Fairy Hut and Gargoyle

We headed back to Mt Madonna County Park to hike the beautiful trails that this wonderful park has to offer to hikers and equestrians.

We took a gamble by not making a camping reservation for a Saturday night, and we got lucky! Arriving early, around 10 AM Saturday morning, worked out to our advantage. We were able to snag a spot in Valley View 2.

We just managed to situate the RV into site 219 for optimum leveling. Most of the longer and more level sites were already taken.  After a lazy morning relaxing at our site, we headed out for a hike from Valley View 2 campground to Tan Oak campground. We had never explored the Tan Oak area of the park during our last visits to Mt. Madonna.

Walking under the canopy of redwoods and manzanitas was so peaceful. And even though all of the campgrounds were busy with folks enjoying the park, few folks were out hiking the magnificent trail system of Mt Madonna.

We hiked by a couple of dried up seasonal streams that cross the trails.

And we marveled at mother-nature's work of art.

Some of the woodland plants were in bloom, along with the meadow flowers that we saw as we crossed a small meadow near the Blue Springs Trail and Meadow Trail junction.

Back under the canopy of redwoods near the Tan Oak camping area, we came across this structure that looks like a fairy hut. Some kids must have had hours of fun entertaining themselves...unless there really are fairies living here.

After a delightful time of exploring the trails, we headed back to camp for a relaxing evening and pizza! We tried our new Biolite Camp Base oven, which worked wonderfully after we got the hang of keeping the fire going.

Cooking the Trader Joe's Gluten Free Cauliflower pizza with added toppings on the Biolite made the BEST gluten free pizza. The crust was crispy, not soggy like in the oven at home. The wood gave the pizza a nice smoky flavor to the crust too! I topped the pizza with small mozzarella balls, olives, basil, artichokes, smoked cooked red bell peppers, and garlic. It was so Yummy!

The next morning we headed out for a short 3 mile loop before packing up camp. We hiked from Valley View 2 to Blackhawk trail to hike a loop: Blackhawk, Iron Springs, Ridge, and Contour trails.

Nestled beside some of the trails are archery range areas. We still haven't seen anyone using the archery ranges; this is our third visit to the park.

It's very difficult to get lost here since the trails are very well marked and informative on a trail's route.

While hiking the loop, we came across a gnarly, root structure that looks like a gargoyle of the forest. The gargoyle is pointing one down the Contour trail in the direction to a very small waterfall.

We heard the water falling over the logs before spotting the falls. 

We are looking forward to many more hikes in this magical forest with beautiful treasures.

New Brighton

New Brighton had been on my bucket list of places to camp after reading in California RV Camping by Tom Stienstra that this campground was rated a 10.  Well, curiosity gets the best of us.

Husband and I decided that we would venture to the beach for an overnight Spring Break. We were able to snag site 98, which is mostly private due to the high growth of shrubs around the perimeter of the site. 

I wouldn't give this campground a 10 since there is freeway noise and the sites all needed mowing. At $35 and $50 a site and check-out at noon and check-in at 2, one would think the State should be able to have someone keep the sites in better shape. Plus, this campground gets heavy usage all year; so, no lack of funds. Overall the roomy, level sites are nice.

After settling in, we headed off for a hike in the Santa Cruz mountains. I had read about Byrne Milliron Forest as being an interesting place to explore since caretaker, Jeff Helmer, had hidden unusual items within the forest for hikers to find and enjoy.

So, off we ventured into the woods for a hike before heading to the beach.

From the parking lot, it's all up hill. The preserve is 402 acres of redwoods and mixed hardwood trees. 

All of the trails are well marked, with some having interesting carvings perched on top of the sign posts. And numerous posts also direct one back to the parking lot. So it's very difficult to get lost.

After a 3.6 mile loop up hill and back down, we drove back to camp. Along the way back, we made a stop at the little market, Corralitos Mkt & Sausage Co, for some of their wonderful sausages. That place was hopping with folks buying their sausages and sausage sandwiches. Well worth the trip out there for just a sandwich.

Back a camp, Meeks snoozed while I fired up the Biolite for my homemade burgers.

I love cooking with the Biolite. I brought some apricot wood from our yard to use in the Biolite. The apricot wood burned nicely and the burgers were very yummy! 

We took an evening stroll around the campground checking out other sites and looking out over the bluff to Sequel Cove, Monterey Bay, and the Pacific Ocean. Once the sun went down, the campground got very quiet which was such a surprise since the campground was full of large parties of campers at many sites. All that could be heard from our site was the freeway noise. That too quieted down in early morning. The next morning after the cloud cover dissipated, we headed down the bluff for a stroll on the beach.

Will we return here; most likely not since there are many other beach campgrounds that have our curiosity that we wish to explore.

Between Rain Drops

More like between storms, since Sunday and Monday of last week were the only days with a forecast of no rain. So, we headed back to New Melones to explore more of the lake.

There was only one other person in our section of the Ironhorse campground Sunday night.

The blue tarp on the picnic table (right side of road) is the site of the other camper. He was out motoring his boat on the lake for the day. I have enjoyed winter camping in the Foothills since few folks venture out to camp this time of year. Even the activity on the lake was quiet compared to our other visits.

