On The Way Home

On Tuesday morning we packed up for the last time and headed toward Riverside via Tehachapi where we stopped for lunch with good friend Susan Mueller. We arrived home at 3:45 PM and have been unpacking and cleaning ever since.

Seqouia National Park

Sunday morning found us driving down highway 99 toward Visalia and Sequoia National Park. We found an adequate RV park in Three Rivers about six miles from the south entrance to the park. On Monday morning we got an early start for our tour of the park and had our breakfast waiting for our turn to be escorted through a construction zone. I did get a couple of photos while we were waiting.

Jimson Weed

Construction Zone

Our first visit was at Crescent Meadow. We drove through a Sequoia tree to get there.

Driving Through Tree

Crescent Meadow

Mary on Moro Rock

View from Moro Rock

Driving back to the main highway we spotted a rather large Sequoia.

Mary and Sequoia

Then we continued on to the General Sherman Tree. This is the largest tree in the world and is about 2,200 years old.

Trunk of General Sherman

General Sherman

After a nice picnic lunch we headed for Kings Canyon. This was a new experience as we had never been there before. It is amazing.

Looking Down on Kings Canyon

Kings Canyon

Rushing River Falls

Grizzly Falls

Our last stop was at the General Grant Tree. It too is amazing.

General Grant Tree

Sequoias in Parking Lot of General Grant Tree

We thought we were taking the fast way home by going outside the park but it turned out to be thirty miles of windy road.

Placerville

On Friday we made the short run to the KOA in Shingle Springs near Placerville. Once again, after settling in and having lunch we went wine tasting. Found some great and some not so great wines east of Placerville.


Friday evening we dined at Zachery Jacques, a country French restaurant we have enjoyed before. Tonight the menu was pretty limited and the service slow although the meal tasted great.


On Saturday morning we drove to Coloma the back way and toured the John Marshall State Park. This is where gold was first discovered in California back in 1848. After a nice picnic on the banks of the American River we took the back way home again stopping at a couple of nice wineries along the way.

Blacksmith in Coloma

Post Office in Coloma

American River

David Girard Winery

Vineyard at David Girard Winery

Downiesville

Today we got an early start for our journey to Downiesville to have lunch with our good friends Jim & Karen Oster. Our first stop was at the Yuba River, where Highway 20 crosses it, for a morning shot of the river.

Yuba River

A few miles further we entered the flowage of the North Fork of the Yuba River which we followed for many miles.

North Fork of Yuba River

We made a quick stop in Goodyears Bar to look at the St Charles Hotel (Now a B&B) built in 1864.

St Charles Hotel

Then it was on to Downiesville a small mining town on the North Fork of the Yuba River where we met Jim & Karen Oster for lunch at the Cucina de Oro a Mexican restaurant overlooking the river.

Main Street in Downiesville

At Lunch with Osters

I got some shots of the flowers in town.

Poppies

Blue Flower

After lunch we followed Jim & Karen to Bassett's Station where we enjoyed some ice cream for dessert. Then Mary and I continued on to Truckee and then back to Grass Valley.

Malakoff Diggins

Our destination today was Malakoff Diggins State Park. Yesterday we learned about underground hardrock mining, today we learned about hydraulic mining. 


We started out by driving to Bridgeport Covered Bridge for some morning shots of the bridge.

Bridgeport Covered Bridge

Bridgeport Covered Bridge

After snappig a few more shots of the bridge we continued our journey to Malakoff Diggins. Using high pressure water the miners eroded the hills and let the tailings run through a sluice to recover the gold. The tailings then continued downstream to cause huge problems for the farmers in the valley. Hiller Tunnel is a 7,847 foot long tunnel they built to drain water and tailings from the mining area.

View of Malakoff Diggins

Cemetery at North Bloomfield

Museum at North Bloomfield

Hiller Tunnel

The tailings flowed into the Yuba River but there is no evidence of it at this point in the rive today.

Yuba River

On the way back we stopped in at Nevada City where we did a little wine tasting. The wines at Nevada City Winery were quite good but Indian Springs Winery not so much.

Nevada City

We dropped things of at the Winnebago and went to visit the Nevada County Historical Mining Museum. This is a great little museum with a lot of mining equipment and artifacts including a 30 foot diameter Pelton Water Wheel. The wheel was powered by a water stream from a 22 inch pipeline that developed about 350 psi of pressure. It was used to provide compressed air for the mining operations.

30 ft Pelton Water Wheel

Then it was back to the Winnebago at the Nevada County Fair Grounds to do chores and relax.

Grass Valley

On Tuesday morning we packed up the Winnebago and moved to Grass Valley, CA to do a little touring of the Gold Country. Once in our new home at the Nevada County Fair Grounds RV Park we set off for a visit to the Empire Mine State Park. The Empire mine was a hard rock gold mine where the mined gold bearing quartz rock in underground mines, brought it to the surface and ran it through a stamp mill to convert it to sand. Then using water, mercury and cyanide they extracted the gold.

Empire Mine

Empire Mine Office

Stamp Mill

Entry Shaft at Empire Mine

Bourn (Owners) Cottage at Empire Mine

After a nice dinner of Cornish Pasties we took a drive to view the Bridgeport Covered Bridge. With a clear span of 290 ft it is the longest span for a wooden bridge in the USA. 

Bridgeport Covered Bridge

Cobb Mountain

After Shasta we continued south to Jellystone Park at Cobb Mountain, a destination RV Park west of Clear Lake in Lake County just north of Napa Valley. We arrived at noon on Friday and Karyn, Todd and kids arrived at 7:30 PM. We had great fun and by coincidence friend Mike Lyon was there with his son Matt and Matt's sons James and Spencer. It was a nice time of visiting and enjoying good food and wine. Matt and the boys went bass fishing in Clear Lake on Saturday and shared their catch with us. Very delicious.

Todd & Lucia in Boat

Karyn & Beckett

Mary & Lucia with Yogi Crew

Todd & Lucia with Yogi Crew

On Monday, the 4th of July, our friend Gregg Scott from Lakeport joined us for lunch. It was nice to see him again and talk about old times.

Greg Scott

Shasta Day 2

The day dawned bright and clear so we loaded the picnic in the car and headed for Mount Shasta. Our progress was thwarted at 6,900 ft where the road was closed because of snow.

Mount Shasta in the Snow

Having done what we could do on Mount Shasta we decided to take a drive to the old lumber town of McCloud. There we found a fascinating museum with a lot of stuff from the old logging days. My two favorites were the pre-runner to the chain saw and a box of really strange hammers. If you know what they were used for let me know.

Early 1900s Version of a Portable Saw

Strange Hammers

Whilst in McCloud we learned about the waterfalls on the McCloud River east of town so that is where we went next. There are three falls but I liked the Middle Falls best. We enjoyed our picnic lunch at Lower Falls.

Lower Falls

Middle Falls

Upper Falls

In the afternoon my quest became capturing a decent image of Mount Shasta.

Mount Shasta from Near Camp

Mount Shasta and Farm

California sure has a lot of beautiful scenery.