#5 Coveys Great Adventure - November 2014: Nehalem to Simi Valley

November 2014                 

Be sure to read Kayeanne’s thoughts, below.

After being in one place for 6 weeks it was really time to move on. We wrapped up our camp hosting stint at Nehalem Bay State Park on November 1^st and hit the road south looking for warmer and dryer climes. I can't recall three dry days in six weeks, so we were ready for a change. Our first stop was at Valley of the Rogue State Park (VRSP) near Grants Pass, Oregon for a couple of nights, and then on to Nevada County Fairgrounds in Grass Valley California to meet our friends Ed and Christine.

VRSP is located a few miles south of Grants Pass OR, right on the banks of the Rogue River. This is another great Oregon State Park, with all of the things we have come to expect from OPRD: big sites, easy access for large rigs, fire pits, picnic tables, clean modern facilities and hands-on camp hosts. The park stretches for a couple of miles along the river, with excellent walking and biking trails. Half of the park was closed for the off-season yielding a huge area for the dogs to explore, which they took full advantage of. About the only negative was the close proximity to the I5 freeway. Traffic noise was always evident, but after awhile it kind of faded into the background.

We took advantage of being near a large town for the first time in weeks and hit Home Depot, Petco and a couple of other stores to replenish our stocks. Kayeanne discovered a Unity church in Grants Pass and went to services while I explored the local dog park with Lucy and Schroeder.

After a couple of nights at VRSP we moved further south to the Nevada County Fairgrounds RV Park in Grass Valley, CA. Grass Valley is about 60 miles northeast of Sacramento in the heart of the California gold country. We camped there with our good friends Christine and Ed Woznicki. 

Crusher used to separate gold 
from quartz rock

This RV park is a bit of a dichotomy: the location is great, the setting is terrific, but the park itself was a bit of a dump. Narrow sites, no fires allowed, no tables and the worst restroom and shower facilities I’ve seen in years really took some of the edge off for us. Access to the actual fairgrounds, the local area attractions and surprisingly good WIFI did help mitigate some of the disappointment. Spending several days with Christine and Ed was the real pleasure, though.

 Grass Valley and Nevada City have embraced their  rich, colorful history as the center of California’s true  gold rush. Unlike placer mining where loose gold flakes  are separated from gravel, Nevada City and  Grass  Valley focused on hard rock mining to extract  the gold from huge quantities of gold bearing quartz  rock. The mines each employed hundreds of workers,  many from Scotland and Cornwall where centuries of  coal mining had taught valuable techniques and a real  appreciation for safety. Mine shafts at the largest mines  in Nevada City eventually reached a depth of 11,000  feet and put out over 360 miles of tunnels under the  region. Mining started in the 1850's and continued until  1956.

North Star Mine Powerhouse &
Pelton Wheel Museum

Both towns have done a good job of preserving and presenting this fascinating era without becoming tourist traps. We visited the Empire Mine Historic Park in Nevada City, site of the largest and richest of the mines that flourished in the area. Unfortunately, we went on a weekday when many of the buildings were closed. Still, we were able to see the main shaft head and get a real appreciation for what it must have been like to drop two miles on a series of inclined rail cars to reach the current work zone where blasting and digging went on around the clock.

We spent a couple of fascinating hours at the North Star Mine and Powerhouse & Pelton Wheel Museum in Grass Valley, home of the largest Pelton wheel ever built. The Powerhouse supplied electricity and huge volumes of compressed air to run hundreds of drills and other equipment in the mine. Pelton wheels were, and maybe still are the most efficient water wheels ever designed.

Pelton Wheel

We arrived at the Powerhouse only to find that it was closed for the season, a major disappointment. We toured the outside exhibits and explored the grounds including the aqueduct that delivered a column of water 6 feet in diameter to drive all of the Pelton wheels in the Powerhouse. As we wandered around the back of the museum we encountered a guy clearing leaves from a bunch of large old rusty machinery and stopped to talk. It turned out that Rolf is a retired physicist, self-taught mechanical engineer, and one of the lead restorers at the Powerhouse. The pile of iron that he was clearing off was an old trip hammer, his next project. He immediately volunteered to give us a private tour. As you can imagine, we jumped at the chance and spent a really fascinating hour with a man who, it turns out, IS a rocket scientist and truly does understand what he is talking about. Even absent Rolf’s tour guidance, if you have a chance to visit this area be sure to see the Powerhouse.

Rolf and the world's largest Pelton Wheel

At Rolf's urging we also went to the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railway Museum. Not only are the exhibits themselves interesting, the work shops where the engine and rail car restorations are done are also open to visitors. All of the work is done by old retired guys who are happy to talk your ear off about what they are working on. Great stuff.

Our next stop was the Alameda County Fairgrounds RV Park in Pleasanton, CA to visit friends in the Bay area. Pleasanton has good shopping, eating, dog walking and a BART light rail station connecting it to San Francisco. The fairgrounds cover a large area with many places to walk and things to see. The RV park met all the basic needs but wasn't very congenial. The sites were supposed to be grass, but the drought had turned much of it to dirt, making it hard to keep the coach clean and unpleasant for the dogs to lie outside. We also had to use blocks under the wheels to get the coach level. 