After setting up camp and eating lunch, we headed for a hike to check out the Buck Brush Loop trail.

We passed some cattle that were too busy eating to be bothered by us. A couple of mountain bikers passed us. Overall, we had the trails to ourself. Total hike was around 6-7 miles roundtrip from our campsite.

Back at the campsite, we relaxed while watching fishermen returning from their day's adventures. Once the evening got too cold to sit outside, we headed into the RV to enjoy the sunset from our dinette.

Relaxing before dinner, my husband surfed on the Internet while I nestled under a quilt reading the Sunday newspaper. It's wonderful having the RV to shelter in while camping. Mr. Buddy, the heater, worked well in warming up the RV quickly so that we were able to stay warm the rest of the night.

After a extremely peaceful night's rest, we awoke to a quiet campground with even fewer boaters on the lake than on Sunday.

Again, we totally enjoyed camping and hiking in this region of the lake.

On next visit here, we will have to explore the Angels Creek Trail area.

Ironhorse

We did back-to-back weekends of camping since the weather forecast had called for another warm weekend. So, back we headed to New Melones lake to check out the Ironhorse campground.

We picked an area in the one loop in which nobody else was camping.

There were no neighbors around. We only had views of the lake and the oak trees that have been hit by the blight. After setting up camp and eating lunch, we headed up to Arnold to hike a portion of the Arnold Rim Trail.

We parked at the Valley View Road staging area to hike a loop that would bring us to Cougar Rock. From the staging area, we hiked the P9 trail with Mountain Misery (aka bear clover) on either side of the trail until we descended the one ridge and came to the junction of the P9 and the ART.

We followed the ART along the creek for a short ways and then crossed the creek and started the climb up the next ridge to Cougar Rock.

After a moderate climb, we were rewarded with a beautiful vista. 

After soaking up the views of the region, we headed back down the ridge.

We quickly left the ART from Cougar Rock, took the P8 back to the P9, and made the last climb on P9 back to the car. This hike was such a delightful surprise. Many times we have driven past Arnold on our way to Alpine lake region, and I had always wondered what trails were in the Arnold area. Now that we know of this gem with wonderful trails to explore, we will be back to explore more of the ART.

Back at camp, our fearless dog was reward with a Junior Ranger New Melones pin from the friendly camp host, Justin, after telling him of our hiking adventure for the day. Justin had remembered us visiting last weekend at the Big Oak campsite. When he saw that we had returned from our hiking adventure for the day, he came over to our campsite to welcome us back. After chatting with him for a bit, he went off and then quickly came back with the Junior Ranger pin. He is the nicest camp host that we have ever met.

After another restful and quiet sleep, the next morning we took a hike along the section of the Carson Creek trail that we didn't do the previous weekend. 

When the water is low, a land bridge forms to connect a small island to the mainland. We decided to check out the island since the water was low for us to cross onto the island without getting our feet wet. I'm facing the island, but looking at some large house boats at the mooring dock close to the island.

After hiking the loop around the island, we headed back to the mainland for the trek back to camp. There were numerous folks out fishing that day. We only met one couple hiking the trail. Back at camp, we walked the loop noting sites for future stays.

Big Oak

Since the weather was warm, upper 70s, we headed out to New Melones for an overnighter at the lake. We figured that there wouldn't be too many folks camping since it was Super Bowl weekend, and we were correct!

We were able to pick a spot away from those camping lower down on the hill and closer to the lake. We still had lake views, but we also had lots of privacy.

This was the last weekend for Big Oak to be open. The next week the Bureau of Reclamation would be opening Ironhorse campground, which is located across the street from Big Oak campground. The Bureau alternates between the two campgrounds in the winter so that the birds nesting in this area of New Melones lake are protected. I saw lots of redheaded woodpeckers and California quail while here.

After settling in and having lunch, we headed off to hike a loop starting at Gold Rush trail over to the Carson Creek trail and then the climb up Tower Climb trail to Fire Access Road and back to camp.

We saw many houseboats docked as we hiked along the Carson Creek trail. The Tower climb wasn't as steep as I had read. Most of the trails are rated moderate, but I would classify them as easy-moderate.

Back at camp we enjoyed a quiet evening of watching the boaters traveling out of the park to home.

After a lazy morning, we headed on a hike on the Frontier trail and Gold Rush trail. Both trails are on either side of the road that goes to the Angels Creek Boat Launch area.

Along Frontier trail was an area beside this bridge with a picnic table. We made note of this as a great place to rest and have lunch the next time we hike this trail out to check Buck Brush and Angels Creek areas.

Picnic table is to the right of the Buckeye trees that line the creek.

As we approach the Angels Creek Boat Launch area, we see a glider and what looks like a spaceship from the trail. We of course wonder how the heck did a glider get there. Luckily, we were able to watch the owners of the glider dismantle the wings and tuck the glider into the towing capsule for the glider. The owners had towed the glider into the park to have pictures taken of the glider. We found out that the owner is the designer of this model glider and was having pictures taken for advertisement of the glider kit. It was such a surprise to see a glider in the land of boats, hills, and water.

After that adventure and surprise, we headed back to camp, packed up camp, and headed home in time for the game.