California One-night Stops

After leaving Big Basin State Park and Scott's Valley, we drove through the vast, flat expanse of vegetable fields surrounding Watsonville and Hollister. North and east form Hollister, tucked in the San Joaquin Mountains is San Louis State Reservoir and Recreation Area. "Tucked "makes this lake sound smallish. It's not. It's miles and miles across and provides water to all of those fields of greens we passed. Campers seem to enjoy fishing the lake, too. For us it was a surreally quiet resting place. Night herons perched in the trees along the lakeside near the paved trail where we walked and let Nina run.

 

Woodpecker on a faucet at the county park

The next night we stayed at Kern County Park outside of Tehachapi, a small town known for its Railroad Loop and its miles and miles of wind farms. The town sits at 3000 some feet, surrounded by tall hills. We had stopped in the town about 4 in the afternoon for gas. Michael noticed a flat tire on the Volvo, and while changing it in the parking lot of a brand new Dollar General, I found the campground listed on my phone. It had been a long day of driving, after almost running out of gas not too far from Kettleman City (We were within rolling distance) and later, having to pull off the road in the mountains east of Bakersfield when Michael saw smoke pouring out of the back of the Pickle! It resulted in nothing that he could find, but we were ready to park for the day. The County Park was just the thing - 3 miles out of town on a gravel road, a few sites overlooking Brite Lake which really was small, but lovely. Electric hook-ups, flush toilets and free hot showers!! One other site was occupied so Nina had the run of the place. She loved it.