I like trains of any kind and looked forward to riding the BART system. The nearest station was about 4 miles from the RV park and we were on the platform with tickets in hand less than 20 minutes after leaving the coach. 45 minutes later we were disembarking (detraining?) at the Embarcadero station in downtown San Francisco.  We made our way to the Ferry Building to meet Karen Mohr, a good friend of ours and designated tour guide. After a full day of sightseeing and fine wine drinking I took BART back to Pleasanton leaving Kayeanne to spend the night and following day with Karen catching up on things since the last time they had gotten together. We also spent time with our old friends Mimi and Scott Bruce. Scott cooked a terrific pot roast dinner with very tasty braised brussel sprouts

After a few days it was again time to move on. I don’t like to drive the coach more than 300 miles or so at one stretch, so to break up the trip we stopped at Yank’s RV Park in Greenfield CA. It turns out that Greenfield is part of the Monterey wine region. We spent a day wine tasting, but this area is known for growing Pinot Noir, not our favorite varietal. We found a good, reasonably priced Syrah at Scheid Vineyard but didn’t stock up.

The trail runs through a cave

Soledad, a few miles north of Greenfield is know for two things: a very large state prison and, more important to us, Pinnacles National Park. The park exists because of very interesting geological formations that are completely unique relative to the surrounding area. It turns out that these formations originated near Lancaster California, roughly 200 miles south of Soledad. Over millions of years the San Andreas fault has slowly moved the Pinnacles formations north. We spent most of the afternoon hiking the “easy” trail through the park, marveling at the rock formations. The trail goes through a tunnel that, while short, is pitch black so be sure to take a flashlight.

Unique rock formations unlike anything else in the area

Yanks RV Park is the newest, most well equipped park we've ever stayed in. Only three years old, the amenities included a pool, a spa, cable tv to each site, a dog park with dog washing station, an exercise room and a laundry. Everything was like brand new and immaculately maintained. The only drawback (aside from the cost!) was the wind. Every afternoon it started to blow and kept blowing all evening, making it about impossible to sit outside. We really enjoyed this place and will stay here again, but three nights was enough.

On November 19, we closed the circle, arriving back at the RV park we stayed in on the first night of this adventure, Tapo Canyon Park in Simi Valley, CA. We stayed in Simi through the end of November to spend time with Liesa, enjoy Thanksgiving with our family and visit our many friends in the area. We haven't been this busy since the crazy week before we left! It was great to see everyone, but we were ready for a break. We pulled out on December 1, headed to the Meadowbrook RV Park in Perris, CA where we will stay through Christmas. More about that next time.

Kayeanne’s Thoughts

We left Nehalem State Park early in the day.  The weather was good, so we had an easy drive to Grants Pass.  The most memorable part of that day for me was going around a corner and seeing Mt. Shasta in all her glory plastered in front of our huge windshield.  She was covered in snow and it was hard to even consider the idea of a drought.   

We stayed in Grants Pass for a few days, and my beading friends will find it interesting to know it is the home of Fire Mountain Gems.  I was disappointed that they did not have a factory store.  They are one of the largest beading companies in the country but are strictly on-line.   

Moving on to Grass Valley, California, we had a wonderful time with our friends, Christine and Ed.  Grass Valley is a relatively small town and is adjacent to Nevada City, only four miles away.  Both are quaint, historic gold-rush towns that have done a great job of preserving their heritage.  I could definitely settle down in this area.  It has a lovely energy with enough bead stores to keep me happy as well as a Unity Church.  While visiting the North Star Mine and Powerhouse, Christine and I were fascinated to find a stream running below the museum with several rock-balancing sculptures. It was amazing to see the formations that people had arranged, and we gave it a pretty good go with one of our own. 

The fairgrounds we stayed at were surrounded by redwoods and boasted a gaggle of geese who lived in the pond in the campground area.  We were welcome to walk through the fairgrounds with our dogs which we enjoyed doing every day although it felt a little eerie walking by all the eateries and game booths while the fair was closed.  They did host two events while we were there and lucky for me, one of them was a bead show.  The other was “The Grass Valley Alter Show, Renewal and Rememberance” which included alters created by individuals in memory of people, places and events.   We found out it has been taking place annually since 1997, and it was very interesting to see how people expressed their feelings and views of the world through this creative media.

Our stay in Pleasanton was great because we had the chance to visit with old friends.  My high-school friend, Mimi, and her husband Scott wined and dined us in their beautiful home, and Mimi and I had a chance to catch up on a few lost years.  We then headed to San Francisco to see our friend Karen, and I was lucky enough to spend the night in her downtown Victorian-style flat.  Not only was it a ton of fun, but she let me take a bath in her bathtub which I haven’t been able to do for four months!  

Greenfield was wonderful for two reasons, one being Pinnacles National Park.  We loved hiking in this beautiful rigid landscape.  We knew that the trail went through a cave but we became a little nervous when other people we had met along the way had turned back because it was too dark to see anything.  When we came upon the path leading to the cave, I didn’t believe it was a path at all.  There was water to wade through and rock walls to climb over and if Bob hadn’t scouted it out, there was no way I would have gone in.  I was up for an adventure, however, and by the time we finally found the light of day again, I felt I understood Tom Sawyer just a little bit better. 

Simi Valley sunset from our campsite

The other reason I loved Greenfield was because of the Yanks RV Park.  We had a Jacuzzi, a pool and an exercise room practically to ourselves, and the dogs loved the private dog park.  We lived in luxury for four days before returning to our old haunts in the Conejo Valley. 

We so enjoyed our time in Simi Valley.  This was the campground we stayed at the first night we left and so we had come full circle; there and back again.  Being with our daughter, Liesa, was the best, and getting together with family and friends took on a new and important meaning for us.  In some ways, it feels as if we’ve been on a long vacation and are now just beginning our new lives.  Every time I leave a place, I feel a comingled sense of regret and anticipation which I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to.