White-headed Woodpecker Chilao Campgrounds Angeles Crest Highway San Gabriel Mountains California 073
It’s been a while since our Angeles Crest adventure but we are still talking about it. W9 and I have implored Lou Orr to simply attach us to his roof rack because every seat in his car was taken for a trip up to the Chilao Visitor Center in the San Gabriel Mountains. On this day Jerry drives us. The weather was perfect and the skies were blue.
Jerry and I have hiked many of the trails here over the years before we found birdwatching. The Manzanita Campground was unexplored territory. You might need a parking pass and you need to research where they are sold. To use a camp site you need to pre-pay for that too. W9 has an expression “too hard basket.”
On this day Lou met us and then took the vanguard....soon we were seeing the mountains from a new perspective. This campground would be closed until Spring the very next day. We stop and read the large signs with the rules and regulations. Scratching our heads we pile back into our SUVs. Lou heads up into the elevated campground, stops suddenly, and jumps out with motor running yelling in a loud whisper “quail.” His enthusiasm is contagious. Lewis’s Woodpeckers are flying overhead. The venue is new and exciting. The views are spectacular. We park at a campsite. There is a post tagged with expired permits flapping in the gentle breeze.
White-headed Woodpecker Chilao Campgrounds Angeles Crest Highway San Gabriel Mountains California 073
It’s been a while since our Angeles Crest adventure but we are still talking about it. W9 and I have implored Lou Orr to simply attach us to his roof rack because every seat in his car was taken for a trip up to the Chilao Visitor Center in the San Gabriel Mountains. On this day Jerry drives us. The weather was perfect and the skies were blue.
Jerry and I have hiked many of the trails here over the years before we found birdwatching. The Manzanita Campground was unexplored territory. You might need a parking pass and you need to research where they are sold. To use a camp site you need to pre-pay for that too. W9 has an expression “too hard basket.”
On this day Lou met us and then took the vanguard....soon we were seeing the mountains from a new perspective. This campground would be closed until Spring the very next day. We stop and read the large signs with the rules and regulations. Scratching our heads we pile back into our SUVs. Lou heads up into the elevated campground, stops suddenly, and jumps out with motor running yelling in a loud whisper “quail.” His enthusiasm is contagious. Lewis’s Woodpeckers are flying overhead. The venue is new and exciting. The views are spectacular. We park at a campsite. There is a post tagged with expired permits flapping in the gentle breeze.