The 4th of July bought about a 3 day camping retreat – whoo hoo!! Well if you can call sleeping on the ground listening to mariachi music for two nights in a row could be called a retreat? I would say the third night we stayed it was awesome to listen to the sounds of nature when we went to bed – silence with the sound of frogs and hoping I would hear an owl!! Still the heat of the days were relieved when we spent time in the swimming hole in the South Fork of the Eel River. I would have to say that was my favorite thing of the weekend spending time in the river with our feet getting massaged by the river rocks, my Toms ended up being turned into water shoes for the time we were away! Note to self, if ever swimming in a river take along water shoes as those river rocks can be very rough. The drought of California is in effect when you visit the river with the level of the river way down to only a few inches in many areas, this could be a summer thing though?

Richardson Grove State Park Oak Flat Campground was party town for the 4th July long weekend and it was definitely an experience that we do not want to repeat again. I think our group has decided that the 4th of July is not a good time to camp, it is better to blow off a couple of days and go when there are fewer people. This campground was lovely under some shady oaks by a hill so we were well hidden from our neighbors by redwoods on either side though it felt like a stage to all the passers by to the toilet. What annoyed us the most was the music all day and night playing from the very loud sound system powered by a generator. Still that meant our kids could be as loud as they wanted and so could we 🙂 This is a perfect getaway for a family especially for a longer camp experience as it is a few hours north in Humboldt county, the swimming and the shade of the beautiful old redwoods made this place very special.

Drought in effect with a nice green on the edges

Enjoying the swimming hole

Going large – we are in America after all!

A view from the bridge down the Eel River

Fluffy redwood branches

Hanging at the campsite

Kids and redwoods on the racetrack trail

The Chandelier tree – such incredible energy for this beauty!

The bridge to our campground

The camping crew down by the river

Junior Ranger off to score badges

Skinned animals is all we saw due to the amount of people at the campground

The kids in a fallen redwood tree

Looking through the fallen tree root

Walking the fallen tree

Finally some wild life some banana slugs

Looking for bats feeding at dusk on the insects

Action by the river – skipping stones!

The beauty of this place in the cool of the evening

Ranger Josie who presented a couple of awesome campfire programs in the evening

On our way home we stopped by at the One Log house – which felt very strange! And the Grandfather Tree who was so wide and oh so high!!

Kids in the One Log House checking out the beds

The Grandfather Tree

The kids have been enjoying their swimming lessons with Sammi Seal and here is Ashwin practicing his freestyle.

Ash in swimming action

Here is the flyer for the Mountain View Library workshop that I will be presenting in a couple of weeks – I better get myself organized!!