McArthur-Burney Memorial State Park

Monday: (05/10) It started to snow again almost immediately and continued all the way to our next stop, McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State park.


We found a nice site and walked back to register in a blizzard. We looked at the falls from the viewpoint. I've been here several times but haven't seen the water flow so much nor the view enhanced by heavy snow. The snow stopped very shortly after our return to camp but we called it a day for outdoor activity. Hopefully tomorrow the weather will be better.

Lou fixed fettuccine with fresh asparagus and chicken meat balls for dinner.

After dinner I ventured down to the camp store. The rain had stopped and it was nearing nightfall. I didn't have great hopes of actually finding an Internet connection but had to try. I left without a flashlight, remembered it a short ways down the road but thought I wouldn't find a connection to the Internet anyway and I'd be back before it got really dark. Mistake. The camp store did have a free Wifi connection and it did get really dark before I started home. With total cloud cover and no moon and lots of trees it was pitch black. No other campers to help light the way. I felt my way the 1/4 mile to home and will listen to that voice inside next time and take a flashlight.


Tuesday: (05/11) A much nicer day today. No clouds, sunny and in the 60's. After breakfast of leftover choriso omelet, english muffins and sliced apples we went on a hike to the falls.


It's impossible to get a complete picture of the falls with my camera. In addition to the actual falls the cliff leaks all around. It would take a really good fish eye lens to capture it all.

Then we hiked up to the headwaters about a half mile up and then back.


I saw some flowers on the hike.


And some blossoms. We're a little early for most of the flowers in this area it seems.

Lou made some spam, white bean and corn soup for lunch.

Our campsite, #36, has no sun but it was one of only two pull through sites and the only one we could squeeze through. We used it yesterday and avoided having to disconnect in the rain and snow. Today, though, we wanted a bit more sun so we moved to the only campsite that had sun, #15. Even that site only gets morning and mid day sun and we needed more so we moved to the day use parking lot for the afternoon sun. The stormy weather these past two days has caused our batteries to need a little extra sun now.


We took an afternoon drive to look at Lake Britton which is adjacent to the park and at some other campgrounds nearby. Nothing better than where we are. Along the way we got a good view of Mt Lassen.


Our new campsite above left. For dinner we shared a Marie Callendar's chicken pot pie and followed that with a green salad all out at our campfire.

Wednesday: (05/12) We woke very late, had cereal for breakfast, showered and went to the dump and then parked the RV in the day use lot.


We then hiked out the Pioneer Cemetery Trail and looked around the cemetery. The trail passes through a nice forest that probably had a minor forest fire about 5 years ago. It's recovering nicely. When we returned we had lunch, strawberry shortcake with ice cream and then followed that with nacho chips. We then took another look at the falls and then hit the road.

Cave Campground Near Lassen NP

Sunday: (05/09) Peanut butter and jelly English muffins for breakfast with some grapefruit.


We continued West on Highway 36 from Susanville. Just before we came down into the Hat Creek valley we got a good view of the recent fire damage in the valley. Too bad!


We continued up highway 44 to Highway 89 and stopped there at the Cave CG in Old Station, CA about 15 miles North of the North entrance to Lassen NP. We settled in to a nice campsite by Hat Creek. It was pretty cold and raining. In fact while we were at the Visitors Center hail fell in between the rain. Lou fixed posole soup with grille cheese sandwiches.

After lunch we hiked through the Subway Cave, a lava tube cave. It is located across the road from our campground.


Then we drove up in to Lassen National Park. It's mostly closed.


The road is cleared and open 10 miles in to the park to the Devastation Area trailhead parking area. We almost got a view of Lassen Peak there. The top is mostly covered by clouds. In a few more weeks the road will be open and the crowds will have arrived, but for now, we were one of only a couple of visitors.


We stopped at Manzqanita Lake at the geese lined up to greet us, an advantage of being one of the few visitors. I guess.


Manzanita Lake is mostly frozen over. The part that wasn't made for nice reflective pictures.

I fixed Italian sausage with chili sizes and corn chips for dinner. What a feast for Mothers day.

