Rancho Jurupa Campground

Last weekend we had the opportunity to check out a new local campground in Riverside county.  It is a county park, website here .  It is only a 40 mile drive from the house so it makes a good weekend getaway.  Though it might be considered an urban park it has a nice country feel to it. 

The campground itself has two camping areas,

Cottonwood loop, the newer of the two, which is where we stayed.  This loop is much nicer than the Lakeview loop, but it is a little further away from the lake, It is still within walking distance.   It offers FHU and free wifi and cable. So it has lots to offer for a county campground.

Lakeview loop, I am not sure of the amenities of this loop, but it definitely has more mature shades trees.  In the summer that would definitely be a plus. 

As I mentioned it also has a stocked lake, and I actually saw someone carrying a nice stringer of fish.

There are also a couple of kids playgrounds in the day use area and a mini golf course.

The sites are good sized and if you review the campground map carefully you can find some that have large grassy areas around them like Site# 217, the one we were in.

Across the street there is a big sport park, we did not check it out.  Sounded to much like work.

We were both getting over a cold so we stayed pretty close to the site and just sat and enjoyed the sunshine.  The weekend ended in a very windy night that had us chasing our patio furniture around at 2am.

It was a nice campground and one we will definitely be going to again.  One thing you might want to consider is that it will probably get rather warm in the summer months.

Didn't take to many pictures, but enjoy the few I did take.

Christmas at Santee Lakes 2012

With the Christmas season here again, we set off to spend a few days at one of our favorite campgrounds, Santee Lakes.  I am off work until Jan 2, 2013 but Robin had to be back to work after Christmas. 

We checked into the campground on the Saturday before Christmas and we were staying until Christmas day. A friend of ours who winters in Quartzsite joined us for the stay and celebrate the Christmas holiday  The weather was on the cool side and we did get some rain on the morning before Christmas.  But otherwise it was all good. 

The dogs, as always, enjoyed being out and about and Buddee enjoyed long walks around the lakes. We always like spending time watching all the ducks that are always on the lake and they are always looking for a free meal.

The Christmas Eve dinner consisted of Prime Rib that was slowed roasted in Karen's slow roaster/BBQ.  This was a test for a Prime Rib in the roaster and it passed with flying colors.
Along with the Prime Rib were side dishes of mashed potatoes, green beans, candied carrots and a perfect ending of pumpkin pie.

On Christmas day we leisurely packed up and headed back home.  Robin back to work and me to do some chores.

Hope you enjoy the pictures and wishing everyone,

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We spent our annual Thanksgiving weekend at the Lakeside RV Park in Pahrump, NV.  The weather was perfect, lots of sunshine and no wind.  We stay at the same campground every year, I really like the fall colors and if we don't feel like cooking the restaurant is pretty good.
Saturday night is prime rib buffet....YUM!.

A friend from Quartzside came to enjoy the weekend with us.  For T-day dinner we had a Honey Baked Ham w/mashed potatoes and candied carrots....another YUM!

On Friday we took a drive into Death Valley to take a tour of Scottys Castle only to find out that is really was never Scotty's Castle. Info on Scottys Castle.

One the way back to the RV park we took a little detour on the Borax Canyon road.

Saturday we stayed in town and went to a couple of small swap meets and stopped at the local Winery.  We relaxed at the campsite and enjoyed the sunshine.

It was a great weekend and can't wait to get out again.  Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Big Bear, Serrano NF Campground

We had the pleasure of spending last weekend at Serrano NF campground, next to Big Bear Lake.  We took the day off on Friday to get an early start up the "Big Hill" before the temps got to hot.  It was also Robin's birthday so we wanted to enjoy the weekend for as long as we could.

We arrived before noon on Friday and our site wasn't available yet so we parked off to the side and waited to get the signal that it was ready.  We waited about half an hour and we were waved into the campground.

The loop we were in didn't have any hookups but the sites were large with lots of space between campsites.  There were mostly tenters around us. It was in the mid 80"s and humid but we had lots of shade.  The evening cooled off nicely so we had good sleeping.

