California-Bass Lake Recreation Area-15 of 49 on our RV Adventure

If you are a first-time reader, welcome to Lora and Erics RV Adventure Blog. You can read about us at http://www.LoraandEricsRVAdventure.com. We started in December 2017 with a goal to complete 49 states before heading home to North Carolina.

Today we are headed to Bass Lake, CA. The travel time from Lake Isabella RV Park in Lake Isabella to Bass Lake Recreation Resort in Bass Lake, CA is 4 h 45 min (296 miles) via US-395 S and CA-99 N. We added 59 miles to our route to avoid CA-178 W to Bakersfield with extremely sharp and windy roads on the edge of a raging river and cliffs.

Bass Lake is situated in the Sierra National Forest approximately 14 mi from the south entrance of Yosemite National Park. Established in 1895 as Bass Lake Village, the community grew up around the newly created Bass Lake Reservoir that supplied the first hydroelectric generating project in Central California.

Our reservation at Bass Lake Recreation Area is for 7 nights (5/29 – 6/5). Bass Lake Recreation Resort is an outdated Coast to Coast exclusive park. The campground is not on the lake but nestled in the hillside on small narrow one-way roads of varying heights and campsites.

The park has some permanent residents. The campground was recently sold, and the new owners take over June 4th. The woman behind the counter was not pleasant.

I explained to her I had a NCDMV registration being mailed to the address. I seen after the fact, this site does not accept mail. Mail was supposed to be sent to the USPS General Delivery, Bass Lake, CA. Another woman behind a desk in the corner stuck her head out and said the mail would be sent back to the originator.

I also have a package being delivered from OvernightPrints.com. I designed a business card for Benz Travel Photography and LoraandEricsRVAdventure.com. The I designed and ordered 1000 cards on the evening of 5/23 with the expectation of them arriving on 5/25. I also paid an extra fee to have them guaranteed for Friday 5/25. I purpose of guaranteeing the date was because we were going to leave Lake Isabella, CA on Tuesday 5/29, the day after Memorial Day. On 5/25, ~3:00am I received an email notifying me the business cards were delayed. The returned the email before 5:00 am informing them of a change in address to Bass Lake, CA.

Before 8:00 am I discovered I can change the shipping address on the website by order number. I logged in and changed the address to the USPS, Bass Lake Address. I received a shipping confirmation email around 8:00 pm showing the package has shipped to Bass Lake with an expected delivery of 5/29.

When I arrived to Bass Lake I went to the Post Office to pick up my package. The Post Office woman behind the desk said I had no package. I explained how it was coming. She said some carriers do not like delivering to the Post Office General Delivery.

I checked the tracking information on line and seen the package was rejected by the receiver. I emailed Overnightprints.com to change the address. I called the shipper GSO.com and discovered the address they delivered to was Lake Isabella. Wow, Overnightprints.com never changed the address even though they showed on the shipping confirmation Bass Lake. I sent an email to Overnightprints.com requesting that they change the address. Their response was we needed to contact the shipper GSO.com. I called GSO.com and spoke to Dominique. I explained the situation and she was going to redirect the package. I tried to find the address but was unable because if cell service. I explained I would call back. I returned to the post office to let the post master know the package had not arrived. She gave me the correct mailing info and I completed a General Mail Delivery Card to receive mail for 30 days. Better reception for Verizon was in the parking lot above the post office. I called GSO.com, got a man this time, and explained I spoke with Dominique. He pulled up my tracking info and I provided him the Bass Lake General Delivery address. It would take 2 days to arrive. On Thursday 5/29 I received an email from Grace Rodriguez from Overnightprints.com mentioning the package was returned by GSO.com. I provided the Bass Lake address and stated it had to be delivered by 4:00 pm Friday 5/30. We were leaving Bass Lake on Saturday. I never received a response. I later sent an email in the evening to the general contact email on the Overnightprints.com website asking for a response to my emails. Enough about Overnightprints.com

The next day we have plans for Yosemite National Park. Our thoughts were to see one attraction per day with a rest day. It turned out all we needed only one day to see Half-Dome, El Capitan, Bridal-Veil Falls, and the great sequoia’s. The time to the farthest point was showing 2 h 15 m to the great sequoias. With all the stops and photo opportunities the trip from start to finish lasted 7 hours. It was well worth all of it. Before getting to the South Entrance of Yosemite National Park we passed a burned-out area of the forest. The area was being logged out extensively.

At the entrance we used our National Park Interagency Pass to gain admission. The actual cost is $30.00 per vehicle.

