Angels Camp RV Resort in Angels Camp California

Angels Camp RV Resort

What a nice park in the Mother Lode area not far from Sonora and is only 16 miles from the Columbia State park.

The Manager Sterly gave us a call and even arranged a mover for us to come over and work here. I do not know who was more anxious for us to get there.. us or him.

 Judy, Sterly and Nola are great people they have a nice park which is situated in levels. They also have a few really cute sleeping cabins available.

Our site at Angels Camp RV Resort

The quaint little town of Angels Camp, Historically known for Mark Twain's Frog Jumping Contests ever year.

Look closely at the car in the picture.. Do you think they forgot something? Like taking the hose out when they left the gas station.

   The 6 months which we were there we had some fun.
I attended a play with my friend Vicki and Jane.. Jane's husband is one of the actors in the play.. I grew up with an appreciation for the Arts.. I had a wonderful time.

Robert and I went to a Christmas Dinner up in the town of Murphy with good friends and co-workers Larry and Kathy.

This guy was a crack up.. just one of the musicians playing while dinner was being served.

We even attended a wine tasting in Angels Camp..

Even tho Robert does not drink he was a good sport and had fun too. Here he is with Nola. She is one amazing lady, she is 80 yrs old and she is full of spunk and vinegar.

Met up with Vicki for Yogurt.. YUM YUM and to see her new car that she has nick named Sassy.

A view of the front of Angels Camp RV Resort from hwy 49. There are more sites in the back.

Daffodils by the office.

There were frogs everywhere! Even on the RV one night. My theory on this is that since it is right next to the fairgrounds that when people did not win the frog jump contest they let their frogs go.

The back of the park backs up to a Ranch with cattle, horses and mules.

They have very nice tent sites which are shaded including water and electric.If you would like to know more about Angels Camp RV Resort go to
http://www.angelscamprv.com/

Next we head to Lone Pine California off of Hwy 395 Between Bishop and Ridgecrest.

Indian Grinding Rock, Pine Grove CA

Before leaving Eagle lake we had a choice of 2 different campgrounds in which to spend our Winter. Both of were volunteer positions. (Something I doubt we will ever do again.)
Our thoughts were to be able to relax a bit and also do some needed housekeeping and repairs on the RV.. Well that never happened.

 One of the parks was in Colusa next to the Sacramento River, the other was at Indian Grinding Rock State Park in Pine Grove. Well both had their advantages and disadvantages.
We choose Indian Grinding Rock, since we felt that it would not be as wet and cold as it would have been next to the river in Colusa.

Years ago I had visited the park and even tho I had seen it nearly at a run as the person i was with was not interested in even being there..
 While there many years ago I had not seen the RV park at all, so I had no idea what to expect.
  We would recommend visiting this park and learning about the history of the Mikwok Indians. It is quite beautiful..

HOWEVER .. Be forewarned that this park is not for large RV's. 

It is an old park designed for very small RV's, or Tent trailers

I recommend it for basic Tent camping. 

The only hook up is for the Host site.  

The park is in a little valley with open meadows and large valley oaks that once provided the native Americans of this area with an ample supply of acorns.

This was the home of the Miwok Indians.

This is only a portion of the massive limestone rock where there are 1,185 mortar holes -- the largest collection of bedrock mortars in North America.

The Hun'ge

replicas of the tepees which the Miwok Indians would have built and lived in.

The Oak Trees in this park were amazing. They were huge. We were told that some of the Indian Ancestors were buried beneath the trees.

Indian Gaming Field. On the other side of this is a small dry creek bed and just past that is the RV park.

The museum at Indian Grinding Rock

Robert trying to figure out how we are going to fit our 32' 5th wheel in a site that is probably originally designed for a 24' trailer or less.

Looking at the Host site from the position the RV would be sitting at.

The RV park is very over grown with many branches over hanging the very narrow road in the campground which could easily damage a large RV if you were even able to maneuver around the park.

A different angle looking at the Host site. I don't think that I ever fully captured the major slant of this site.

