Vacations Blog

Bass Lake

When I was little I used to watch Bugs Bunny and when Yosemite Sam came on, I always thought his name was pronounced “Yoaz-might.”  What?  I’m from Connecticut, and I never went anywhere.  Frankly, when I learned the proper pronunciation, my bubble burst a little.  “Yoaz-might” is a cool way to say it.

Now that I live in SoCal, Yosemite National Park and its environs cropped up as a great place to meet some friends from NorCal.  We packed up the family into our Ford Flex loaner and away we went to Sky Lake, a sleep-away camp for kids about an hour from the entrance to the park that opens up its facilities to families a few weekends a year.  People described it to me as being like the camp in “Dirty Dancing.”  That’s all you really have to tell me.  I’m all about hot young dance instructors and talent shows and carrying watermelons.  Also, this place charged a flat fee for our family of four, and promised three meals a day, that someone else would cook. Now THAT’S all you really have to tell me.  I’m in.

Cabins at Sky Lake

The drive itself was unremarkable, taking us through California’s Central Valley and of course, Bakersfield.  With two little boys we had to stop every 30 minutes, it seemed, but still, getting to the general area of our destination only took about five hours.  Traffic was light on a Thursday afternoon, and we didn’t have to resort to in-flight DVD use to hypnotize the children until about 3 hours in, so I would say it was a pleasant enough drive.

Once we got into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, it was like we were on Mars.  How I forget, living in the San Fernando Valley (like, totally) that there are things like trees and hills and uninhabited beauty.  The higher up we climbed, the bigger the trees were.  The campground sits in the woodsy hills on Bass Lake, off Highway 41, near the town of Oakhurst, which is small but home to the stores of Everywhere USA just like any other town.  It’s when you turn off the main highway and onto Route 222 that you find the isolated bit of car-accessible wilderness that you seek, traveler.

A forest path beckons

Along this road that loops around Bass Lake are countless campgrounds run by California Land Management.  Had we not been lucky enough to score a cabin at Sky Lake, we could have obtained a campsite at Spring Cove campground next door.  Every nook and cranny of the road seemed to have a National Park campground sign at the end of the driveway.  They didn’t seem to be full – we saw a few tents and several RV’s but lots of open campsites near the lake.

Besides the camping, there is the Pines Resort, several motels and cabin rentals, and private homes.  The one restaurant we saw around the lake is at Miller’s Landing, a cabin resort whose eatery we visited on our first night since dining service had not yet begun.  Miller’s Landing has the resort, the restaurant, an ice cream parlor, a general store stocked with camping supplies and souvenirs, and a dock with boat slips and recreational water vessel rentals.  While we waited for our (pricey and not terribly fast or good) food, we walked down to take a look.  Two nanoseconds later, we were covered with mosquito bites, and remembered “Hey!  The bug repellent is packed in our luggage!”  In the days that followed, during the few drives that we made to Miller’s or around sections of the lake, we found that the area wasn’t very crowded and it was quite pleasant.

But then again, it’s still only spring.  In the summer, locals say the campgrounds are full, and the lake hosts hundreds of boaters, waterskiers, fishermen, and kids splashing around on the shore.  The Sky Lake campers were doing plenty of that during our stay, and we took part as best we could with our little kids in tow.  A few people, I heard tell, actually swam the entire length of the lake!  I shouldn’t be surprised by that, since the demographic of the guests that weekend was made up of many seriously fit people.  My husband got roped into a couple of games of Ultimate Frisbee, and while the other players considered him a ringer, he came back battered and sore each time, saying “I can’t wait to play again!”

Lakeside

And that’s really the essence of our weekend at Sky Lake:  playing.  There were games for the kids, crafts, tie-dye, a scavenger hunt, campfires, horseback rides where we learned that my toddler loves horses – but would dare not ride on one, a talent show, “attitude adjustment hour” for the grownups (BYOB), board games and art in the dining hall when it rained, and a volleyball court turned sand castle building yard when a hose was turned on and let loose in the sand.  Parents of older children let them loose and hunkered down with beverages and good long books.  I and my friend, having kids 4 and under, were more tethered to our children, lest they stray into the treacherous forest full of poison oak.

Ping pong

Campfire

Horseback riding

Plaster hand-making

The opportunity to spend time with our friends in such a serene environment was priceless.  No theme parks to navigate, no freeways get us lost.  Simple, down-and-dirty cabin dwelling put the kids in close quarters and allowed them to get to know each other better, these little offshoots of ourselves who don’t yet know of the ways the internet connects us.

Rocking some tunes

Watching them play together and form a friendship in real life, which is the only way they know how, reminded us of the value of simply being together and sharing experiences.  The novelty of sleeping in the woods and using flashlights to light our way through the crickety darkness gave their every move a magical feel.  They “whispered,” wide-eyed, about their “sleepover” and their “cabin playdate” and traded stories about space and princesses.  Their mothers arranged their future marriage.  They’ve been notified.

Skipping on stones

It was an idyll.  There is never such an opportunity for my kids to run and play without fear of traffic or strangers back here at home.  The weather was gorgeous, even the welcome thunderstorm that sent us all inside to play ping pong and foosball and gin rummy.  Frankly, when I heard the “board games in the dining hall” announcement come over the camp’s loudspeaker as the rain started, that was the only moment that really felt like a scene from “Dirty Dancing.”  Alas, because the toddler was taking a power nap in the cabin, I had to stay with him, lounging in my camp chair and reading my book.  It was the only time in my life so far that it was okay to put Baby in the corner.

Happy, tired kids