Camping at Stanislaus National Forest

This weekend we went camping at Stanislaus National Forest. Man, it was cold up there at Lake Alpine campground, 7300 feet. We reached there by Sat afternoon, walked around Lake Alpine, and started dinner preparation at 5pm. The Coleman gas canister failed to sustain the BBQ fire because it was half frozen, so I dumped the entire metal rack onto the campfire fueled by firewood. Come 10pm it was already time for bed since it was so cold outside. Luckily we were reasonably prepared for the cold weather, so we slept soundly throughout the night.

The next morning we started another fire to keep ourselves warm. We struggled through breakfast and left by 11am. Soon after it started snowing! Cool! Then on the way down snow was replaced by heavy rain as altitude decreased. Still, my wife was ecstatic about seeing snow, no matter how light it was. As for me, I have seen plenty of it before, so it was only a decent refresher course.

Of the three camping trips I have gone to this year, Stanislaus is my favorite. I think I would want to return again.