Tehachapi and Stallion Springs, CA 2018 (part one)

No recipe review this week.  We've been off on another adventure! We took another (for me) jaunt to California, this time to the southern Central Valley area, Tehachapi and Paso Robles area.  Yeah...we covered some ground.

Friday:  after a early flight where we left Duluth at 6am, we were on the ground in San Luis Obispo by 1p.  Luggage and rental car keys in hand, we headed out for a three hour drive across the Central Valley.   For this midwest gal...this was a bit of an eye opener.  I've seen agriculture, but this was agriculture on a whole different scale.  We arrived in Tehachapi/Stallion Springs by 5p and gratefully checked in to our resort and crashed.

Saturday: rest day!  We hung out at the resort.  Now, Stallion Springs resort is on the small side - maybe fifty units total, but I have to say this was perhaps one of the nicer places we've stayed.   Maybe I'm a bit biased because when the sun came up we got to watch these to gentlemen:

Sunday:  lunch was at Mossner's farm to table cafe, then a visit to Adorable Alpaca farm, and a second lunch at Souza's vineyard.  All in Stallion Springs/Cummings Valley.  The platter at Souza's vineyard was amazing!  Foccocia, generous hunks of two types of cheese, salami, olives, grapes, apples, sponge cake, and chocolate covered almonds.  Soooo good!  A late evening walk and we stumbled across an elk herd of about 30 cows and yearlings and one bull elk.  Which would explain why the two boys above were hanging out on their own.

Not the best picture, didn't want to get too close...

Monday: Sequoia National Park and King's Canyon.  This was a bit of a drive for us from Tehachapi, but so worth it!  We got to see the largest tree in the forest!  In diameter at least...there are redwoods that are higher.  So amazing!   What we didn't anticipate was the road construction in the park - there was a section that they were alternating traffic on every two hours.  We hit it just right on the way in, but not knowing how long we'd want to hike or go see, we opted to head out through King's Canyon route rather than sit in traffic.   Also worth the extra time.

General Sherman Tree

Tuesday:  tired. Sooo tired from nearly seven hours of driving and hiking at 7000 feet (it was totally worth it!) on Monday.  We went to see the Tehachapi Loop, one of the seven railroading engineering feats...if you know what the other six are, please let me know!  Then we went and hiked around Tehachapi Mountain Park (also at 6000 feet).  A mellow day bumping around the Tehachapi area. 

The engines are passing by in the front, while the back of the train is still in the tunnel below

Way up high!

Wednesday:  on the road again!  We drove up the Kern River Valley to Lake Isabella  - or what is currently left of the lake.  I don't recall they year, but the Isabella dam was ranked one of the top 10 endangered dams in the states and they drained the lake until repairs could be made.  Still the drive up the river valley was incredible.  Then we looped over the Walker Pass (Pacific Crest Trail passes through here), and down into the Mohave dessert, where we swung back through the windmills that line the hills outside of Tehachapi. 

Twisty turny two lane road is not for the faint of heart...

Thursday:  after an early morning walk where we saw the big elk herd again, we visited downtown Tehachapi, the railroad museum, and the historical district.  Lovely and mellow afternoon.


Friday, Friday we were on the road again back to Paso Robles, where part two of our trip happened and the whole reason we came to California.