Monday: (05/10) It was snowing when we got up. It's not cold so it melted before or when it hit the ground. We're in the trees and it's overcast so the solar isn't expected to work today so we started the generator, the first time in months. The weather forecast doesn't indicated sunny days until Wednesday. We heard from a neighbor in the campground that the campground was full Saturday but they all left quickly in the morning Sunday because of the rain. Probably also because it was time to head home for weekenders. Either way, we're pretty much by ourselves in our half of the campground. Lou baked a chorizo omelet for breakfast.


After breakfast we drove up to a trialhead and hiked around a the Spatter Cone Trail of  about two miles looking at spatter cones, tumulos and lava tubes.


There are about 22 features (spatter cones. tumulos and lava tubes) along the trail but they are difficult to get a good picture of, especially in the snow. I did catch some manzanita blossoms.

There also was supposed to be a good view of Mt Lassen but the low clouds obscured views of all the mountains. On the second half of the trail it started to snow making the hike even more interesting.

When we returned to camp we had lunch. Tomato bisque soup and ham and cheese sandwiches then we took a final walk by the river next to our camp and departed.

Susanville Walmart Night Stop

Saturday: (05/08) More strawberry pancakes with garlic sausage for breakfast. We did some final shopping to restock before we left at Walmarts, Raley's and Grocery outlets. Lou knew just where to go for the sales. Grocery outlet had strawberries for $.75 a pound, Raley's had tri-tip roasts and Walmart had everything else. Lou started the tri-tip roast in the crockpot with some dry zesty Italian dressing mix with a little vinegar and water. the roast was browned then sliced and placed in the crockpot. We started it and then the clouds came out so we had a little drain on our batteries much of the time. We should always check the weather report before using the crockpot.

Our next stop was the Cabella's store in Verdi to use their dump and look around. An interesting store. We arrived to find the dump locked up. Since there were signs leading us in that surprised us. Lou went in to complain and see if there was a key. Of course there was, just like the sign we didn't read said. The dump worked well but they didn't have potable water so we were only half done. Lou found a nice 12volt electric blanket there she couldn't resist as well. Since Cabella's is right next door to the Boomtown Casino, we had to stop in. Lou bet her dollar and came away with $25. We'd have had lunch there as well but their buffet is only open Friday through Sunday and their cafe is now a Denny's so we fixed out own lunch in the RV and ate on the road. Lunch was ham and cheese sandwiches with chips and guacamole dip.

We stopped at the Walmart in Susanville, asked if we could stay and they said OK, so here we are. We tried to find water on the way here but didn't, we checked at a park here and a reststop just before here and both were dry, no water available. So, we stopped at a Chevron station and ask if we could fill up there. they had a convenient faucet. They said OK so we gassed up and filled the water. We had to pay for the gas but got the water for a tour of the RV.

Even with the partly cloudy day we still recharged most of our battery use from last night (75ah) and cooked dinner. Dinner was the tri-tip roast with baked potatoes, and steamed broccoli and carrots. By the time we had baked potatoes and steamed the vegetables we were 30ah down after dinner so the clouds didn't cause much problem.

Reno At The Atlantis Casino

Tuesday: (05/04)We arrived at the Atlantis Casino about 7:30pm and called it a day.

Wednesday: (05/05) Cereal and bananas for breakfast. We were up early and started our day with a visit to the early morning almost empty casino. We stopped by the market on the way home for a couple of things. We also checked the library hours which were now quite limited. It didn't open until 11am. We returned to the RV and Lou prepared her thrift store route map. We then walked over to one that is nearby. While Lou was examining the thrift store, I examined the Harbor Freight Tool store next door and the Sportsman's store. We returned to the RV for ham and cucumber sandwiches for lunch then Lou took off with her map in the car to discover what treasures were at the rest of the area's thrift stores.

I found a WiFi connection in the casino and updated the blog and checked email. Our Motosat dish is still non-operational and will be until after I return home. there is either a bad cable of bad control board in the dish on the roof, neither do I want to try to fix right now.

I dropped by the local Best Buy store and looked around. I found a nice cheap digital photo frame for the RV that Lou has been asking for. Now we can enjoy some of the pictures I've taken here in the RV.

We had leftover macaroni and cheese with salsa, chicken, and fresh pineapple for dinner.

Thursday: (05/06) Lou started the cold morning (22 degrees) by baking some brownies for a snack later. We've been having nice days, in the mid to high 60's, but the evenings do get down to almost cold. Yesterday, the winds picked up in the afternoon and much of Northern and Eastern Reno got hazy due to blowing white dust. Fortunately we're in the Southwest here at the Atlantis.

