May
12, 2013
Acorn
Campground
New
Hogan Lake,
Valley
Springs, CA
We
were so tired last night we went to sleep early so we woke up early. Check-out
wasn’t until 11am but we were packed up and ready to go by 9:30.
I was really dreading the drive back up the
valley with all its hair-pin turns.
But
it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be and I’m guessing the traffic
was very light because it was early and Sunday.
I
usually know where we are going next because I research it but without WiFi
reception I wasn’t able to do that so we kind of winged it.
I knew we wanted to go in a northern
direction but we were told by the manager of the RV camp that the road leading
north, CA49 was not a desirable road to travel on with a 5th
wheel. So we had to take the same route
back that we had traveled to get to Yosemite.
When
we got to CA99 we went north and stopped in a Flying J for fuel. They had a Denny’s so we decided to take a
little break. We split a huge hamburger
and looked over the map for possible places to go.
When
we go back to the car, we turned on the WiFi and our Samsung tablet and after
getting telephone numbers for camps, started calling to see about availability
and rates.
There
was no answer at some of the places we called.
Some places we eliminated because the rates were outrageous and some
places won’t open until after Memorial Day.
I was just about to give up and suggest we start looking for a Walmart
for the night when I spotted a place on the map and asked Monte to look it
up.
When
he called there was a recording directing us to make a reservation through Reserve
America. We didn’t want to make a
reservation without knowing what the place looks like. Seeing that it was only 60 miles away we
decided to check it out.
The
GPS route took us on some back country roads (in good condition) along
vineyards. It was so nice not to have to
travel on a major highway where we were constantly being cut off by STUPID
drivers who don’t realize Monte can’t stop on a dime when some moron darts too
close in front of him.
There
was a volunteer host manning the entrance booth when we arrived. She suggested that Monte park the rig and get
in my car so we could check out the sites.
Armed with a park map, we drove the entire camp circling on the map the
sites we liked. Then we made a second
sweep eliminating sites. Finally we made a third sweep and selected site 131
located on a bluff above the lake.
We
returned to the booth and paid for two nights.
There are no hook-ups but there are dump stations, bathrooms with pay
showers and water spigots available to take on water. The nightly rate is $16 but because the
campground is a U S Army Corps of Engineers camp and accepts the senior pass it
only costs us $8/night. We were informed
that I would probably have to park my car in the overflow lot because there
would not be enough room at the site.
It
took some maneuvering, but Monte managed to fit the rig, his truck and my car
in the site. I was glad that he could
fit the car because the overflow parking lot was quite a hike from our site.
While
Monte was setting up I spotted a deer nearby.
We
decided we liked the site so much that we took a ride back to the entrance
booth to pay for a week. We found out we
had bad timing because just two minutes prior to our arriving someone had
booked our site for the following weekend so we have to leave on Friday
afternoon. BUMMER!
We
got set up quickly and took the path down to the lake.
I was really surprised to see garbage
including beer cans by the water. I just
don’t understand why people would come to a beautiful place of nature and ruin
the effect by littering???
A view of our rig from lakeside
The view from our site
I
suggested we take a ride around the area where we spotted some wild turkeys and
more deer.
As
we were driving along, and I was taking in all the beautiful sights, I was
reminded of how lucky we are to be living a lifestyle that enables us to have
these experiences.
No comments:
Post a Comment