Oakhurst/Coarsegold
a snack stop on the way south
Interesting thing about Google. You tell it’s navigation program to take you somewhere and you have it set to the fastest route, the program does a great job of routing you but knows nothing about the road conditions. Road 120 is the route they put us on headed from Visalia to Coarsegold. It’s kind of scenic but, for the first 5 miles of it, we lost any and all time savings. This road has so many repairs on top of repairs that we would have had a smoother ride driving through the plowed fields alongside. We both agreed that it would have been a fun ride on the bikes but definitely wasn’t designed for towing a fifth wheel over. We did come into Coarsegold from a direction I had never been, joining road 41 at the light in Coarsegold. A right turn and a mile down we pull into the Yosemite RV Resort which is run by the RVC Outdoor group. We had stayed one night here when it was branded under KOA. This place was a mess and not worth trying to stay at then as it was definitely not up to KOA standards. With the purchase and re-branding the new owners are pouring buckets of money into the place. A newly paved driveway leads you to the newly constructed main building where friendly staff waited to get us checked in and escorted us to our site and even hung out while I made sure we were level. They have added a number of Yurts and cabins as well. they are renovating all the amenities and are really working on turning this park into a destination.
baby bunny foo foo
We got settled and headed up to meet Geezerguy and Gezzergal at the house upon the hill and then headed off to Millers for burgers and beers on the shore of Bass Lake. This is a very picturesque area that I always forget to photograph because I don’t think of it at the time. Bass Lake is a summer resort destination surrounded by national Forest and private lodges and homes. The forest of Sugar Pines has been hit heavily with a blight from a destructive beetle infestation but is beginning to recover since the nice wet winter there.
On Thursday morning we woke to see Foo Foo hanging out under our window. After coffee and breakfast we headed back up the hill and the four of us went to the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad. This is one of those cool little places in the mountains where a local attraction has done well. They run a couple of Shay steam engines on a four mile track through the woods. the history narrative is great and the ride through the woods is fun. These engines are fuel oil fired, so not as sooty as wood or coal burners. The Shay was designed to be just as powerful going backwards as going forwards for these mountainous areas.
They have a neat little museum along with gift shops and a “learn to gold pan ” attraction along with outdoor food and drinks. What a fun morning it was!
We headed out to do our hike but everyone was hungry for lunch first, so off to the Wawona Lodge in Yosemite (another fee mitigated by the annual pass). The lodge has been renamed the Big Trees Lodge due to a weird name copyright issue. Great food in a Victorian hotel that was built in 1867. We stopped and got our walking pins in the gift shop and then headed out on the 3.5 mile easy hike around the meadow. The meadow here has been used for a little bit of everything over the years from the natives who lived there to horse camps and even an aeroplane (golden age spelling) landing area. It has most recently been used as a golf course but is now being returned to nature by the parks service.
a knotty tree in wawona, Yosemite
Geezerguy and E on the trail
E got to spend some very quality time with GGuy and we all had a good time. Back down the hill and dropped the geezers off for their naps. Dinner planned at Piper for later. Evening time at Piper with beers and burgers and s’mores for dessert. Laughter and stories (the geezers had recently traveled to Eire) and before we knew it the time had slipped away. We planned on getting on the road to Vegas early on Friday to try to beat the traffic and heat (hahahahah). Good nights traded and the camp cleaned up and off to bed for us.
Until the next time…
BFD and Ejacks
