Day 107 – We were up before 8:00, 37 degrees and cloudy. The campground was nearly full. We’re curious how busy it will be below Sacramento (in Lodi, CA). We’re driving to a new campground today, one with full hook-ups. The kitties can have their heated pads back, and we’ll have dumping capability at our site. Independent campgrounds are almost always more expensive, but with the Passport America discount, we’ll only pay $29 per night (half price). We’ll be able to do laundry, too. Once we’ve caught up with the chores, we can move back to a state or county park. We’ll pay even less & hopefully it won’t be as crowded.
96 miles
Samuel P. Taylor State Park, Camp Taylor Area, 8889 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Lagunitas, CA 94938, (415) 488-9897, http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=469. Check-out time is noon; check-in time is after 2 p.m. The State Park is almost 3,000 acres located in west Marin County. Its proximity to San Francisco and the cities surrounding the Bay Area makes it a popular camping & day use location. Even though it was winter & over Christmas Eve & Christmas, we found it difficult to reserve a campsite that fit our vehicles. Because they were booked up, we had to change sites in the middle of our stay. The campsites are meant for tents and smaller RVs and campers. The space was tight in both sites we reserved; we barely fit the vehicles & got the slides out. Some sites are very close together, some are private. All were tree’d & the Park was well-maintained & clean. Many campsites are not very level. Even driving on the roads into and out of the campground, some of the trees were right next to the RV and we barely fit thru. However, in spite of this, it was a good stay, the campground is in a great location only six miles from Point Reyes National Seashore, stores, and restaurants. There are many hiking & biking trails in the area. Lots of redwood trees in the Park, very pretty. No hook-ups, water spigots throughout the Park, but water can be hard to come by because the water pressure is so low. No working dump station. $33 per night (includes $2 senior discount) plus a $7.99 online reservation fee. We had site #52 for 5 nights, then moved to site #48 for 2 nights. Both had campsites right next to them. Preferred sites, if we stay again & can reserve our choices, would be sites #46 & #44. We would stay here again if it wasn’t too crowded & we could get the site we wanted. An alternative might be Olema Campground, adjacent to Point Reyes?
We departed at 10:35 a.m., 41 degrees & cloudy. We left the forested area and drove on some winding roads through hilly countryside dodging bicyclists, gradually leaving the green hills & lesser-populated places behind. Soon in a decent amount of traffic on Highway 101, something we need to get used to now that we’re near bigger cities. Kind of a shock to the system. Leaving the 101 and travelling east on Route 37, we drove along the upper San Pablo Bay to Vallejo where we got on Highway 80 headed north to Route 12 east. We passed a large wind farm and the scenery flattened out completely as we entered the Central Valley.
We arrived at Flag City RV Resort, just off I-5 near Lodi, at 12:50 p.m. Interstate 5 is the major north/south Freeway in California. Tons of trucks. This campground is in the middle of a giant rest stop which includes Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Subway, Carl’s Jr., Jack in the Box, Taco Bell, Denny’s, & Burger King, a large Best Western and a Microtel, numerous gas stations, RV, truck & trailer repair places, tire centers, etc. It was a rest stop like we hadn’t seen since the Iowa 80 Truck Stop, “World’s Largest Truck Stop”. The campground is huge with 180 RV spaces all with full hook-ups, a clubhouse, a convenience store, a 2.8 acre recreation area, and 3 laundry facilities, AND all the other amenities that independent parks usually have. We were assigned site #E19.
Site E19, Flag City RV Resort, Lodi, CA
Site E19, Flag City RV Resort, Lodi, CA
Flag City RV Resort, Lodi, CA
Because we are in a huge parking lot rather than the woods, it’s full-on sunlight. The kitties were thrilled. And then we plugged in their heating pads because we had electricity again. Oh happy day!
Pixie
The sites have plenty of room for both vehicles and the Park is spotlessly clean. When we arrived, no one was on either site of us, but people were continually arriving and the whole row was soon filled. Every single person we saw except those that worked at the Park were older than us, some majorly older. No kids. Even the dogs were quiet. They were old like their owners. No offense intended. Just an observation. Hey, maybe this place won’t be so bad.
Big, big rigs, like 45 feet. Wow. You can hear the freeway traffic a lot. But it’s winter and the windows are closed. Not a big problem. We unpacked and set up, finally got those tanks dumped and filled up the propane, and had lunch.
We are about 35 miles below Sacramento and are unfamiliar with the area. We want to spend about a week in the Central Valley to concentrate on the birdwatching, but don’t want to spend it in a parking lot, even if the parking lot is pretty nice. We left to check out a couple of County Parks and a State Park not too far from here.
First up was Westside Landing County Park, about 15 minutes from here and close to some of the best birding areas. It was on the low side of the levee by a tributary of the Sacramento River. The road getting in to the Park was falling apart, not a good sign. There were only 14 campsites, and none of them were occupied. Numerous sandhill cranes flew over while we were there. To reserve a site call (209) 953-8800. $20 for 1 vehicle + $6 for additional cars + $1 per pet = $30 per night (IF they charged for all that). Only about ½ of the sites were level.
Next was Brannon Island State Recreation Area, a State Park on the Sacramento River. Several of the campgrounds were closed for the season. There was a small section with water & electric hook-ups for $47 per night. Most of these sites were fairly close together and about 2/3 already occupied. This section was near the boat launch facility and a probably-crowded-on-weekends day use area. Willow Campground had no hook-ups but water throughout at spigots & a dump station, very few sites occupied, large sites with some on the water & plenty of space between each, $29 per night. First come first served. No reservations off season. Near Rio Vista, CA, 40 or more minutes from all the birding locations.
Last was Sandy Beach Solano County Park, on the opposite side of the Sacramento River. All campsites had water & electric hook-ups & there was a dump station. The Park is right by a very large parking lot for boats and day use and there are several boat launches. Presumably quite busy on the weekends. The campsites are all pull-throughs in a large circle. Most were either already occupied or had reserved markers on them. When we saw the nightly rate was $20 per night with senior discount, with hook-ups, we stopped and talked to the campground host who explained that you can only reserve a site two weeks or more from your arrival date. Any others are first come first served. Near Rio Vista, CA, 40 or more minutes from all the birding locations.
We drove back to the RV. All was quiet there. We had dinner & tried to figure out which place we should go next. We have laundry to do tomorrow and then we’ll see where we stand. The high today reached 59 degrees and sunny. It’s warmer here in the Valley.