Eastern Sierras with Leila and Mike

Walker Ranch Recreation Area & Benton Hot Springs,

We spent the last 4 days going off grid and exploring some unique areas around the high desert. Our first stop was Walker Ranch Recreation Area, Nevada’s newest State Park. There’s not a lot of “there” there, but it always feels great to be out on the open road…and range. 

Of course the highlight of the trip was traveling with Leila and Mike.  We were appreciative of the great weather.  It was one of the those crystal clear fall days where everything is just so vibrant.

As usual, the journey was as fun as the destination.  We stopped by travertine hot springs and also explored the Mono Lake area.   No winds, sunny blue skies and warm weather.  Considering the storms we’ve had lately we couldn’t believe our luck with this weather! 

Picnic by the lake, walking around the tufas and learning about the history of Mono Lake and its shrinking shore line were the highlights of the day.  I highly recommend stopping by the County park and doing the boardwalk down to the lake.  It shows you the lake levels from 1941 until today.  The tufa walk along the Southern shore is fun too.

We hung out for several days at Benton Hot Springs, a favorite of ours.  The skies clouded up for one day, which made for great hot spring soaking.  We had a hot tub at our campsite so we didn’t venture much beyond there.  Early morning sunrises and late night soaks under the stars…heaven.

We brought our pizza oven and chef Ned did not disappoint!  We are still learning and fine tuning our technique.  Which explains…

The nine (small) pizzas we made!  What better way to experiment than practice, practice, practice.  p.s.  I have a ton of leftovers if anyone is interested.  

Good times with our buddies Mike and Leila!! 

Franklin Hot Springs, Paso Robles, CA

Franklin Hot Springs, Paso Robles, CA

Hard to believe that a little over a week ago I was staying at the very swanky Ojo Caliente and Ojo Santa Fe Hot Spring Resorts.  If they are the epitome of upscale resort soaking, this place is the polar opposite.  

A quick snapshot of the Ojo Santa Fe resort.  But I digress…

This place is much more…er rustic - perhaps even funky?  It’s situated on ranch land and consists of a rather large (perhaps olympic size) swimming pool that is very deep.  I couldn’t touch the bottom, Ned could. 

Within the pool are two more concrete tubs where hot mineral water is being pumped in.  The large pool is about 96 degrees the tubs are about 100. 

What attracted me here is that it’s about the halfway point to San Diego (Josh’s house) and one can camp here.  Okay, I’ll bite.  

We are camped in a dirt parking lot next to a small lake. There are maybe 6 or so other rather quirky vans with a hippie vibe. Grateful Dead music was quietly playing from one of the nearby campers.. The best part about this place is how nice everyone is! We were warmly greeted by several people.

 

As we were soaking in the pool, the owner who was a very friendly guy, pulled some shrimp off the bbq and brought us a plate.  I didn’t partake, but Ned seemed to really enjoy it.  Yes he dined “poolside”.  

There are some really cool people here. I enjoyed speaking with a woman, (originally from France) who is an art teacher in San Francisco.  She gave us some great ideas of projects to do with Maddy.  

We soaked for several hours, way past sunset.  There is another concrete hot tub between the large pool and the lake.  We had a great time just hanging out there too.  It was a titsch warmer, which definitely helped as the evening got a little cooler.

The great thing about nighttime (and twinkle lights) is that it definitely makes the place look more romantic than it is.  This building is the check-in/community room/bar/picnic area.

Actually, I’m really enjoying this place!  The people are so nice, the hot springs are just a few feet from our van, and the cost is about the same as renting out a robe at the swanky New Mexico resorts!  Looking forward to an early morning soak before we continue on our journey to San Diego.  

Annual Family Camping Trip

Wildcat Campground, Eastman Lake, CA

Annual Family Camping Trip.  We plan this trip 6 months in advance, locking down sites, booking pontoon boats and planning games.  3 days before meeting up our reservations were canceled and all California USFS campgrounds were closed due to the horrific fires happening in our state.  The chances of finding a last minutes campground, on Labor Day weekend, that had several sites together seemed pretty bleak.  But, alas!!! We took our chance on a US Army Corp of Engineer campground on a lake that was only 6% full.  

