The Redwoods, an Almond farm and Yosemite Lakes

Happy 4th of July! Independence Day! In a way, this journey is our independence, and man oh man, we are liking the freedom we have given ourselves to experience and explore! The posts are still about a month behind, so what you are reading about this week happened towards the end of May.

We left the Pacific coast and spent the night at Hendy Woods State Park in the middle of a redwood forest. We took our bikes down a trail in the middle of the forest and then hiked down another trail to see the big ones. This was probably the most tranquil place we have been on the journey. We only had one night there, but we plan to go back and spend more time at this beautiful place.

After we left Hendy Woods, we stayed at a Harvest Host the next night. This one was in an almond grove. It was pretty cool to see the almonds on the trees. We spoke with the hostess while we sampled her flavored almonds (they were good). She explained that when it is time to harvest they have a tractor that grabs the tree and shakes it until all the almonds fall out. She said it feels like a constant earthquake during harvest season.

We then moved on to our next reservation, Yosemite Lakes. This is a Thousand Trails campground. We were given a Thousand Trails membership free when we purchased our Airstream. So we have many campgrounds in a specific region that we can stay at for free. The odd thing about them is, you aren’t assigned a campsite. Once you get there, you drive around until you find one you like and park there. They are rustic but, usually offer full hookups (that means electricity, water and sewer hookups). Having full hookups is a luxury that a lot of parks and campgrounds do not offer. Most have water, quite a few have electricity and some offer none of those amenities. The location was great, challenging to drive to and very close to Yosemite National Park. But due to the massive snows during the winter, we couldn’t access the park from our location. The campground was OK. We definitely wouldn’t rush back to stay there again. But, free is free. And we want to experience a few more before we decide if the membership would be worth renewing when our current one expires.