We were a half a tank and not sure how long or difficult the route we decided to get gas at the first sight of gas inside the park. We stopped and filled the tank. The cost was $6.07 per gallon for Diesel.

The sights were beautiful, we stopped nearly each time we seen a waterfall. We got our first glimpse of Half-Dome and El Capitan.

We drove on and up above 5000 ft. After passing through our first tunnel we see bridal-veil falls in the distance along with El Capitan and Half-Dome.

The view was spectacular.

We drove down to Bridal-Veil Falls parked and walked a little bit for different photo angles the falls and creek.

We continued to pass by El Capitan and stopped for additional photos.

We then started to climb up again.

We were on our way to our last destination, the great sequoia tree with a tunnel cut through the trunk. We learned there were two such trees. The park ranger we talked to mentioned one is closed for 2 weeks and the other is a two-mile round trip hike up and down a steep mountain, but worth the walk. Convincing Lora to go we started the hike. Lora was hesitant of the walk down and became too panicky as we descended. We arrived at the tree to be disappointed. The tree was only remnants of the great sequoia. The cut-out tunnel was smaller than expected. The pictures showed carriages driving through and now understand why.

Heading back up was a struggle for Lora. In my opinion she was going through a panic attack. It was a challenge to keep her moving and making her drink water. As soon as we made it to the parking lot she was back to normal.

We started to head back. We originally thought we were going to go back a different way to change the scenery, but Lora wanted to get back fast. As we made our path back down, we passed El Capitan and made the turn towards Bridal-Veil Falls. We see a hitch hiker on the side of the road and decided to stop. The young man had recently graduated from college and was working in Yosemite National Park as a trail hand through November. He is originally from Seattle.

We dropped him off at the turn off to Glacier Point. We drove back along the same route coming in. The day was long and fulfilling. When we took the road that took us along Bass Lake. We drove into the town of Bass Lake by the Post Office. The area is called The Pines. We stopped at the local grocery store for some potato salad. The small shop it was there was none. We did find back scratchers with Bass Lake on the handles.

The evening was uneventful other than my issues with Overnightprints.com. I ordered a new lens for my camera. A 50 mm 1.4 lux Autofocus Nikon Lens. Watching YouTube videos on my camera, the experts suggested the 50 mm 1.4 lux Autofocus lens for landscape photography. The lens should arrive by Friday. Lora and I also agreed to leave Saturday instead of Tuesday. Our total cost was under $27.00 so leaving early was not much of a hit in the wallet.

We stayed home the next day and relaxed. We had decent enough internet to update the blog and watch TV through Verizon hotspot. Later in the evening I went to bed before sundown. Started drinking earlier than normal. Lora ended up meeting a resident of the campground and chatted with her for a couple of hours. Her name was Laudine. She takes care of the bathrooms and rental units in place for discounted campground rates. She is also an artist.

The next day we stayed home once again. When we received a notification from Amazon of my Lens being delivered I drove to the Post Office. The post master told me the UPS guy almost did not leave the package. When I returned to the campground I tried out my lens with a few pictures of Bella Bee.

Later on, in the evening Laudine came on over. Laudine is a young 71 year old. She does not look her age at all. She had asked Lora if she wanted to see her paintings the night before, but Lora wanted to wait. We all sat down for a little bit before heading over to her camper on the hill. She has an older 5th Wheel toy hauler. We sat outside near the back. The toyhauler door was down like a patio. Laudine opened the back zippers and started to show us her many painting. All were very good and diverse. From horses, Indians, landscape, and carved wood of painted steel head salmon. She explained to us how she get inspired. She needed to build her confidence in herself, situation, and achievements. It seems like she does not want to let go of her paintings, but explained she plans to display them in a Galley being created in The Pines shopping area.

Laudine asked if we had been to the Lake. We told her we did not. She offered to take us to the lake this evening. We headed back to our camper, as Laudine got changed into something warmer. After about 15 minutes or so, we all got together and headed toward The Pines. Laudine showed us a back way that was very easy path. We ended up going to Ducey’s Bass Lake Lodge for dinner. We sat outside on the deck overlooking the pier and lake. I ordered a Rubin and Laudine and Lora ordered Chicken Breast Terakihi. The food was good. The Chicken Breast Terakihi was a lot, so both Lora and Laudine requested takeout boxes. We walked slowly back in the dark and thanked Laudine for a wonder evening. Lora and Laudine exchanged Facebook links.

The next day I was up the normal 5:15 am. I started to put everything outside away and close up the awnings. Lora got up before 7:00 am. We finished closing everything up and was on the road by 7:30 am. The earliest ever.

We are heading to San Francisco and the Pacific Ocean. We have no reservations ahead of us.

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