October – December 2000

The Escapee’s have a number of parks available for members in the southwest. We chose this one because it was a little further north than the others but not so much so that that winter would be too cold. We haven’t decided how long to stay here yet but most likely we will be here through Christmas. The main objective was to be near some snow for Christmas.

The foothills to the Sierra Nevada Mountains are quite attractive to traverse. After coming through flatlands of the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley it was nice to see rolling hills. The hills are covered with multiple shades of golden brown colors this time of year. The prevailing trees are scrub oaks with a fair mix of California long leaf pines and the red bark Manzanita trees. The grass is a wheat brown telling of the coming winter. There are open vistas of meadows sprinkled with outcroppings of rocks and gullies. The view brings a comfortable feeling after traveling through the arid desert. This is not a desert but it is still a dryer place than the familiar lushness back East.

One of the impressive shrubberies we noticed is the Manzanita. They were quite prolific amongst the scrub oaks and California Pines.

Being located on the edge of the park we were a stopping point for much of the local rabbits, birds and squirrels. Here are some California Quails and Towhees browsing on feed seed we set out for them.

These little fellows were most entertaining. The woodpeckers had an unusual call and grouped together in flocks which is different from the woodpeckers we were familiar with back east. They have lots of personality and are curious enough to come over to check us out. This particular hole had almost a dozen woodpeckers that came out each morning from the same hole! These woodpeckers get their name from what they do with acorns. This area being abundant with acorn oaks, the Acorn Woodpeckers store their winter food supply in the wood bark of any handy dead tree or building. This annoys the park residents to no end and measures to prevent them from poking holes in the eaves of the site sheds have proven unsuccessful so far.

Coarsegold Creek lived up to its name by giving up what proved to be our first flakes of gold! It's surprising what you can find if you look for it.

We also saw our first tarantula walking down the road. I missed it myself, but Judy and Mary enjoyed looking at it. They were lucky to see one this late in the year. I'm not much of a spider person so I didn't mind missing it.

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