To get to Lake Piru Recreation area from I-10, you get on I-5 and get off on California Rt. 126. the little town of Piru is attractive.
It's not big enough to have a grocery store, but it has two little general stores about the size of a convenience store. One of them is owned by a woman named Elva (my mother's name)! Of course, I had to go in and introduce myself and chat with her a bit.
Most of the houses are smaller, older homes, but this B&B is one of several beautiful old places.
Leaving Piru, you drive up (up, up) a narrow mountain road. There are some green patches on the barren mountainsides, including orange groves and a horse ranch. It looks really funny to see oranges growing on the sides of a hill. Piru and its neighboring towns, Fillmore and Santa Paula, are considered the heart of citrus country. There are vast groves of orange, grapefruit and lemon. They also grow avocado, pistachio, olives and garden crops like peppers.
You cross a fast-moving creek a couple of times, and then you look down on the dam and Lake Piru.
The campground is beautiful--it sits in a 100-year-old olive grove (which I didn't take a picture of for some reason). The black-tailed deer wander the campground day and night (this shot was taken through my kitchen window).
We don't have a view of the lake from our campsite, but it's an easy walk to get there. There's a marina and concession. You can see where the mountains burned in the recent fires. Everything is still so dry. It's kind of alarming, but the people here take it in stride. In fact, one woman joked with me that they call this part of the country "Shake and Bake."That's it for this time. Next time (probably tomorrow) we'll tour Sequoia. When we get back to camp on Tuesday, we'll probably have a telephone and dial-up connection to the internet!
4 comments:
Dial-up internet again? Don't know if I'd survive that! Good luck. I was so excited to find a blog from your new home. How ironic is that to go from central Florida's orange groves and end up in southern California's orange groves!
When I saw the deer from your camper window, I was ready to pack up and head right out there. What a view. That is so exciting, isn't it? However, I also looked out my kitchen window this morning and saw two beautiful butterflies flitting around my flower-laden bushes with a huge oak tree laden with "Spanish moss" in the background. My wooden mailbox covered with cattle egret poop was there in the background, too. Just not the same as your deer view, if you ask me.
I'm afraid Wiley and fishing have become synonymous to me so that when I saw the photo of that lovely creek, it seemed like something was missing -- Wiley fishing, of course!
I find it difficult to see such barren mountains. The shot of the burned-out area of mountains was really shocking. I really don't understand how a young boy playing with matches could have caused such devastation. Why didn't just his own house burn? Or a few homes?
I look forward to your Sequoia visit and more blogs.
Julie lets pack our husbands up and a few clothes and fly out to visit Wiley and Joyce We could stay at the B+B. Anyone else want to come?
Boy, Mag, you've got the right idea. I was looking at that gorgeous B&B, too.
We'd sure love to have you--come on out! There's an airport nearby, and we've got lots of spare time!
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