We went to the Black Bear restaurant for breakfast. We shared a chicken fried steak breakfast. Even though we split it it was too much. We went downtown after breakfast to look around. It's really changed. Nevada is hurting, too many Indian casinos hasn't helped. At noon it was 48 degrees.

We went our shopping here and there. It did warm up some later in the afternoon. Lou left me to my blog and went out to look at a few remaining unvisited thrift stores.

Lou fixed BBQ baby back ribs with baked potatoes and artichokes for dinner.

Friday: (05/07) Breakfast was strawberry pancakes. I worked at the computer a while and Lou  shopped. For lunch we had ham and cheese sandwiches. We went downtown to visit the Reno River Festival and watched the kayaks play in the rapids. Our evening entertainment began with doing our laundry. We enjoyed spaghetti and Parmesan cheese toast for dinner. The evening was topped off with a visit to the casino.

Saturday: (05/08) More strawberry pancakes with garlic sausage for breakfast. We did some final shopping to restock before we left at Walmarts, Raley's and Grocery outlets. Lou knew just where to go for the sales. Grocery outlet had strawberries for $.75 a pound, Raley's had tri-tip roasts and Walmart had everthing else. Lou started the tri-tip roast in the crockpot with some dry zesty Italian dressing mix with a little vinigar and water. The roast was browned then sliced and placed in the crockpot. We started it and then the clouds came out so we had a little drain on our batteries much of the time. We should always check the weather report before using the crockpot.

Our next stop was the Cabella's store in Verdi to use their dump and look around. An interesting store. We arrived to find the dump locked up. Since there were signs leading us in that surprised us. Lou went in to complain and see if there was a key. Of course there was, just like the sign we didn't read said. The dump worked well but they didn't have potable water so we were only half done. Lou found a nice 12volt electric blanket there she couldn't resist as well. Since Cabella's is right next door to the Boomtown Casino, we had to stop in. Lou bet her dollar and came away with $25. We'd have had lunch there as well but their buffet is only open Friday through Sunday and their cafe is now a Denny's so we fixed our own lunch in the RV and ate on the road. Lunch was ham and cheese sandwiches with chips and quacamole dip.

We headed up highway 395 and turned onto highway 36 in to Susanville. We stopped at the Walmart in Susanville, asked if we could stay and they said OK, so here we are. We tried to find water on the way here but didn't, we checked at a park here and a reststop just before here and both were dry, no water available. So, we stopped at a Chevron gas station and asked if we could fill up there. They had a convienient faucet. They said OK so we gassed up and filled the water. We had to pay for the gas but got the water for a tour of the RV.

Even with the partly cloudy day we still recharged most of our battery use from last night (75ah) and cooked dinner. Dinner was the tri-tip roast with baked potatoes, and steamed
broccoli and carrots. By the time we had baked potatoes and steamed the vegetables we were 30ah down after dinner so the clouds didn't cause much problem.

Note: I may not get a chance to post often so this is a preliminary post. We're headed North on highway 395, 36 and 44 toward MacArthur Burney Falls SP with unknown stops along the way.

Chris Flat Campground

Monday: (05/03) We weren't on the road long before we remembered what we forgot. We didn't get the sauerkraut. We stopped in Mammoth lakes to the sauerkraut. We started to go out to Bodie, the ghost town but it was after 3pm and it closes at 4pm and if you're in it after closing you get a citation. A sign near the beginning said the road was not cleared of snow and mud, which didn't sound interesting either. Maybe next time we'll get to visit it.


We drove on through Lee Vining and Bridgeport and stopped 10-20 miles North of Bridgeport at the Chris Flat campground (USFS $10) beside the Walker River. Our campsite was next to the Grouse Creek as well. We enjoyed the nice sound of running water. The high view of our campsite is on the right above. We're in the center of the photo.

We had our krockpot dinner with our neighbor Don. He was our neighbor down at the last campground in Pleasant Valley too. Bishop was down at 4000+ feet, we passed over a couple of 8000+ passes getting here where we are about 7000+. The snow line is somewhere between 7-8000 feet so the mountains looked nice up at the passes and there is some just above us here at our campground.

The stars were magnificent. No moon and the stars were so numerous then seemed to go under us at the ends od the canyon.