Saturday we woke up early, Buddee (dog) wanted to get the day started with his walk, so off we went to explore the area.  There is a bike trail the goes along the campground with the lake nearby so Buddee got this walk and back to the campsite for their breakfast, Buddee and Liz.  About 10am it clouded over and the T-Storms started.  Nothing scary, just a nice rain that pretty much continued off and on for the rest of the day.  Weather cooled down to mid 70's, we could sit under the awning and watch the rain. After the heat and dry weather we were experiencing at home it really felt great.

About 3pm the sun came out for awhile.  There was a big classic car show in Big Bear for the weekend, I am sure they didn't appreciate the rain like we did.  There was a caravan of all the cars making a trip around the lake, which brought them right past the campground.  We went down to the road and watched as all shapes and sizes of custom autos drove by.
It started raining again shortly after the drive by. The night was dry and sleeping was good with the cool temps. Here is sampling of the cars in the show.


Sunday morning it was time to pack up and head home again.....another great camping weekend.  Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Guajome Campground, Oceanside, Ca

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Get your own

We worked a half day on Friday and took off for a weekend campout at a local campground.  This campground is located east of Oceanside and is part of the San Diego County Park Sytem.  This little park has 35 campsites.  W/E with a dump station located at the exit.

We got to the campground about 2pm, traffic sucked.  We had reserved site#18 for our stay.  The site was great, long and plenty of camp space.  We relaxed the rest of the afternoon, maybe even dozed off a little bit.  Dinner were cheeseburgers and salad and baked beans.

Buddee and I spent some of the weekend exploring the lake area and the little hiking trails.  This area has lots of birds and different vegetation.  We had lot's of little walks enjoying the area.

It was a very relaxing weekend.  We are going to come back to this campground, it is within an hours drive of home and doable over a weekend.  It must be popular as it was booked all weekend.

Kings Canyon-Memorial Weekend

This is our third year that we have taken an extended weekend and went camping in Kings Canyon NP.  We were still as amazed by its beauty as we were the first time we camped in the canyon.  We stayed in the Moraine campground in the Cedar Grove area of the canyon.  The campground is mostly tenters with a few trailers and a couple of motorhomes so we kind of stick out.

We arrived on Thursday early afternoon, the weather was nice and sunny, probably in the mid 60's.  It took us a while to get level (not very level sites) and set up.  All was good.  A couple of friends joined us with their Westie (VW camper).  Friday was forecast with a 40% chance of rain in the evening so we put the rugs and chairs up in the afternoon so they wouldn't get wet.  We would get a little sprinkle once in a while.

Saturday morning we awoke to white stuff on the ground and a little chill in the air.  The day progressed to partly sunny and the snow was gone by 10am.  We decided to spend the afternoon around the campfire relaxing.  It was nice to relax and enjoy the beauty of the trees and the smell of pine in the air.  Later on in the evening we were sitting inside enjoying the furnace, playing crazy eight and watched several deer come through the campground.

Sunday morning we got up to sunny skies, it was going to be a nice day.  We, of course, had to pack up and get on the road back to the real world.  We did do an overnight at the Bakersfield RV Resort to get the last of the weekend before heading home on Monday Morning. 

Next year we will probably miss out on Kings Canyon as we are planning on heading for Yellowstone on Memorial Weekend.

It was again a great weekend.  Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Black Rock Canyon, Joshua Tree

This our first visit to Joshua Tree NP, the price was certainly right. It was $7.50 per night and free enty into the park with our old geezer pass.  Good stuff.

The campground has no hookups, and the sites aren't very level but it was a great place to spend the weekend and visit the NP.  I will say the last half mile into the campground could certainly use some roadwork.  We would stay there again.

The weather was perfect, it was rather windy inside the park when we were siteseeing but the campground was perfect with nice quiet eveings for a campfire.  It amazes me the differences in the desert landscapes, just in this park alone, I think the landscape changed about three times.  It is very differnet than Death Valley.

Anyway it was another successful weekend.

Enjoy the pictures!