Hanging out at the Glory Hole

Being recently retired, H and I decided it was time for an extended trip.  So we've given ourselves a month. We'll see how we handle living on the road for more than two weeks, which was all we could take off in our working days. 

We headed south on I-5 on a beautiful, sunny but very cold day.  The travel was uneventful, unless you count the tense hour and 1/2 we spent trying to find a rest area that was actually not closed by ODOT.  

Emigrant Lake at sunset.

We spent the night at The Point RV Park at Emigrant Lake.  This Jackson County park is located less than 5 miles east of Ashland, OR.  We had a very nice and scenic spot.  Although I was surprised there wasn't more water in it at the time.  Here's the website for the park.  This is a good place to RV if you want to spend some time in Ashland.

Our goal was to get over the Siskiyou Mountains the next morning before the snows came.  It spit a little snow, but we mostly dealt with rain.  Our destination for the night was the Glory Hole Recreation Area which is about 5 miles south of Angels Camp, CA.  We actually stayed there in September of 2014, while on our way to Yosemite National Park.  

Back then, California was suffering from their big drought.  The lake was so low! On the morning we left, we heard the strangest kind of buzzing and couldn't figure out what it was.  Within a few minutes and far below us, a lonely houseboat came floating into view.  There was something sad in seeing that.
  
But now the lake is very full.  The GHRA is located on the New Melones Lake which is the fourth-largest reservoir in California.  And it's really quite beautiful--even in the wind and rain.  You can find out more about the area here.  It was definitely worth a second trip.

We'll leave you with a picture of what the lake looked like in 2014 and how it looks today.  H was able to find the same campsite we stayed in 4 1/2 years ago, so you can compare the two photos and appreciate the difference.  You can click on the image for a larger view.

The lake in 9/2014

The lake in 3/2019