walk and another showing the creek and the hill above it.

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07 July Mt Shasta City, CA Lake Siskiyou Campground

On our way through Oregon, we stopped at the Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area to watch Roosevelt  elk at the preserve near Reedsport. (photo below).

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Elk in reserve

Elk reserve, near Florence Oregon

As we traveled closer to home, we encountered 100-105 deg-F in Mt Shasta and environs. We stopped here because it is very wooded.

Lake Siskiyou, near Mt Shasta

Lake Siskiyou campground

 

06 July Florence, OR Heceta Beach RV Park

We stopped at the Lewis and Clark National Park near Astoria, OR representing the western-most end of the Corps of Discovery Expedition. We saw the start of the trip at River Dubois, IL on June 7 and a few years ago we visited the museum at the site of the first winter at Mandan ND.

Then we headed south on 101 and arrived in Florence at about 9 pm.  101 south along the Pacific Ocean coastline was not as flat as I had expected, and we encountered steep hills and dense forest along the way.  Also a lot of recently cut timber clearings along with stands of regrowing trees.

Can’t say much about the RV park since we got in late and left comparatively early and the area was shrouded in mist.

Photos from Lewis & Clark:

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05 July Hoquiam, WA Hoquiam River RV Park

Leaving Sequim early, we stopped for a stroll in Hurricane Ridge (around 6000 feet) area in Olympic National Park with views of mountains, glaciers, Canada (Vancouver Island), lots of wild flowers, and very tame deer but not Port Angeles (obscured by cloud).

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The “view” from Hurricane Ridge

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Curious deer on Hurricane Ridge

Old logging pier, Hoquian River

Old lumber operations, Hoquian River WA

Further on, on the west side of the peninsula, we ventured into the Hoh Rain Forest (sea level) area of the Park. Finally, we arrived at this very nice Hoquian River RV park with very kind owners, lots of people out and about, and a lovely path by the river.

Aside

With Nellie the RV queued at the Victoria-Port Angele’s ferry (conveniently located within the busy but efficient Victoria Harbor), we had time to visit the Royal BC Museum in Victoria which has great First Nations exhibits.  We need to come … Continue reading

02-03 July Ferry crossing, Weir’s Beach RV Park

We made the short drive from Capilano River RV to the Horseshoe Harbor for the ferry to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.  With the RV queued to board, we had time to stroll through the cute town & park of Horseshoe Harbor.

The ferry crossing itself was as smooth as silk.  The large ferry had a full bar and cafeteria-restaurant and was very full.  (See 04 July for comparison with the next ferry crossing.)

When we got off the ferry on Vancouver Island in Nanaimo, we headed south for Butchart Gardens, close to Victoria. (Note: originally we/me expected to camp near Nanaimo, but the delay in crossing dictated that we go directly towards Victoria. It would have been better to take the ferry that goes to Swartz Bay, but …)

We arrived at the Gardens around 7 pm, and were happy that it was open until 10pm (pretty empty at that time).  In a beautiful light late into the evening, we covered the park with Molly (Canada – at least AB and BC – is really dog friendly), and had a lovely dinner in the Dining Room outside on a porch listening to a jazzy group playing in the nearby performance area. IMG_6905

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We arrived at Weir’s Beach RV Resort after dusk – thanks to our GPS because it would have be very hard to find otherwise. Weir’s Beach is advertised as being in Victoria but the GPS says its in Metchosin BC, and we only found the address by “expanding” the GPS search area.  It was definitely a good pick with beachfront sites in a picturesque park, about 20 miles from Victoria, which you can see across the bay. We felt lucky to get space at such a great place on a long Canadian holiday weekend.

Weir's Beach RV, near Victoria

Beach at Weir’s Beach RV Resort

...she did not know what to do

Molly testing the waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca at Weir’s Beach. Victoria in the distance.

The next day we went whale watching on a zodiac-type boat out of Victoria harbor.  We saw orcas of course (we saw the L resident pod), seals and an immature humpback (we got quite close and all the other boats left so it was especially cool).

Going whale watching, Victoria

Geared up in survival suits for the whale watching tour.

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Orca’s! Close along shore.

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Happy sailors!

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More Orcas.

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Solo Humpback whale

A late lunch in Victoria followed by a short stroll around the city and back to our rolling home by the beach.  The evenings on the beach were very mild and the sun didn’t set until after 10p.  Many campers had fires and sat around in family groups until late.  Next day, the 4th, we headed to Victoria for the ferry to Port Angeles, but had time at the BC museum to see a fabulous exhibit on First Nation languages and other aspects. We were short on time – lots more to see there.