As Memorial Day Weekend approached us on our travel through California we knew that we needed to make reservations somewhere. Looking at our the map and our route, we somehow came across Forks Campground in the Sierra National Forest-little be known that we would be on a small resort lake.
Following the directions that I got off our reservation-it actually was a bit confusing to find our particular campsite. First mistake we made-was that the sign wasn’t posted in the direction we were coming from-therefore missing our turn onto Hwy 222. ending up in Oakhurst, turning around, getting lost for the second time-not seeing that Hwy 222 now veer in one direction- once again ended up on another Hwy and had to turn around for the second time.
At least our campsite was very easy for me to back in and got it in just one shot! Now it was time to relax and explore for the next 11 days of our stay.
There are several hiking trails that intrigued us and knew that we wanted to take. First trail we attempted was to Goat Mountain Lookout Tower. It would be a 4.4 hike-one way. That sure was one LONG hike! It really wasn’t too strenuous, but we climbed up and up.
The trail started inside our campground-which made it easy to access. But about an 1/8 of a mile up the hill, we came to a wide forest service road and wasn’t sure which direction to go. The trail continued on just a ways from there. I kept questioning if we were even on the right path. Our goal was to find the fire tower; I was being leery, while Brian was being optimistic.
One thing was for sure-I was extremely enjoying all the different and beautiful wild flowers that we crossed-only if I knew what they were….
As we kept on hiking, we came across other hikers and soon learned that we were very close to Goat Mountain road. They gave us further instruction on which direction to turn-for once again their was no signs as to which direction we should go, so we were thankful for their helpful tip. However, we still had yet well over another mile plus to go!
As we traveled on the Goat Mountain Trail/road-the view was getting more and more spectacular of Bass Lake.
What I thought that I would never reach to the top, we finally found the Goat Mountain Fire Tower! And what a spectacular view we had from there!!
Oh this was so well worth the hike up, now it’s time to head back, and I know we were both exhausted and slept like babies that night!
After giving our bodies a days rest, we now adventure onto the Willow Creek Trail to the Angels & Devils Slide Falls. The literature we received stressed that this would be possibly a dangerous hike. We both decided that at any point it got way to hairy for either one of us-we would simply turn around. The reason this hike could be considered “dangerous” was due to the very slippery rocks near the falls.
This trail is not located in the campgrounds, but off of Hwy 274. Once again, there was no signage to help us along, after crossing a bridge, we knew that we went too far. Knowing that waterfalls has to be part of some source of waterway-the only one nearby was the creek we just crossed over. Found a hidden road near the bridge and sure enough it was the parking lot to Willow Creek Trail.
As a general rule and from our own experience, a trail is nearby their trail sign. So we started on this particular trail, to learn that it ended very soon.
Turning around, we took the other direction and it did lead us towards a water fall. True to it’s warnings, we found that the trail did follow the rocks and they could be slippery.
We think we are on some kind of trail, but was hard to determined. for there was one or two other intertwining paths, we choose to follow carefully along the water way.
Then we came to a point, that we just wasn’t sure what we should do. There actually was a cable with a locked roller platform that someone apparently uses from time to time.
We turned around, took yet another trail that ended up leading us out onto some forest service road. Not ready to stop our hike, we just continued on this road. After about a mile or so, we came across another trail and followed it. We now believed we have found Devil Slide Fall….
We finally got to a point where we just turned around and headed back…enough for one day….
After getting back, and studying the map once again, we discovered that the trail is actually on the opposite side of the creek-the same trail we thought ended at one point. So after a couple of days, we went back once again. Found the trail-again, just to loose it again….feeling frustrated, we gave up. We did learn later on that we did make it to Devils Slide Fall-just in a round about way-or maybe it was the right way. All we know is the Forest Service in conjunction with California Land Management need to work on maybe putting up some kind of trail marker to help guide us safely to these two beautiful waterfalls….
We hiked all the areas that we could find to hike, enjoying ourselves-even if the trail markers need to be improved. We even took the trail from our campground, Forks to Spring Cove Campground-a 3.4 mile hike-one way. We walked the roadway back and again-was completely tuckered out.
As Memorial Weekend came, we sat back and let everyone else enjoy what Bass Lake had to offer. all the Day-use areas were busting at the seam, vehicles parked all along the roadway, finding a cove to have a family gathering and the lake itself was literally crazy! I never knew that that so many boats, pontoons, and jet-ski could fit on this small little lake-but they did and they all seem to had fun. What we found interesting is no water patrol but instead the local sheriff handles and controls the boating on this particular lake.
Bass Lake is a nice little hidden get-away with 3 resorts/lodges and several really nice campgrounds. It’s surround by the Sierra Mountains. It’s well known by the locals and those that live in the cities like Sacramento and San Francisco, but for tourist like you and me-it’s a hidden secret that we just happen to come across. We enjoyed our stay here and the weather was near perfect for us.
We had supposedly a cold front moving in on Memorial Day with possible high winds-but we never got the winds, but sure got a beautiful shot of a huge ring around the sun!
