Relief Reservoir

Hiking to Relief Reservoir has been on my bucket list for way too long. My husband asked where are we heading for this weekend's hike and getaway weekend. I told him east and a high elevation with few crowds--hopefully. So we headed towards Kennedy's Meadows off just off Hwy 108, but everyone else had the same idea for camping in that area. It was too crowded for our liking.

Instead, we check the other campgrounds near Kennedy Meadows and then found a quiet spot in the Dardanelle campground, across from the burnt down Dardanelle Resort.

Two years ago a fire destroyed a huge area of the pristine forests on Hwy. 108. This campground was partially burnt.

The Stanislaus river runs just below our campsite. The steps leading down to the river were completely destroyed that it isn't safe to use them.  There is a sign stating that it isn't safe and the area below is restricted to use. Almost all the the pines that covered the peak across the river were burnt.

After settling in and eating an early lunch, we headed back to the trail head parking lot at Kennedy Meadows. From there we hiked past all the campers and folks enjoying the amenities of the resort to start our strenuous and beautiful climb to Relief Reservoir.

There were numerous groups of hikers heading up, but we hiked most of the time with nobody close by us.

We did pass a family of four with their goats hauling their camping paraphernalia. One goat just didn't want to climb the mountain. And here I thought all goats loved to climb, but not this one.

The river was flowing swiftly from all the heavy amounts of snow fall this past winter and spring.

The views were spectacular! This hike is up there in ranks to the Yosemite hike that I did with my son four years ago. The huge reward with this hike was that there were no crowds. Few folks were hiking this trail compared to the hundreds the make the climb to Vernal Falls.

The green, the granite, and the waterfalls were all stupendous!

And our little "goat" just kept on climbing.

We came across some pulley system that was left to retire after being used to build the dam.

After numerous hours of climbing, we came to a vista above the north end of the lake.

We found a perch among the granite to rest our weary bodies and nibble on some snacks while enjoying the beauty of the reservoir.

On the way back down, we had the trail mostly to ourselves. We enjoy the serenity of the canyon as we made our way back to Kennedy Meadows.

After two bridge crossings, the trail heads to the pretty meadow. Will we come back here again to hike this gorgeous area? You bet we will!!

Seasonal Creeks and Waterfalls

We headed back to Wakalu Hep Yoo Campground off of Hwy 4 this past weekend.

Nobody was around our location of the campground. Everyone wanted to be at the end or back where it was dark and wet.

We were at site 2, which is located across from the camp host site and near the exit and entrance. Not even the camp host had arrived for the first weekend of the season.

That's correct! Nobody was around us. It was like we had the entire campground to ourselves. Just the way we like it, peace and quiet.

When we camped here last fall, this creek wasn't flowing. This is close to the entrance to the campground. We could hear this creek and the river from our site, a very soothing sound.

Luckily for us, a very large group of off-road vehicles had finished their touring of the road we wished to hike. They were all parked at the day-use area, Sourgrass, when we headed up the road to explore what mother-nature had created.

We were surprised at the numerous seasonal creeks that we encountered. Last fall the road was dry and there was only one creek to cross.

This is what the creek looked like in the fall.

And this is what the creek looks like this spring. We couldn't even cross the creek to continue on the road.

So as we headed back, we enjoyed the waterfalls.

One creek had numerous falls. If we were younger and willing to climb up the hill, it would have been fun to explore those falls too.

After a relaxing evening and a peaceful sleep, we explored other areas of the campground and found this snow plant hiding under a young pine.

The path under the bridge lead to this swollen creek. We didn't feel like crossing what looks to be a slippery bridge.

So instead, we crossed the bridge and explored a portion of the trail across from the day-use area before heading back to camp for lunch and breaking camp. Next time we visit here we will explore the rest of that trail.

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.

Fraser Flat

We went back to Fraser Flat Campground on the South Fork of the Stanislaus River towards the end of September for a weekend of exploring and hiking.

There were more folks camping than we had expected this late in the season. We squeezed into a spot away from most of the campers. We were lucky again with nobody in the sites beside us.

After setting up camp, we headed off to Crabtree trailhead to hike up to Chewing Gum Lake. Yes, that is the name of the lake. It has been on my bucket list of hikes after seeing its name.

This is the start of the trail over the Bell Creek. Meeks enjoyed a good long drink from the creek before heading off.

We had a slow and steady climb that took us up out of the canyon.

The 4.4 mile hike to the lake is about a gain of 2,000 ft. It felt like we would never reach an area that would leveled off.

After a good hour climb we came to the Emigrant Wilderness sign. We still had a long way to go.

After some period of time we came to a level area where the trail crosses the Bell Creek. We had gotten a late start in the day for this hike, sometime after 2 pm. After realizing that we had another 1-1.5 miles to go, we decided to turn around and head back down to the car since we wanted to be off the trail and back at camp before dark.

The trail was under the canopy of pine and was easy to follow. We were happy for the shade since the day got hotter than what was predicted for that day.

We were happy to make it back to the trailhead and Meeks was too since she got to enjoy another long drink from the creek. That water must have been delicious!

Luckily we were smart enough to turn back when we did on our hike. By the time we got back to camp and get the grill ready for dinner, the sun started to set.

In the morning, we hiked up to the aqueduct and then explored other areas close to the campground along the river.  This area is such a beautiful area that on our next trip here we plan to hike from the campground to Strawberry by way of the forest road close to the campground.