Trinity

“With the recent attention on people who game the system with campground reservations, a good question is: ‘I don't have a reservation, am I out of luck?’” — Susan Snyder “How do people game the camping system?” — Kathleen Pender “One thing you might want to address at some point is the difficulty and perhaps the strategies to ensure you have someplace to park your RV in a campground.” — Constance Wilson These questions were echoed in different forms Saturday at the Bay Area Book Festival in Berkeley, where I was on a panel on camping. The real question that keeps showing up in my email is this: “Can I still score a great campsite for summer?” The answer, of course, is yes. If you’re willing to explore, you can still find stellar campsites at lakes, in the redwoods and at trailheads. Wake up at any of these on a pristine summer morning and you can feel as though you’ve walked through a portal to … [Read more...] about Tips on how to still score a fine campsite for summer

With all the rain and snow in California, many are now asking how the wet weather is impacting outdoor recreation. The answers vary as much as the landscapes across the state. Tahoe is digging out again from snow this weekend, and with another storm, some areas could hit 300 inches of snowfall for the season. Many rivers, streams and creeks in the Redwood Empire neared flood levels in the past week. Across the Bay Area, the ground is saturated and the hills glow neon green when a bright sun is out. Crews will conduct snow survey today. Video: Hearst TV Yet in the Sierra foothills, many reservoirs are still so empty that they look like ponds at the bottom of canyons. For reservoirs, the final verdict on El Niño’s impact won’t be rendered until months from now, when they reach their highest levels of the year from snowmelt. To collect this information, hydrologists and water experts from the Department of Water Resources, Bureau of Reclamation and … [Read more...] about As rain comes down, recreation is looking up