Acorn Campground, New Melones Lake

Back at Acorn Campground with a spectacular views from site 53 of the hills and lake.  There weren't too many folks here over the weekend. 

Most folks were in sites 60-67. The only large group was a boy scout troop at sites 33-35. So, it was a very quiet camp for us.

Our first hike (Saturday), we headed back to a place we hiked once before. We were shocked to see the water this low. We don't know if they emptied the lake in preparation for this winter's rains or if this is a result of not enough rain this past winter. 

We took the Black Bear Loop over to Cougar Point Trail. 

I'm standing close to the edge. I have to remember that at this area there is a picnic table, which makes for a great place to eat lunch.

What looks like large sticks are trees. This is looking across the cove from the point. 

While we climbed down to let Meeks have a drink of water, a couple of kayakers were enjoying their time exploring by water.

On the way back up to the trail, we stopped to look at this rock formation which looks like a tree had turned to petrified wood. 

Heading back to camp, we spotted our RV. The picnic table for the site is to the right. To get to the table it is a steep and short climb. They need to get the boy scouts to do a scout project of building steps into the short hillside from the parking pad to the level ground by the picnic table. We got back in time before a light rain started.

After a peaceful night of rest and a yummy breakfast of hash browns with eggs( I just had veggies with my browns), we headed off to do a longer hike than the day before. 

We started from the campground and took the Heron Point Trail down to just one of many points along the trail. This section of the trail that leads to this point isn't on the map, but there is a trail that extends from the main trail to this point. Again, we were shocked at how low the water had gotten. I'm somewhere down there looking for a good spot for Meeks to drink some water.

After exploring this point, we headed back to the main trail and hiked around the Heron Point to Redtail Trail. 

This oak tree looks like a large bonsai to us. From Redtail Trail, we took Ringneck Run over to the Lupine area. 

Along the Ringneck Run and very close to the Lupine Day Use area sits this huge truck tire. We wondered how it got there. Maybe at one time the water covered this area of grassy land and as the water receded the tire that was once floating here sank to this spot; or, a group of kids rolled the tire up to this spot from another location closer to the lake. It just looks so weird sitting in this location. We finished our hike by picking up the Black Bear Loop by the dump station to head back to the campground. 

Next morning (Monday), we awoke to a beautiful blue sky. Our last hike was a short one from Heron Point Trail to the Park's Entrance Station and back. The hike along the trail gave us an excellent view of the lake and bridge. We have driven across that bridge many time to get over to the Glory Hole Campgrounds, which is one of our favorite places to winter camp.

Clark Fork

I immediately thought of Clark Fork Campground, a first-come-first-serve campground, in the Sierras that would met our needs for our weekend adventure. It had been four years since our last time at this pretty camp. Sadly, two years ago a fire devastated a large area of this region of the Stanislaus NF. 

Thankfully, the campground was spared from fire. And thankfully, we were lucky to get a site on a Friday--a very nice and large site at that! 

Our nearest neighbor was through the trees.

And nobody behind us, only woods and a seasonal creek.

The previous camper's child had constructed a delightful greeting for us, a mini campfire or maybe this was a fairy home. 

After settling in and eating lunch, we headed off to the Arnot Creek trail. We had done this hike with our daughter four years ago. So we were eager to see what it looked like after the fire.

We hiked from the campground to the trailhead, about a mile. Along the way, we hiked by this huge logging truck. 

Sadly, the path looks like this for about a mile. 

We remember this hike being under a green canopy of pretty pines. Since it was hot and we were tired, we hike up to the sign post at Woods Gulch. There we explored an open meadow before turning back. 

On the way back to the campground, we cross the bridge that goes over the Clark Fork. 

We hiked about 5 miles that first day, just long enough to tire us out. We showered, ate, strolled the campground checking out neighbors, and retired early to bed that evening.

Second day's plan was to hike up to Boulder Lake, but that didn't happen. We did have a delightful hike!

We parked at the end of the road by a pretty meadow that sits below the Iceberg. 

We were surprised to see two horses munching away in the meadow. The white horse would follow the brown horse. At one point, the brown horse started to come over toward us, but then quickly stopped. There is a metal fence along the Clark Fork trail. It looks like the fence goes around the perimeter of the meadow. 

Not far from the trailhead, the trail has a short, steep climb. This ascent provided us with a rewarding view of the Iceberg and....

... a specular view of the canyon. All is lush and green. Thankfully the fire didn't come through the canyon. After the climb, the trail takes a short, gentle descent and then parallels the river, Clark Fork. 

Meeks drank from the icy cold river. That was her reward for making the ascent!

We stopped often to explore the beauty of the river.

And even found a couple of places with sandy beaches. 

