TRAVEL DAY
From: Hidden View Army Corps of Engineers Campground at Henley Lake Recreation Area, Raymond, CA.
To: Basalt Campground at San Luis Reservoir State Recreation Area, Gustine, CA – Merced & San Luis National Wildlife Refuges.
Day 146 – Today’s the big day, Luca fans. Mark & Mark pick up their puppy today. Hopefully we’ll get a picture for the blog, hint hint, Mark! Meanwhile, the girls were taken without complaint to a new campground. This morning Java & Gracie were playing a game of “Who Is The CopyCat”?
While we were packing up, we kept hearing different bird songs – the standard tweety tweety tweet followed by a sort of high-pitched shreek. Rob took a couple of pictures, one with a Starling flying by the mystery bird (which was what was causing the ruckus, we assumed). After enlarging the pictures, Rob went online and found the bird: a Great-Tailed Grackle, and we don’t think we’ve ever seen one before.
Our drive was supposed to be short, so we didn’t rush out this morning. We left Hidden View Campground at 11:10 a.m. after dumping the tanks. Most of the other campers here were leaving, also. Our destination was Basalt Campground in the San Luis Reservoir State Recreation Area, located between Gustine and Los Banos, CA. The reason for picking this area was it’s not too far from two wildlife Refuges, San Luis NWR and Merced NWR.
Our drive was similar to several others lately as far as being in the inland valley where so much of California’s fruits, vegetables, and nuts are grown. We passed by many fruit/nut/veggie stands with prices such as 10 avocados for $1 and 10 oranges for $1. If there had been room for an RV with tow car, we probably would’ve stopped. Maybe on the way to one of the wildlife refuges in the Honda, we’ll stop and stock up! The sky was bluer, and the air was cleaner since the rain. The beautiful Oak trees changed to large Eucalyptus trees. The terrain changed some as we left seeing the Sierra mountains in the distance, to seeing the coastal range in the distance as we drove west. Mostly two-lane bumpy farmland roads, after the recent rains everything seemed greener. But water continues to be a big issue here. We passed by “PRAY FOR RAIN” signs and again, signs posted about the Governor & wasting of water.
As we got closer to the reservoir, it was very pretty with green rolling hills and the water was deep blue. On the way to the check-in booth, we saw Tule Elk on the hills. We arrived at 12:40 p.m. There are four separate campgrounds in the San Luis Reservoir State Recreation Area: two were primitive/tent camping and the other two, Basalt and San Luis Creek, were both partially closed. San Luis had campsites near the water, and offered hook-ups, but they were very close to each other except for the three that were already occupied. Basalt only had one occupant, and it didn’t offer any hook-ups. There was a dump station and fresh water was available, though. We chose site #19 at Basalt. Rob filled us up with water while I got us checked in.
We ate lunch first, then unpacked and settled in. Rob put up the screened tent, then sat on the floor with the girls while they roamed around before taking their regular resting places on the dashboard. The high today was 62 degrees. It was breezy with puffy white clouds in a clear blue sky.
