February 2007

February finds me staying in either Mountain lakes or Wilderness Lakes RV Resorts. Both are close by LA and Hollyweird, and many people come up here for the weekends and go back to LA LA land on Monday. Mountain Lakes went from 25 RV's here on Thursday before Presidents day weekend to over 350 for the 3 day weekend. This is a fisherman's dream here, with well stocked lakes.

The snow around here has been very civilized. It has behaved and stayed up in the mountains.

Mountain Lakes is a pretty RV Resort, and if you like fishing or hiking, a good place to stay. It is also built along the lines of a KOA, with a huge emphsis on families and young children. By no means is it a quite park.

I took a hike out to Bonito Falls one day on the suggestion of the Park Ranger. The directions were more based on Summer or Spring time, where the water still came much further down the dry wash than it does before the snow melt begins, but it was worth the long hike. The highlight of the hike was the American Bald Eagle that hovered over the top of the falls, just riding the thermal as the setting sun reflected from behind.

Those Falls are over 250 feet tall, the sound of water falling lead me on when the directions were vague.

The creek was so clear and cold. The water in this picture was over 5 feet deep,

yet the bottom was as clear as if the water was just inches deep.

That tail sure looks impressive with the sun backlighting this majestic bird. Those wings were 6 to 7 feet across

If you ever wondered what a dry wash looked like

Or a Tumble weed

You hear about the Santa Ana Winds all the time. Until you have experienced the constant winds, they are really just words. These pictures of what the winds did to the clouds may just give you an idea the power in there.

They do harverst this wind, and build "wind farms" These are the wind driven turbines. The complaints about how ugly they look are true. The impact on local wind currents is also true, driving thru a wind farm in a high profile vehicle like a 18 Wheeler or and RV has to be felt to be fully understood. Those winds turbines are 60 feet tall.

From Sunny and warm Southern California!