|
|
|||
 |
The camper tucked away in a corner at Del Valle Regional Park in Livermore, CA. The sites were quite large. | Lake Del Valle is a drinking water reservoir, but swimming and boating are allowed. There is a nice beach. |
 |
 |
And there is a large grassy area behind the beach. | There are extensive trails in the hills around the lake. |
 |
 |
This is the day use area of Del Valle from a hilltop across the lake. | Another shot of the day use area. |
 |
 |
Another year, another site. This one is much bigger and better, even without a water hookup. | The view from the back of our site shows how much space we have. This picture was taken from the path to the river. |
 |
 |
The sound of the water over the rocks guarantees a good nights sleep! This is at the end of our site. | If you follow the river downstream from our site you will reach the main part of the reservoir in about a half mile. |
 |
 |
El Chorro Regional Park in Morro Bay from the hills, looking out toward the ocean. | You can see the three stacks of the power plant in Morro Bay in the distance. |
 |
 |
The campground feels nicely secluded, although it is not really far from "civilization". | A view of the towering rocks looking toward the ocean. |
 |
 |
There is a nice golf course in the park itself. We saw many campers unloading the golf clubs for a nice round. | Laguna Seca Racetrack in Monterey, CA, has a nice campground. We could see one of the first turns from our campsite. |
 |
 |
Laguna Seca has some nice full hookup sites and some very small tent sites. You have to be careful what you choose. | This is January in Monterey. It wasn't very crowded, the weather was great, but it was cold at night. |
 |
 |
Looking out from the campground, you could see some of the new condos. The ranger said they started at a quarter million! |
In the foreground is the Laguna Seca Recreation Area Pistol Range. |
 |
 |
Casini Ranch is on the Russian river, and is a nice location for bike rides and wine tasting. This site was not our first choice..... | .....but we grew to like it. It was right next to the beach, and was very private. We could sit in camp and watch the water activities. |
 |
 |
it was just a short walk to the water, really! We were nestled away in the trees in a quiet and secluded area. | After a tough bike ride doing some hills in the heat, we jumped into the river fully dressed. It was heaven. |
 |
 |
Olema Ranch is another favorite of ours. We camped here with our camping club in 2005. | The campground was busy during the weekend, but midweek is very quiet. |
 |
 |
While this site isn't the largest, it backs up on the woods, and our club reserved the entire loop, so when we did have neighbors..... | .....they were friends. If we go alone, we will take one of the next two sites over, as they were a little larger. |
 |
 |
This is the Mariposa KOA. Our site was on the outside, backing up to the woods, and we even had real deer! | We normally shy away from KOA's, but this one was very nice. Plus, we were with our club, which makes any campground better. |
 |
 |
Another view of our row of popups. There were more on the other side, and a few hardsides. | Mariposa is just outside Yosemite. And no story about Yosemite would be complete without a picture of Half Dome. |
 |
 |
This trip was in early May, just after a very rainy season. All the falls were at capacity. | There was still a good amount of snow on the higher peaks around the park, but the weather in the valley was perfect. |
 |
 |
It is almost impossible to take a bad picture in Yosemite - it is simply beautiful. But you can get wet when you get near them. We got "misted" at the base of this fall. | This is the oldest church in Mariposa, built in 1862. Mariposa also boasts the oldest courthouse west of the Mississippi that is still in use as a courthouse. |
 |
|
|
|||
