YOLO...

My husband and I went hiking and camping in Yolo County at Cache Creek Regional Park. We stayed at Cache Creek Campground, a hidden gem for us during our autumn visit. We were one of five campers in a campground that has 45 sites-totally sweet! The campground is located next to Cache Creek which runs through a beautiful canyon.

A view from our campsite of Glascock mountain which forms one side of the canyon. 

Even though California is still in a severe drought, the Cache Creek had water flowing down the creek. Surprisingly the water is very clear and refreshingly cold.

After setting up camp, we headed down the road for a hike to Frog Pond, which is on the opposite ridge from Glascock mountain. The hike starts at the Road 40, or Rayhouse Road, parking lot. We crossed a bridge that one can no longer drive over. The county is in the process of building a new road next to the old one.

We followed the dirt road up to a pretty stone barn, which we walked around.

From there we headed up the dirt road to the Frog Pond trail. Just at the upper bend of the road (in photo below), we saw three BMW bikers enjoying a ride through the ridge. They waved to us as they passed us going down hill.

We then started our climb up the ridge. Partway up, we were able to see views of the canyon looking east and where we parked our car. 

We continued the hike under a canopy of trees. After approximately .6 of a mile, we came to a clearing on top of a ridge. From the ridge, we were able to view the campground below...

...and views of the canyon north.

We hiked about another .7 of a mile to the pond. To our surprise there was water still in the pond.

We will have to come back in the spring after a wet winter to see this pond when it is full. I'm sure it will be gorgeous and be full of frogs and tadpoles. We started to do the remainder of the loop hike, 1.5 mile, but we changed our minds on the rest of the loop since the map I had with me wasn't detailed enough (the map below is much better). Each sign post we came to just stated "trail" and had arrows pointing in two directions. There were no names of the trails posted on the signs or mile markers. There was one sign stating entering BLM. 

We walked this section of BLM (above photo) until we decided to turn around and head back the way we came. Better to be safe than sorry; plus, it was getting late in the day. So, we headed back down the ridge and to the campground where we soaked our tired feet in the cold, creek waters. My husband can be identified in the picture below. He is holding the small speck of blue towel while walking along the beach. It gives one a scale of the hillside on the opposite side of the creek. That hill is massive and very steep.

Total miles hike were about 4.5 miles.

Would we come back again to camp and hike this pretty area? You bet we would! We are looking forward to a spring visit, crossing may small streams along the trails, and looking for tadpoles and frogs at frog pond.