Dogwood Trees

The Dogwood trees are in full bloom in the Stanislaus NF right now. Traveling to our campground this past weekend was such a delight. Dogwood trees were one of my parents favorite trees. They had numerous ones growing on their 2 acre wooded property. I don't recall those Dogwood trees ever looking this beautiful.

We camped at Wakalu Hep Yo campground by the Sourgrass Recreation area. 

A mudslide destroyed a portion of the campground and the bridge back in 1999.  

This is the bridge today. At the far end of the bridge by the bend is the entrance to the campground on the right and location of the mudslide. 

The view from the bridge is gorgeous! The mighty North Fork of the Stanislaus River is high this year. On Mother's Day weekend there were no folks out fishing, which was a surprise to us. On past trips here there have been numerous folks standing on or near the large rocks casting their lines. 

There are excellent views of the bridge along a small portion of the campground trail closest to the bridge. 

Since the campground was almost empty, we decided to try a site in the back area.  In the past, we have alway stayed at the sites closer to the entrance and camp host site due to the back area being full. 

Site 44 has a very nice area with a picnic table and area for tents. The plus to this site is that there are no neighbors!  It is situated away from the other sites in the back area. And perfect for the travel trailer!

It is also located close to the historic Miwok site. From our site is a path leading up to a clearing. 

Last time we were here at this clearing it was just grass and stones. Looks like someone is starting a spiritual maze. There was also a large firepit that looks like it hasn't been used. 

We hiked our favorite hike along the 4X4 road. This Mother's Day weekend only a couple of hikers were on the road. We were rewarded with numerous seasonal waterfalls. This waterfall was new to us and such a delight!

 

The Ladybugs

On the weekend of May 14th, we went to Wakalu Hep Yoo campground off of Hwy 4 near Sourgrass. Last time there was spring 2019. We got the same site near the host site. Again the host wasn't there yet since the campground wasn't official open due to no water.  The Stanislaus River had water! Low for this time of year, but at least there is snow melt and water flowing. And the fishermen were there too.

We took the hike down stream.

We were the only ones exploring the trail downstream.

On one section of the trail were thousands of ladybugs that were flying around. They were coming out of their hibernation.