One of the things which the workers at Indian Grinding Rock kept telling us is that the "Spirits are High Here.".. Can someone please explain that one to me?

I think we visited this park 3 or 4 times trying to figure out how to  make it work before we were pulled over.

One of the trails in the park.

LOL yes.. again measuring, thinking and planning.

  Well we did finally move over to Indian Grinding Rock, however it only lasted a week.. It was a nightmare! We could not get stable. The front of the 5th wheel was so high that i could walk under it with about 12 more inches over my head before touching it.

   We were told by previous Work campers who hosted there that they had a 38' Motor Home (Class A) that they had been there for a year.
Well they also said and we can believe this .. they were blocked up really high in the front w/ wood. All I can say is that they are some very brave or is it lucky souls not to have came down right out of that site. They also had to have been hanging well in to the road.

  Well all I can say is that we chose not to live like we were walking on egg shells, and after spending all kinds of money trying to make it work threw in the towel!
I think it took all of 5 min to pick up the phone and call our mover to get us out after the decision was made to get out.

    The only thing that I wonder is, if we had made the Spirits mad at us by deciding to leave and not stick it out as we had quite a ruff winter.. with fix it issues, and expense wise.
                  When we left Indian Grinding Rock, We went back to The Gold Country RV park where they welcomed us back with open arms. We had planned on staying with them for another 2 weeks, however that didn't happen as we received a call within a week to come work at Angels Camp RV Resort in Angels Camp California. More on that next blog post.


      Indian Grinding Rock State Park is an amazing place to visit and learn..
                                  http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=553

Pine Grove California

After leaving Eagle Lake we arrived in Pine Grove at the Gold Country RV park.

It was to be our home while waiting to go to our next job which would be a volunteer position at Indian Grinding Rock State Park. 

We had nearly a month before we were to start there. So we took some time to relax and even go visit with family.

The Gold Country RV Park has rental cabins, a cottage and a motel, as well as tent sites and Full hook up RV sites.  They have something for everyone.

This was the outside of the  Activity / Arcade Room where you could play a video game, a round of pool or a game of ping pong.

Children's play ground

Miniature Golf course

Water Spray park, this is only a part of it.. Very was very impressive, and YES I did play around with it.. I had to turn it on so i could see how everything worked.. I had only wished it were warmer so i could secretly play in it..

Nice large Pool

Large group area for BBQing

I thought this was awesome. It would make for the perfect setting for an outdoor wedding.

It was a great place and it is very peaceful and relaxing. The sites were nice and spacious too.

There are so many things to do in this area.
 Visit Jackson, Sutter Creek, Volcano, Indian Grinding rock, Daffodil hill.. and so much more....
The Roaring Camp Mining Company was located right across the street..
Anyone for a little gold prospecting? Sadly we didn't get the opportunity to do that while there.

Before heading to Torrance we stopped in Stockton to visit with my Mom, Brother and my beautiful nieces.

My brother Duane with his two daughters.

My Mom, My Little Brother and I. Not the greatest of pictures we were blinded by the sun.

Trying to get a picture of Robert with his parents is nearly impossible. None of them like their picture taken. 

 We would recommend the Gold Country RV park and would stay there again ourselves if in the area.. Actually before all was over we did end up back there again for nearly 2 weeks..
There is more to come regarding how that came to be in my next post,
But for now here is the web address for the Gold Country RV Park and Roaring Camp.

http://www.goldcountrycampground.com/index.html

http://www.roaringcampgold.com/

Eagle Lake continued

 At Eagle Lake we had several pot luck dinners and they would always be held at Bill and El's over in the Merrill campground.. My did they sure know how to throw a party.

We were so blessed to have met so many wonderful people while working there.   

Cooking out is always better via the campfire. Here i am making what i had learned way back in girl scouts. and .... Yes i can remember that far back..  

It is called Hobo Stew.

Hamburger, bacon, potato's, onion, carrots and seasoning. Wrap all that in aluminum foil.. cover it several times. then toss it into the fire..

