Go Around the Bend: A Likely Spot and Hot Spring Heaven

The last week has been pretty mellow. No strenuous hikes or mountain biking marathons. It's hard to get motivated when you feel like a limp noodle, but more on that later. We spent three days, beginning 5/17, at the Likely Place Golf & RV Park near Likely, CA. We’ve enjoyed this park before and, as I mentioned, were looking forward to introducing Riley to the giant jack rabbits. While we did manage to spot a few, none were bold enough to come over and make his acquaintance. 😊

Check out those ears!

When the big males stand up, I swear they're over three feet tall!

The RV park has a lot of fun amenities, including the use of bikes, kayaks, and paddleboards for free. We borrowed two fat tire bikes for the 3.5 mile trail around the property. It was a really fun and easy ride. You don’t have to be a golfer (and I’m not!) to appreciate the beautiful grounds.

The course is lovely, and I don't even golf!

Fat tire fun!!

Gorgeous views from the trail.

Old homestead and barn.

Our first snakey encounter this trip.
He turned out to be harmless, but still gave me a scare.

We all liked the nature trail, Riley managed to find a small stream to play in and we enjoyed the sunset from Jose’s Point. We were excited to see a Great Horned Owl standing guard over a brush pile. If the number of ground squirrels scurrying around are any indication, I’m guessing he eats very well!

Somebody is a happy boy!

Great Horned Owl.
How cool is that!

View of the our happy little home from the hilltop.

Sunset from Jose's Point.

Rog had read about a hot spring near West Valley Reservoir which wasn’t too far from Likely. Unfortunately the route was down a dirt road, which was deeply rutted and extremely muddy after the recent rains. Likely had gotten dumped on, an inch of rain, the day before we arrived. We came a little too close for comfort to getting stuck, so turned around and left this one on the list for a drier time.

Since the hot spring was a bust, we decided to check out the other side of West Valley Reservoir. We found a great spot for Riley to play in the water and several possible boondocking sites. The only potential drawback was the range cows. Some of the nicer spots were already *ahem* occupied. The cows and calves were adorable. I just wanted to get out and smooch their little faces. Then we caught sight of the range bull. Ah, not so smoochable. Huge, squinty eyed, snot dripping from his nose, and emanating pure evil. He stared us down, daring us to get out of the car. Nope, moving right along.

Riley was very interested in the neighbors.

Awwwww. What a cute clown face!

Mom and a Mini-Me.

More water fun at the reservoir.

Eyes on the prize!
Retrieve might be a strong word, but he did chase the stick. :)

On Saturday we did a 3 ½ hour scenic (or so it was billed) drive which entailed close to 30 miles on dirt/gravel roads. For some reason Riley just wouldn’t settle down. He kept trying to crawl into the front seat and managed once to make it completely onto my lap! We had to pull over several times to haul him bodily back into the rear of the CRV. We’re not sure what had him in a tizzy. We thought maybe the rumble of the cattle guards (of which there are many), but the behavior didn’t seem consistent with any trigger we could identify. I’m convinced he just wanted to ride shotgun! He gets to sit up front in the motorhome, why not in the CRV??

I wanna ride shot gun!
(Notice my arm trying to hold him back?!)

At one point, we thought he might have to go potty, so Rog pulled over in a forested area. We got Riley out, but he was more interested in sniffing around than doing his business. At first we noticed just a few mosquitos, then all of sudden the word went out there was fresh meat and we had hundreds of them swarming over us, Riley, and the car. We were descended upon by ravening swarms of bloodsuckers! We quickly loaded Riley back up and sped away. I spent the next 10 miles fending off the ones that made it into the car and trying to protect both Rog and Riley. Whew! We narrowly escaped or some poor motorist would have found our desiccated corpses alongside the road. Lol.

The scenic part of the drive.

Warner Wilderness.

On Sunday, 5/20, we moved to Crystal Crane Hot Springs. No trouble finding this one, we had reservations! Lol. They have campsites, rooms for rent, cabins, teepees, private soaking rooms, but the best thing is the hot spring pool. It is by far the largest hot spring I’ve ever seen. The pool is so deep you can’t touch bottom in the middle, a 101˚ swimming pool – Yesssssssss. The water coming out of the hot spring is about 165˚, so the folks who operate the place manage the flows in and aerate the water to moderate the temps. The average temp is around 100˚, but it is a lot warmer near the inflow. Can you guess where we hung out? Lol.

A hot spring pool so big you have to swim across? Yesssss!

There were lots of steaming pools around the property.

We managed an afternoon soak on Sunday after we arrived and then later that evening. The camping fee includes 24-hour access to the hot spring, and after 9pm all the day-use people have to leave so it’s just the overnight guests. Lovely!! Let’s just say we got our money’s worth.

On Monday, lots of folks were leaving so Rog and I were having a leisurely morning, figuring we’d hit the pool after checkout time and probably have it all to ourselves. Ha! Just as we were about to head out, we noticed not one, but TWO, school buses pull up and disgorge a veritable horde of high-schoolers. Arrrrrgh! Oh well, we found out that they were scheduled to depart by 2pm, so we settled in with a book to wait them out.

We had some fantastic sunsets (still dodging those thunderstorms!) and hit the pool several more times before we pulled out on Tuesday. Let’s see… hot spring in the early morning (check), mid-day (check), early evening (check), under the stars (check). Yep, we were thoroughly soaked!