Courtright Reservoir

Hi Everyone,

We hope everyone had an enjoyable Labor Day weekend.

We decided to head back up into the Sierra's for a great weekend of camping, which included fishing, hiking, ATV riding and lots of playing in the dirt!

The weather was great once we arrived, although we hit some snow on the way up. Once we arrived at our destination it was sun and fun the entire stay with chilly mornings and high 70s in the afternoon. In contrast, we’re still hitting 100+ in the valley so it was a nice relief.

Our quick trip took us up to Courtright Reservoir which is located, as the crow flies, about 50 miles NE from Visalia. By road, of course, it is about 130 miles and 4 hours driving. It is a beautiful drive up to the lake, though slightly challenging once you get above the 8000' level when towing a large and heavy trailer.

A single lane road at the end of the trail, these little poles depicted in the photo above pale in comparison to the drop below...............

However, once you arrive at the reservoir you can see why it was well worth the time and effort.

The Wishon Reservoir, 2000 feet below and 7 miles down the road, is a twin to Courtright. And, yes, it is a steep climb from Wishon to Courtright, especially with a trailer. Both of these reservoirs embody very deep, steep walled granite canyons. You will often read about the two being compared to Yosemite National Park, upper and lower – the difference being that these two are just filled up with water. The two reservoirs lie about 40 miles south of Yosemite and 20 miles north of Sequoia National Park, so you will often times run across Giant Sequoia groves in your treks through the area as well.

The mountains in this area of the Sierras are truly in a league of their own. They often remind me of the Grand Tetons - just more massive and spectacular, as the Tetons begin at 5000 feet and these mountains start at sea level, actually below sea level on the eastern side - Death Valley.

It was getting late into the afternoon by the time we arrived so we immediately began setting up camp. We found this wonderful slab of granite that provided plenty of room for the girls to ride their ATVs around camp and offered plenty of fire wood within a short walk. The photo below is looking west and just beyond the ridge in the background you can view the San Joaquin Valley 8000 feet below.

Once the sun goes down it gets chilly very quickly so it is a must to have a good campfire going prior to sunset. So, Mom and Dad get to work immediately. Dad unpacks the ATVs, build's the fire, etc. Mom readies the interior - bedding, dinner etc., and the girls play poly pockets, color and exercise their Hermit crabs; the kids have trained us well........

Its rise and shine at 0630 on Saturday morning, Brit in her usual good spirits..................

Alicia is practicing her "cast” for our upcoming fishing expedition..............

It's about 11 AM and we're off on an ATV trip, heading down the famous Dusy-Ershim trail.......

Everything about this place is granite; most of the dirt we saw was on Alicia. In fact, Jen and I have come to the conclusion that Alicia's chemistry is such that she actually attracts dirt like a magnet attracts iron. Due to the degree of difficulty, Alicia rode with Dad on this trail..........

Here's some background on the Dusy-Ershim: http://www.off-road.com/4x4web/travels/dusy.html

This is called "Voyager Rock, the trail here is marked with rocks and small boulders and you can see a jeep up ahead. As Yosemite was, these canyons were sculpted by glacial action and the large boulders you see in this photo below were deposited there many thousands of years ago by glacier.

After about 3 miles and an hour of riding we arrived at the southeastern end of the lake where we could ride as far as we can see. It was literally just a few seconds and Brit was off, traversing the sandy shoreline.....

She slows for a quick photo op on her return...............

After some riding on the beach, we unpacked our poles and tried our luck at fishing................

Dad is seen here teaching his younger daughter the intricacies and skills necessary to catch a wild lake trout..................(needless to say, we ate burgers that evening)

Brit posing for the camerawoman here as she waits for Dad to hook and bait her pole..........

After a couple hours of fishing and a little picnic lunch it's time to head back down and do some more beach riding.....Being the big joker she is, Alicia jumps on the back of Brit’s bike, hoping she'll sneak away without Mom or Dad noticing........

Of course we noticed but she's a good sport; she’s donned her helmet and jumped on Dad's bike ready to go....................

We headed back to camp and called it an evening, no fresh trout but we can say that the cheeseburgers and roasted marshmallows this evening never tasted so good.......