Tuesday: (05/04) Another nice day! We started with a walk around the campground. Lou fried the leftover pork and potatoes with eggs for breakfast. After breakfast we started with a walk up the river then Lou rested her leg while I hiked up the mountain on the other side of the road. A really steep sided mountain. Then we hiked down the river. We finally departed about noon. We made a stop at the Topaz Cisino to stretch our legs again then continued on to Gardnerville. We wanted to eat Basque food at J.T. Basque Restaurant for lunch but we arrived at 2:10 after they had stopped serving. We returned to the RV for a snack of  leftover macaroni and cheese with some pickled tongue and the rest of our apple strudel.

After lunch we looked around town some then returned to the RV.

After an afternoon nap, we stopped by an interesting Antique Store across from our destination for dinner. It was huge and we'll have to return sometime when they will be open longer. We made it to J.T. Basque Restaurant before the crowds arrived. Dinner was
excellent. We just had the setups which are dinner without an entree. Soup, bread, salad, french fries, beans, and beef stew. Just that was too much. Being from Bakersfield, we really like the basque restaurants.

We returned to the RV and continued on to Reno stopping for the night at the Atlantis Casino parking lot, a little less nature oriented campsite than recently.

Pleasant Valley CG, Bishop, Ca

Sunday: (05/02) We checked at the fairgrounds to see if we could camp there but their RV area is being remodeled. It will be really nice when their through but for now, we headed on North of town 10 miles to the Pleasant Valley County Campground.


It's right along the Owens river and is quite nice. A little after 5pm we drove back to town for Lou to loose her dollar at the Indian Casino and for me to use the Internet. Lou was successful, I wasn't. Another McDonald's with a bad Internet connection. So, the blog update will have to wait.

Lou fixed macaroni and cheese with leftover carrot pineapple and risen salad for dinner. After dinner we had a campfire by the river.

Monday: (05/03) We had sausage gravy over toast for breakfast. Lou started a pork roast with potatoes in the crock pot. We discovered we didn't have the other ingredient, sauerkraut. We drove downtown and I updated the blog at McDonald's (Nice when it works) while Lou explored the North end of town. We picked up  an apple danish at Erik's Bakery then walked around downtown to the South. At 1:15 we finally headed North on highway 395.

Return To Lone Pine

Saturday: (05/01) We arrived in Lone Pine about 5:30 PM. McDonald's provided Internet access for this post and some ice cream to eat with some of the strawberry jam that Lou, Helen and Lusetta made. We'll head back up the Witney Portal Road to Movie Road to camp near where we stayed last week. Tomorrow we'll probably continue a little further North.


After we arrived we took a short hike down the Wash below our campsite. The rocks make it challenging to get down to the bottom of the wash and the occasional stream.


Lou on the rocks above our campsite. The wash we hiked down on the right.


I found a nice water tank in the rocks of the wash.  A wide spot in the wash with a stream.


Our precarious path down the wash. And another thistle flower.


Dandelion and a puffy ball flowered cactus.


White flowers.


And more white flowers.


We made it back before it got dark and enjoyed a nice sunset over the mountains. Lou fixed chicken with a carrot and raisin salad and corn on the cob for dinner.


Sunday: (05/02) Lou fixed eggs with some leftover fried chicken and potatoes for breakfast. It was windy all night and is still blowing this morning. We took another walk around a different section of our wash. We started close to our camp and followed the wash down to the water tank I saw yesterday. Lou examined it thoroughly. We then crossed the creek and came back on the other side.


We then prepared to leave and brought the RV out to Whitney Portal Road and left it and drove up Whitney Portal Road to Whitney Portal in the car.


Here are a couple of photos from our trip up Whitney Portal Road. I forgot my cameras so I only had my phone which takes lousy photos, especially in the cold. We were above the snow line at the portal and the view down 5000 feet to where we camped in the Alabama Hills is impressive in real life, though not so much so in the photo on the right above.

There is still a lot of snow on the ground up there but the road and parking lots are clear. Not much to do there since we didn't plan on hiking in the snow but you do get really nice views along the road.

When we got back to the RV we went on down to Lone Pine and stopped at the Alabama Hills Cafe again and had a slice of peach pie each to start, then shared a chicken fried steak breakfast for the rest of our lunch. Fortified, we hit the road North at 1:15.