HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAEDI!! WE HOPE IT’S PURRFECT. SEE YOU SOON.
Day 115 – Completely clouded over this morning, breezy & 44 degrees. We hear a major storm is sweeping up the east coast. Good luck to our friends and relatives!
31 miles
Basalt State Park & Campground, San Luis Reservoir State Recreation Area, at the end of Basalt Road in Gustine, CA 95322, off of Highway 152, 7 miles west of I-5 or 33 miles east of Highway 101 from Gilroy, (209) 827-6846 Basalt Entrance Station -or- (209) 826-1196 Ranger Station, http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=558. The San Luis Reservoir State Recreation Area had four different campgrounds: There is a Group Camp, Madeiras Campground is primitive camping for tents, San Luis Creek Campground, & Basalt Campground. We only checked out San Luis Creek and Basalt. San Luis Creek had 53 campsites with water & electric hook-ups. Their two loops were located in the valley near the Reservoir & subject to high winds. All the sites on the water were taken; about ½ the campsites were already occupied. About half of the sites were double sites for family groups to camp together. Most sites were fairly close to each other and fairly out in the open. $47 per night with senior discount. Basalt Campground had 79 campsites, no hook-ups, water at spigots, dump station available. Their two loops were located further up in the hills overlooking either surrounding hills or the reservoir from above. These sites were protected from the wind. There were very few occupied sites & this was the better campground. They say they fit up to 30′, we fit with enough room to tightly fit the car behind us sideways. We chose site #50, a lovely, private site with a couple of large eucalyptus trees. Lots of birds. No traffic noise. Not too far from Los Banos for gas, food, etc. Within reach of several wildlife refuges & SRA’s. $28 per night with senior discount. Very nice. We would definitely stay here again. Scenic, quiet, lovely Reservoir, and if there’s time, biking trails.
We took our coffee outside this morning & watched the birds from our chairs. Last night there were at least three owls situated in trees around the campsite, WHOO WHO WHOOing back and forth to each other. During the mornings the smaller birds seem to be the most active, and the magpies – they are really loud.
Then we packed up and left for our next destination, Casa de Fruta RV Orchard Resort with 300 RV sites, located near the cities of Gilroy (a.k.a., garlic capital of the world) and Hollister (situated on an earthquake fault & the site of a big quake). We’re leaving the inland valley areas near Interstate 5 & travelling west again, back to Highway 101.
We departed the campground a little after noon, 56 degrees and very cloudy. We really liked it here & hope to come back again. The cats loved it with all the bird activity, but at the new RV Park, they’ll have their electric heated pads again & will be thrilled. The herd of Tule Elk had moved near the top of a hill; the “resident” hawk was watching the traffic go by again as we left. We headed west on Route 152, seeing even more of the HUGE reservoir than we’d seen before – impressive feat of civil engineering. Then the dry yellow-white grassy hills changed to steeper, greener, more tree’d hills as we drove on. Pretty. We arrived at our campground at 12:50 p.m., no traffic problems. The temperature had fallen to 50 degrees and it was raining. SO nice to see the rain again – it had been pretty dry inland.
Casa de Fruta is kinda amusing. It’s like a little town by the highway in the hills. They call themselves “a California Landmark”; maybe they are, I don’t know. You start seeing the signs for them and then there’s a row of buildings & shops: Casa de Fruit Stand, Casa de Chevron Diesel, Casa de Burrito, Casa de Wine & Deli, Casa de RV Orchard Resort, Casa de Sweets & Coffee, Casa de Inn, and Casa de Restaurant & Bakery. There’s even Casa de Carousel & Playground and Casa de Choo-Choo for the children! And they advertise Casa de 1940 Pilsner and Casa de Zanger Family Wines. I kid you not. We look forward to visiting these happy places soon!
We checked in and were assigned site #69 in the “Prune Path” row. (I am not making these things up, really.) We unpacked, had lunch (leftovers from ToGo’s sandwiches), and sat around the RV playing catch-up with paperwork & things. It rained most of the afternoon. Tomorrow we’ll be visiting my cousin, Mary, and her family. They live in San Jose, above Gilroy & Hollister, and below San Francisco. Silicon Valley country.