Hats off to the hearty team that decided to roll the dice on a hot campground with an iffy chance of being able to swim, with a warning of lots of rattle snakes and extreme heat. 

Turns out that it was an awesome campground (flush toilets, showers, well kept grounds) with just enough water for us to have a really great time.  

With the temperatures reaching into the high 90’s we made the most of floating and playing in the lake. 

Got in a round of disc golf.  Hats off to Christopher who patiently gave us lessons and tips. He was such an inspiration to watch. He finished the course -1 under par. Truly a thing of beauty to watch his disc soar.   Ned and I managed to tie with the highest scores (that’s not a good thing), Josh and Marlina had a pretty great battle down to the last hole and Bridget got better and better each hole.  

You’re never too old to play at the water park. 

Of course, what’s camping without some epic meals. Bev brought along the pie maker and the gang got pretty creative.  Here are some breakfast sandwiches made with naan bread and rolls, pastrami, cheese, egg and a TON of butter.  

Cutest breakfast crew EVER! 

Best vacations are just hanging with the fam.  

Love these kids!  

Favorite moments of the trip..Seeing Bev floating as the Unicorn Queen, playing games, 

learning disc golf, floating the days away and talking for hours and hours around the campfire.

Can’t wait til next year’s family trip!! 

P.S.  To the family members that tried really hard to join us, but were unable due to some challenging conditions - you were MISSED.  We can’t wait for the entire gang to ride again. 

Fallen Leaf Lake with Maddy

Fallen Leaf Lake, South Lake Tahoe, CA

This girl loves to go camping! We spent 3 days with Maddy at Fallen Leaf Lake and had so much fun. 

We hung out at the lake…

Went on several bike rides (thanks Baba for “going really fast”)

And went on some hikes too. 

The biggest excitement was when a bear and her cub visited our campsite! Maddy very enthusiastically clapped her hands and yelled “go away bear, go away!!”  She has us tell the bear story over and over and over.  She loves to act it out.  What a character. 

She loves sleeping, playing and goofing around in Wolfgang.  In this picture she was in the top bunk and yelling out the window, “I see people. Hi people me sleeping on top!!” 

Maddy’s doll also joined along on all the adventures. She named her baby, “DeeDeeDoeBagel”.  what???  Pretty funny when other campers would see her with her baby and ask her the name.  

Of course, there was absolutely no spoiling by grandparents. 

Looking forward to our next adventure with Miss Maddy Todd. 

Emerald Bay State Park, CA

Emerald Bay State Park, CA

We’ve spent the last two days playing around the southwestern shores of Tahoe. 


Here’s a view from our campground looking out over the opening of Emerald Bay.

When we left Sugar Pine SP, we still had some time before we could arrive at Emerald Bay SP. We passed by D.L. Bliss and the sign said beach parking was full. Because we had a state park pass on our windshield from camping the previous night, the ranger waved us through. (Good tip to know, when you pay for camping at a CA State Park, that pass is good for any CA State Park until sunset).  Just for the heck of it we drove all the way down to the beach (passing hordes of people carrying coolers and beach paraphernalia) and were able to nab a spot directly on the beach.  Originally, we were just going to scope out this area, but since the parking gods had smiled upon us we decided to spend the day at this sandy beach.  

It was super crowded, but the sandy beach and clear water felt like we were swimming in a pool. 

The smoke had been slowly drifting over to the west shore for most of the day, so we were quite delighted that the campground at Emerald Bay SP still had good visibility. Right after I took this picture a bald eagle soared by.  So beautiful.

Because we got this campsite as a last minute cancellation we didn’t know what to expect.  It was awesome!  It had a little terrace that you walked up to that overlooked the campground.  Great place for snacks and late afternoon adult libations. 

We even went for an evening swim in Emerald Bay! 

