The Ospreys

Again, we headed back to one of our favorite winter campgrounds at New Melones Lake.

There were more folks camping this weekend then we have ever seen this time of year. This must have been due to the weather forecast of beautiful clear sky with warm temperature of high 60's. And, the weather couldn't have been more perfect with the temperature around 72F. We got lucky to snag the RV site down by the walk-in area. There were only two groups in the walk-in area. Lucky for us they were camped down below our viewing of the walk-in area.

But sadly for the osprey family that had built a huge nest on top of the tree in the walk-in area, one group of campers were camping down the hill and most likely too close to the osprey's nest.

After settling in and having lunch, we headed off for a hike along the Carson Creek trail.

While hiking along the trail by the lake, we only came across a couple of hikers. Most of the activity was on the lake with boaters zooming around and numerous fishermen basking in the peacefulness that the lake had to offer that day.

After climbing Tower Climb, we crossed the street at the staging area and headed back down the hill. We came across a seasonal stream that was swiftly flowing downhill toward the lake.

After crossing the street at the bottom of the hill, we continued on on the Gold Rush trail into the campground. During our trek back to our campsite through the campground, we took note of other promising sites to use in the future visits.

Back at our site, we were surprised that nobody else had shown up to camp at the other walk-in sites. There was a large boy scout troop that camped by one to the sites close to one of the bathrooms. Wimpy scouts for not camping in the walk-in areas, but wonderful for us since we had this excellent view. Plus, we also enjoyed watching the male osprey perched high up in a tree, close to our site, eat half a large fish before flying the remainder of the fish over to share with the female protecting the nest.

Besides the osprey show, we were rewarded with the viewing of many woodpeckers darting around the dead pine trees looking for their meals.