Let Me Take You On A Little Camping Trip

We made reservations at Calaveras Big Trees State Park about 6 months ago. For the last couple July's we've gone to Hendy Woods State park where I've shown you pictures of the big coast Redwood Trees. We're going to be there again next month.

But Calaveras Big Trees SP is famous for the giant Sequoia Trees. As the guide book says, there are two types of Redwoods in California, giant Sequoia's the worlds largest living trees and coast Redwoods the worlds tallest living trees.

We made reservations through Reserve America and picked a spot that looked like it would be a little way from the highway (Highway 4) and across from the meadow.

Our spot

Well, it was a "little" way from the highway. Say.....about 50 feet. All day long cars and trucks going back and forth. Oh and did I mention the road construction a quarter mile down the road from where we were camped? Jack hammer vehicles busting up rock on the side of the road, bucket machines loading truck after truck (while the traffic waited in both directions) and of course they ran up and down the highway past our campsite to get rid of their loads.

Now, let me tell you about the meadow across the road. I thought it might be a cool place since Big Tree Creek ran right through the middle of the meadow. I could already see the small trout coming to hand even before we got there.

The "Meadow"

The only place there was any water was at the bridge down the road from our camp site so the minions (small beings that speak an indecipherable language) could play in it. The rest was swamp. They even put a boardwalk across it so you could walk out and see the swamp. Oh boy.

We got to the camp site at 1:00 pm and by 4:00 pm I was ready to pack it up and go home. It was that bad. BUT my wonderful wife talked me into at least staying the night and see what the morning brought. 

Friday morning, after a good nights sleep, brought more construction, cars and trucks, but we did what any sane couple would do, and that was drive to the local wineries and go wine testing. At least we weren't sitting there listening to all the noise. 

This is one of the places we stopped. Please notice the name on the sign. Not the Ironstone name. 

Kautz

You all know I've been delving into my ancestry, but John and Gail Kautz haven't popped up in my family, yet...........

I've actually known about the Kautz Family Farms for more than 30 years. Even took "Kautz Winery" wine glasses down to my brothers house in Long Beach one Christmas. 

I do hold claim to being the first Kautz to visit the winery that wasn't family. 

So we got back to the camp site later in the afternoon and most of the traffic was gone. Had some Carnitas for dinner and called it a day. 

Saturday found me on Beaver Creek, but you're going to need to return tomorrow to find out how that went. There is a bear story there too. 

Finally, the quiz for today. What is the name of the tree and it is the only tree that uses all the vowels. I'm thinking there might be a fly box with flies in it for the randomly picked winner. 

See you tomorrow.....