The bear activity at this park is out of control. We know the drill about using the bear lockers and storing all your food and we’ve encountered bear activity at other parks, but nothing like here!  Starting in the early evening you could repeatedly hear cars honking their horns, people beating pots and pans and yelling at the bear to scare it away. This kept up until after one in the morning.  I would drift off to sleep and then was startled awake with a neighbor on one side or the other making noise and chasing the bear away.  I’ve never been so happy that we sleep on the second floor!  Needless to say we didn’t sleep well the first night here.

We woke Saturday to a lot more smoke in the air and very little visibility.  So glad I was able to get some clear shots of Tahoe on the day before.  The last day of our vacation was spent doing pretty much what we’ve been doing everyday…swimming, snorkeling, reading, biking and eating.  Sounds like a pretty great vacation to me!  

We really enjoyed this sweet little cove at Emerald Bay.  Watching all the boats coming in and out of the bay was really fun.

Tomorrow we head back to Megan and Kevin’s. We’ve missed Maddy and Theo and are looking forward to hanging out with the munchkins.  Here’s hoping the bear decides to sleep tonight and not terrorize the campground. 

We haven’t plugged in once this trip. Having solar with a good fridge is so appreciated.  Thanks Wolfgang. 

Sugar Pine Point, Tahoe, CA

Sugar Pine Point State Park, Tahoe, CA

We headed down the west shore of Tahoe towards Sugar Pine Point. While we love Tahoe and it’s been a blast revisiting some of our favorite spots, this wasn’t our original plan. A few days before we headed out for our week vacation we were notified that our campsite at Grover Hot Springs had been cancelled due to the Tamarack Fire. Not wanting to drive near the fires, (circumventing the road closures) we also cancelled our Mammoth Lake camping spots. We lucked out by nabbing sites here and there along the shore at Tahoe. 

One of my favorite things to do at Sugar Pine is ride the bike paths that meander all through the park and along the entire west shore of Tahoe.

It wouldn’t be a true vacation at Tahoe unless it included lunch and epic people watching at Sunnyside.  

We spent the afternoon hanging out at the beach.  Much to our delight, it was so hot outside that the lake didn’t seem that cold…no really! 

We even did some snorkeling.  And while I didn’t see very much fish, I did manage to snag these…

…fancy sunglasses at the bottom of the lake. 

In case you’re wondering about the smokey conditions with all the fires, we’ve lucked out with blue skies.  Here’s a picture looking toward the south east shore. You can definitely see the smoke line in the sky. 

Another beautiful night sleeping under the pine trees.  

Donner State Park, CA

Donner State Park, CA

We’ve been coming to Donner for years. This is our go-to place. We’ve camped with family, friends, taken bike rides, swam, hiked and had crawfish feasts caught from the creek. I thought I knew this place.  Well, well look what we discovered this trip.

We’re at campsite #99.  It’s a HUGE site. Look behind Ned and you’ll see a split rail fence. Guess what’s behind the split rail fence? 

A little lake! We’ve hiked around this lake before, but in my mind it was located farther away from the campground. There was no one in sight. I asked the campground host if one could swim in this lake (I wanted to make sure it wasn’t a drainage ditch or an old toxic mining site, you never know around these here parts).  She assured me that it was great lake and people swim in it all the time.  Mind blown. 

So yep, that’s pretty much where we hung out the last couple of days and we had the place to ourselves! The water temperature was about 10 degrees warmer than Donner Lake too. What a bonus.  So fun to just read, take a dip a few steps away from our site and repeat. 

Really appreciate that we didn’t have to haul all our picnic supplies back to the campsite too. 

Or course we did manage to rally and get in some bike rides.  This park has so many fun trails to ride. 

We even did a ride around the lake (and some of those hills are no joke). 

We still went swimming and goofing around in the big creek.  The people watching is just too good to pass up.  So fun to watch people learning to paddle board, kayakers dodging the swimmers and kids jumping off rocks.  This state park is awesome and we so appreciate that it’s so close to home. 

One last picture…biking along a trail at dusk.  Great two days camping here.