Oakdale, CA
After leaving Eastman Lake I drove north over a little used Mariposa County road call Ben Hur Road; it's slightly less than 2 lanes wide even though there is a solid double yellow line down its center. It's likely an old wagon road which has been paved.
Here's a view west into the San Joaquin Valley from a high point on Ben Hur Road.
Anderson Valley, where I worked for the US Forest Service pruning pine trees during the summers of 1958 and 1959. Note the snow left over from the previous night on a hill on the other side of Bull Creek.
Bull Creek was part of the stage route to Yosemite in the late 19th century. Here's how Russell P. Sage described the route in his One Hundred Years in Yosemite: "The Coulterville Trail started at Bull Creek, to which point a wagon road already had been constructed, and passed through Deer Flat, Hazel Green, Crane Flat, and Tamarack Flat to the point now known as Gentry, and thence to the valley. Its total length was forty-eight miles, of which seventeen miles could be traveled in a carriage."
A plaque describing the Coulterville Toll [or Stage] Route. Unfortunately the $50,000 raised and used to improve the road in 1956 was wasted since the majority of traffic used the Big Oak Flat road [CA120] and entrance. In fact, when I asked both campers at Anderson Valley and USFS personnel they both said the road from near Anderson Valley to Deer Flat was impassable -- supposedly because of the heavier than normal winter and late spring. But that road was in poor condition in 1959.
Panning to the right: more of Anderson Valley.
Between the trees: Pilot Peak Lookout, which a mine owner in the area said had just closed for the season.
As I looked outside my camper on the morning I discovered that someone had put a tablecloth on my picnic table. Hey! Mother Nature did it, for the white tablecloth is snow!
The new Wards Ferry Bridge built after the level of Don Pedro Reservoir was raised by a new dam.
Since law enforcement rarely travels down to the Wards Ferry Bridge (except perhaps when an RVer with a large Class A on the Groveland side tries to take a shortcut to CA108) the spray-can vandals have covered most of the bridge; indeed, with no unpainted (ie., untainted) surface left, they're now working on the road.
Looking up the North Fork of the Tuolumne River arm of Don Pedro one can see the remnants of the previous Wards Ferry Bridge. The previous time I drove this route in 1959 I had to work my way through a flock of 150-200 sheep which a herded was moving to greener pastures on the Groveland side.
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Links:
- Wikipedia article on Don Pedro Reservoir
- More Wards Ferry Road Photos from Pashnit
Su 6 Nov Actual Route: Pines CG - Wards Ferry [Bridge] - Tuolumne - Sonora - N.F. Tuolumne River
M 7 Nov Actual Route: N.F. Tuolumne River - Sonora - N.F. Tuolumne River
T 8 Nov Actual Route: N.F. Tuolumne River - Sonora - N.F. Tuolumne River
W 9 Nov Actual Route: N.F. Tuolumne River - Sonora - Copperopolis - Woodward Reservoir CG
W 9 Nov Actual Route: N.F. Tuolumne River - Sonora - Woodward Reservoir CG
Th 10 Nov Actual Route: Woodward Resv - Oakdale - Copperopolis - Oakdale - Woodward Reservoir
F 11 Nov Actual Route: Woodward Resv - Oakdale - Sonora - N.F. Tuolumne River
Sa 12 Nov Route: N.F. Tuolumne River - Sonora - N.F. Tuolumne River
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Finding Campgrounds:
- RV Campgrounds from TrailerLifeDirectory.com
- Family Camping Directories from Woodalls.com
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