Moeller Travels: California, Silent Valley Club, Mar 7-19, 2015

Silent Valley is up in the mountains by Banning, CA. Hwy 243 up to the campground would make a snake dizzy but it was worth the drive the campground was lovely and so peaceful. It was a bit early in the season so there were very few campers in the park. Don and Karen Schaffer came up from Buena Park, CA to spend a few days with us. We enjoyed lots of card playing and good food. We were only going to stay for 10 days, but extended for another 2 days because we liked it so much.

Silent Valley Club, California

If you look way down on the left edge of the campground you can see a little white speck, that is our camper down there. This shot was taken from the top of the hill over-looking Silent Valley RV Park.

Our campsite. We were all alone at this end of the campground. Sure was nice having the whole section to ourselves The dogs could bark at squirrels all they wanted and would not bother anyone. And believe me, there were a lot of them around.

Each morning the purple flowers would come out and cover the ground. They sure made the grounds look wonderful.

This is the beginning of the snake road down the mountain.

Kay wanted to stop to take pictures.

Way down in the valley is HWY-10 as you can see it between the two hills. Kay also wanted to take a picture of the flowers.

The yellow flowers alongside of the road.

You can see the road on the hillside across the valley. The town of Banning is at the bottom of the mountain.

I loved the rock formations alongside the road.

Getting further down the mountain you can see the Hwy-10 and the end of the airport.

A closer view of the city of Banning. This shot was about half way down.

Morongo Casino just east of the city of Banning.

Don and Karen brought their camper up from Buena Park, CA to visit us for a few days. Such a good time we had with them, lots of card playing and very good food. I wish they could have stayed longer, but it is always good to see them.

Don getting his camper set up.

Kay still in her pj's putting the dogs in the fence to potty.

There ain't much I can say about this shot, other than you frogger out for yourself what Don is trying to tell me.

The picture of Marilyn is left over from our wonderful 55th class reunion in Redfield, SD. I can't believe that Don still has it.

Karen and Kay showing us the picture she just took of Me and Don.

Steller's Jays

This is what drove my dogs crazy for 12 days. It didn't help that I was feeding them all kinds of seeds and peanuts.

Here I am trying to shave some of the hair off the feet of Zoe. There are a lot of little needle type stickers here in the park that got stuck in her feet.

Our drive up to Idyilwild, CA a little mountain town on route 243 above Palm Springs.

The reservoir in the foreground can only be reached by going through Hemet, CA

As seen through the branches of the pine tree.

These are very big pine cones. Some are at least a foot long.

Kay liked this tree. I have no idea what it is. Uncle Tony told me that it is a Manzanita Tree.

Idyilwild town monument

As we were driving back to the campground, we came across this little lake and thought it would be a nice place to walk the dogs. The reflections were awesome.

Female Mallard duck stretching her wing.

The water was so still.

At the end of the little lake you can see Kay with the dogs crossing the bridge.

Kay on the bridge. Good thing my telephoto lens works well.

The path down the other side of the lake.

Just nice to see the still water and the cattails.

A Mallard duck family.

This flowering tree is just outside the pool area at the campground

The hot tub was great we visited it almost every day.

This is the resident duck at the pool. There was also a female duck with him when we first visited the pool. But we only saw her one time, hopefully she was off sitting on a nest somewhere.