After a couple of little stream crossings, we came to Boulder Creek, ~ 2 miles. We looked around for a junction post for Boulder Creek trail, but we didn't see one. So, we continued on the trail for about another half mile. The trail starts its climb out of the canyon towards Mary's Pass at this point. We realized that we hadn't seen the junction or a marker. So, we head back to Boulder Creek to find the junction, but we never did find the trail. That may be due to large downed trees obscuring the trail.

So, we abandon the idea of making it to Boulder Lake. It's not running away. We will keep it on our bucket list for future hikes in this region. 

 

On the way back to trailhead, we notice a cave up high in a large granite formation. 

On the same granite formation are some trees growing. Their root structure must not be very deep or large.

After our descent and close to trailhead, we take time to admire the beauty of the growth of this dead tree. We take note of the cracks and noticed the center, the origin.

Back at camp, we rest from another 5 mile hike.

Yes, we will be back to explore more trails, like Disaster Creek.

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.

Weekend Retreat at New Melones

The weather forecast was calling for clear skys and warm daytime temperatures. So, we pack up the RV and headed east to one of our favorite winter campgrounds for the weekend.

The water level was higher than we had seen before. Justin, the camp host, told us that the water was rising 3 feet a day due to the runoff from the winter rains.

There weren't very many folks camping here this weekend. Might be due to the fact that the nighttime temperatures were going to be down in the 30s.

We hiked the Frontier Trail and the Angels Creek Trail for an out and back hike of 7 miles. The cows mooed at us as we walked by their grazing area. There were numerous folks hiking the Angels Creek Trail.

Back at camp, we relaxed while watching the sunset over the lake. There were numerous folks fishing on the lake not too far from our campsite. Not as many boaters out as there as there were last year.

Once the sun went down, we headed inside the RV for a warm bowl of Pho and a peaceful night's rest.

Wild River and Rattlesnake Creek

Wakalu Hep Yo means wild river. For 2000 years, the Miwok lived here seasonally in this beautiful canyon.

We went for a weekend visit to explore this canyon located in the Stanislaus NF off of Hwy 4.

We snagged a site away from the large group of tent campers. There was only the camp host four sites down from us, which we could not see or hear the host from our site. The other three sites on our side of the street were empty.

Our dog guarded us from some small critter looking for food. Those killer chipmunks just need to be kept away from the RV and us.

Our site was level and clean. This campground is setup for mainly tent camping. There are some spots for small travel trailers.

We were perched up high and away from the other loops of the campground.

After settling in and eating lunch, we headed over to the day-use area to hike Rattlesnake Creek Road, 5N02R.

This is a forest road that high clearance vehicles can use to get back to some wonderful camping sites and fishing spots along the North Fork Stanislaus River. This portion of the road looks ok, but the beginning portion and other sections are either very rocky with boulders or huge dips from seasonal creeks.

A pole adjustment needed to be made for hiking over the boulders.

A good portion of this road parallels the river. A jeep loaded down with folks checking out some fishing spots drove by us.

A couple of times the road veers away from the river, which took us into a densely wooded area of sequoias. Calaveras Big Trees isn't that far away from here, which has numerous "big trees".

But we enjoyed this quiet and peaceful hike in the less popular area of the Stanislaus NF. We were the only folks hiking the road. The jeep was the only vehicle that drove by and there was only one group of campers down by the river off of a spur road.

Continuing down the road, the road crosses the Rattlesnake Creek, which makes for a wonderful place to stop for a cold dip in the deep pool by the road. The weather was warm enough for a dip, but we didn't even soak our feet in the cold water.

Instead, we kept hiking until we came to the end of the road where we were greeted by cows trying to keep cool in the shade of the pines. From there we turned around to explore the spur road before heading back to camp.

We had to cross the ruff terrain of the road before making it back to the entrance by the day-use area. I have no idea how one drives over this section with the dips and boulders without causing damage to the undercarriage of their vehicle. We saw numerous areas which looked like oil leaked onto the boulders.

Back at camp, we called it a day of hiking. We rested and read about other places in the Stanislaus NF to explore.

After an extremely quiet evening and falling asleep to the sound of crickets, we awoke to explore more of the campground. We discovered a trail by the bridge and river that looked interesting to explore. One section of the trail starts at the bridge and goes to the back loop of the campground.

Beside the trail is an amphitheater area with a Miwok hut.

The hut wasn't very large, but I'm sure it served its purpose.

We back tracked to the bridge by way of walking the road through the campground and then a side trail down to the main trail. After crossing under the bridge we only walked a short distance to a manmade overlook.

The river is flowing fast through this section by the overlook.

Downstream were two guys fishing at a quiet pool of the river. They must of scrambled over the boulders to get to that spot.

The day was warming up quickly; so, we headed back to camp, rested a bit, and then packed up. Wakalu Hep Yo is a wonderful place to explore. Maybe we will return in the spring to check the river and plants that time of year. For now, we will explore other regions of the Sierras.