California Here I Come - Part 9

[Guest]

The Cast:

Me, Catherine (42) - Chief (only) planner
DH, Stuart (46) - goes with the flow
DS, Alex (12)
DD, Hannah (7)

Day 11, Sunday 4 June, Settling in at Angels Camp

Weather: Sunny and Hot

After the tiring drive yesterday we decided to spend our first day just staying around the resort. Me and the kids spent a great deal of the morning hanging around the pool and clubhouse. The pool was busy until around noon when a good many people left. Many people seemed to be packing and leaving this day and what had been a very busy, noisy and overcrowded resort took on a different character for the rest of the week.

As I said we did nothing particular this day so I won’t bore everyone with the details. One good thing though was our total expenditure for the day was $0.


Day 12, Monday 5 June, Big Trees and Snow above 8,000ft

Weather: Sunny and hot, some cloud pm.

Today we decided to drive the 20 or so miles to the Calaveras Big Tree State Park. As the name suggests we were going to see some of the oldest and largest living things on earth, the California Giant Redwood or Sequoia trees. It was a lovely drive following the steady incline of Highway 4 into the mountains. The state park visitors’ centre was at just over 5000 ft elevation. We looked at the various routes we could take at the centre and decided to do the ‘North Grove ’the shorter route and purchase the small brochure which described the route. The booklet was well put together with lots of information about the history and ecology of the woodland. My DS told me he was really surprised and enjoyed the walk far more than he thought he was going to do when we had told him we were going to go and see ‘some big trees’. DH also enjoyed himself evidenced by the number of photographs he took here.







The walk took us up until lunch when we decide to drive back to the nearest village, Arnold (Hey, Arnold!). We had fish and chips and chicken and chips at a local fast food joint. Before lunch we were talking to the very friendly ladies in the visitors’ centre who had mentioned that there was still ice up at the Alpine Lake at 8000 ft elevation. Now given that the temperatures here we hitting in the 80s and it was early June we thought this was unlikely but decided to drive the 18 or so miles to see for ourselves. We found the lake and yes, the banks of snow still on the ground. The temperatures up here were still in the 70s so it was remarkable that the snow was still lying on the ground. All I can assume is that they get some serious snow pack and low temperatures up here during winter and that spring comes late.



We drove back along Highway 4 and stopped off in Angel’s Market which was a deli type locally owned supermarket. We bought some very nice ground beef which I made into a Shepherd’s Pie for tea.

We spent the evening watching a DVD hired from reception and the t.v. before bed.

Kitty

[Guest]

Those trees were enormous when you see the kids standing next to them. How odd to see the snow yet the sun shining brightly.

[Guest]

Wow those trees are huge, great day and smashing photos.

[Dizzy]

Crikey, what huge trees and snow in that heat...Lol. Glad your accommodation improved.
Thanks for the report and phtoos.

[Guest]

Another great report with lovely photos.

[Fairy+4]

Good grief, those trees were huge

[Pedro]

Those Giant Redwoods are incredible when you get close up.

Peter