Day 7 - Oakhurst

9:45 am to 2:45 pm

134 miles

198W, 201W, 63N, 180W, 145S, 41N

High Sierra RV Park

We decided to go to Oakhurst today and had Google take us there avoiding highways.  We had quite a meandering back and forth through the Central Valley.  The Central Valley supplies one quarter of the food Americans eat and produces more than 17 million gallons of wine each year.  

There were so many trees and plants that we couldn’t identify – we continued to see the massive orange and lemon groves. Here are some examples of what we saw today.

Once we got close to Oakhurst it was plain to see that spring has not come here yet.  A little cool and trees don’t yet have any buds.  We are at an elevation of 2,274 feet.  

We did get a terrific campsite beside the Fresno River and had a nice campfire.  Rain is supposed to come in overnight and last through tomorrow morning.  We will be heading west and south to hopefully warmer weather but want to keep to the Central Valley as we don’t know much about it.

Fresno River

Looking at the Fresno River through the windshield

Fresno River

Campers behind us are fishing in the Fresno River

Our site

Day 6 - Three Rivers

10 am to 2:30 pm

91.6 miles

Hwy 65N, 204N, 198E

Sequoia RV Ranch

An overcast and drizzly day with some periods of moderate rain.  We’re settled in for the night in the best spot of the campground.

When the rain stopped last night at River Run RV Park

Driving north of highway 65 is one orange grove after another.  Lots of oranges on the ground and we think the wind blew them off as it has been stormy in this area for the past couple of days.

Fruit stand on Hwy 65N

So, we got to Three Rivers, had lunch, and made our way to Sequoia RV Ranch.

From the RV door

The obligatory fire

Kaweah River

Day 5 - Bakersfield

10:30 am to 1:15 pm

15.4 miles

River Run RV Park

Well, our perception of Bakersfield has undergone a dramatic change.  We’ve only been here twice but all we’ve seen is sand, industrial buildings and materials, oil drills – very beige.  Today we decided to do some grocery shopping and find a BevMo for Norm’s special tonic.  We went into neighborhoods that were beautiful – green grass, trees, flowers, wide streets.  We had no idea that these neighborhoods existed here.  We found a large park beside the Kern River and had our lunch there as well as a walk along the river.

The pond at The Park at River Walk

The Park at River Walk

Bridge across the Kern River

Kern River

Don’t know for sure if we will get rain here now.  The winds have whipped up quite a bit but so far the rain has held off.  Oh well, it was nice to have a nothing to do day.  We're now settled in for the afternoon and evening but did manage a short walk along the river which is beside the campground, although not much water here.

Our campsite - the Kern River is the other side of the fence

A pretty dry Kern River behind the campground

We were talking yesterday about a campground we remembered that had a creek running behind our site and how lovely it was.  I remembered doing a Skype call from there with John & Diane and Norm remembered sitting under the awning as it rained.  I discovered the name of the campground going through a blog in May 2016.  Turns out that campground is 76 miles from here so we may just check it out tomorrow.

Day 4 - Bakersfield

8 am to 2:40 pm

158.3 miles

Hwy 14SS, 138W, 5N, 99N

Bakersfield RV Resort

Started off the morning with breakfast at Foxy’s Landing at the California City Municipal Airport – a very cute restaurant.

Had to go to Lancaster and drive the Musical Road!  What a hoot!

Not the greatest as the RV is quite noisy but just the same - https://youtu.be/i-LXhpZCfiU

Then we were off to Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve) (just saw the news that 100,000 people showed up in Lake Elsinore to see the poppies) and we were so glad that the bloom here is just starting.  There were a lot of people here as it was.  Still, it was lovely.

We knew we didn’t want to go further south so headed back towards Bakersfield.  When we got here on Saturday we went to an RV park and were turned away because of an event at the fairgrounds.  I thought we’d go back there today but for some reason, remembered the name incorrectly.  So here we are at the Bakersfield RV Resort instead of River Run Resort.  We walked around and felt that it looked familiar so looking in our RV Journal we determined we stayed here May 23, 2016!  Bah!!  Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy so we’re going to take it easy, do some shopping, and try to get into River Run Resort.  Temperature today 77 degrees and a bit muggy in anticipation of the rain.

Nice enough to sit outside to watch a little TV

Having dessert in the Crest Bar & Grill at this resort

Day 3 - Red Rock Canyon State Park

10am to 3 pm

111.4 miles

Hwy 178E, 14S

Ricardo Campground

Followed Hwy 178E and went over Walker Pass at an elevation of 5250 feet.  Nice drive, nice road and very little traffic. 

Got onto Hwy 14 and stopped to check out Red Rock Canyon State Park.  What magnificence!  Don’t think the photos do it justice.

Onward to Mojave and lunch at the Mojave Air and Space Port.  They are only open to the public the third Saturday of each month so we lost out on that one.

After checking out a couple of campgrounds we decided to go back to Red Rock Canyon State Park and the Ricardo Campground and stop there for the night.  Of course, no hook-ups here and services stopped a couple of miles down the road so will have to post this from wherever we are tomorrow. 

Well, son of a gun!  The State Park has WiFi - no power though so just needed some battery power on the laptop and we were in business.  Who knew?

Day 2 - Lake Isabella

10:30 to 3:30
75.8 miles
Hwy 178E
Lake Isabella KOA

Well, Highway 178 East was amazing!  The first part was a little daunting- narrow two lane road with massive rocks on our side (some jutting into our lane) and an impressive drop into the Kern River on the other side.   The height of the hills was amazing as were the colors on those hills.   Lots of green and massive amounts of yellow and orange flowers.  Simply gorgeous!

Hwy 178 & Kern River

Hwy 178

Hwy 178

We made a short stop at Silver City Ghost Town.   Cute!

Note the noose in the tree

We had picked Lake Isabella RV Resort but when we got there we were not impressed so took off to see the other campgrounds around the lake.  They were lovely but closed.  We found one open right on the lake but the roads were so bad we gave up.  Last option was this KOA which is fine- we know what to expect with a KOA.  Sad that it's not on the lake though.  Oh well, onward and upward.

Day 1 - Bakersfield

8am to 2:30pm
206.3 miles
Hwy 101-166E-33N-119E-43N-58E

A Country RV Park

The direct route here is 78 miles,  of course,  but we seldom take the direct route.  

We got our wish for warmer weather and it's wonderful;  we so needed this after this winter.  Don't know if it will last this trip but we are definitely purring away today!!!

This is an absolute first - a green Hwy 166! 

Our first amazing green view of Hwy 166

Hwy 166 bursting with color

The beige color you would normally see everywhere along the highway

Couldn't resist this photo in Cuyama

A little green with the usual white/beige on this highway

Time to enjoy a brew outside