We had several friends and family who came up to visit us..  Even some of the guys from NAS Fallon came up. Robert really enjoyed seeing them again.

Ron and Janet.
We worked together at Yosemite Pines.

The Juhasz family.
The boys were wonderful they even helped me with my programs.

Judie, Terry and their Grand Daughter.
Judie and I worked together in Fallon NV.

 

We purchased a Blongo ball game..
What a blast it is.. Fun was had by all.

  

Yes this is a toilet from the out house by the amphitheater.
My nephew and his family had came up camping and I was just about to give one of the Arts and Crafts classes when it is brought to our attention that the porta potty is no longer in its proper space..
LOL ok gotta love the creative and brave soul to have done this.
Can you say PHEW!

This is a Golden Mantle. .yes it looks like a chipmunk but.. notice it does not have the mask and that the stripes do not go all the way over its head but stop at its shoulders.. Also you can't tell by this picture but i loved to tell the campers.. They look like a chipmunk on steroids. They are considerably bigger.. There were both at the lake as well as a few other breeds.

This brave and crazy squirrel is not on snow.. but it had been sprinkling so i folded up my table cloth to cover my handouts,  with the cotton side was up.. well he / or she decided it was great fun tearing it up..

This picture was taken while i was assisting w/ the Jr Ranger program.

Our Boss Scott and his daughter Rachel. Scott was a great guy to work for.

The highest point while at the lake was when my nephew and his family came to visit. I had not seen them in years.. This meant the world to me..

Up at Eagle Lake the season is May - Oct as a rule, However we ended up having to leave early and rather suddenly as the Forest Service was having a lumber sale and falling several trees in both of my campgrounds.
(as well as a couple of the others. )
Very little notice was given prior to this.. Remember we hire a mover.. to get us from place to place so we can't just hook up to the jeep wrangler and go.

This was right across from the Host site. This tree eating monster does a good job and i really was not to nervous about it. However when another man knocked on my door and said we would have to get out of our RV as he was not sure whether the tree he was going to manually fall would hit the RV or not.. Well............. Guess who put her foot down!
And told him he would NOT be falling that tree until after 9 a.m. the following day when we were to be out of there.

It is sad that this was the last memories of the campgrounds that meant so much to me. I just hope that over the winter season it was able to heal and as the Summer Season approaches i hope that my campers will not be disappointed in what they find when they arrive.

If you are ever in Lassen area, I hope that you will take the time to stay at one of the campgrounds at the lake, walk the trails and do a little fishing.. 

OH MY...

That is one area i nearly forgot to tell you about.. The rainbow trout up at Eagle lake are the BEST.. very mild, pink in color and put up a nice fight.. 

  People come from all over just to catch them. Many have been coming back for      20, 30, 40 or more years to the lake just for the fishing.

                               Don't take my word for it.. look it up. :)

Here is the web address for the campgrounds up at Eagle lake and information about the marina..

http://www.eaglelakerecreationarea.com/camping.html

Oh, and if you do go up and you happen to see Orval out there fishing or looking for our Yellow Jeep Wrangler at the Eagle campground, tell him he still can't have it.. 

I am sure gonna miss that ol guy, he reminded me so much of my Grandfather.. Truthfully.. there will be many of my campers that i am going to miss, as well as a tiny Chihuahua dog named Chico.

Oh and I am sure that many of you wonder why we are not going back to a place that I loved so much.. 

Well we really need to work year round, and have a steady income since we are not retired.....
or to have had 2 paying jobs. One for summer at the lake and one for winter. 
But sadly that didn't happen as we had hoped it would. 

The early and sudden rush move out of there and expenses which we had accrued from that as well as a hard winter didn't help.

 Last but definitely not the least reason: 

Was that there was very little work which was available for Robert to do

and well lets face it, one of us could not be happy it had to be both of us 
or things would just not work out. 
Family must come 1st!

Eagle Lake and the campgrounds will be forever in my Heart <3