Fall in the forest

Fall in California is an interesting season. We spent five years living in Palo Alto, on the San Francisco Peninsula. It’s full of tree-lined streets, gorgeous gardens and parks, and brilliant fall colors. I love that the leaves change and fall and then GROW BACK green! Fall seems to last forever, and the 50–60º temperatures are crisp enough for light jackets and boots, but not cold by any stretch of the imagination.

I wanted to see “real fall” last October, and I also wanted to explore more of the redwood forests up in the mountains. We’ve spent time in the coastal redwoods in the Bay Area, Redwood National and State Parks on the North Coast of Northern California, so I wanted to see giant sequoias in the central part of the state.

I booked an Airbnb in Arnold, CA — near Stanislaus National Forest and Calaveras Big Trees State Park — and we drove about 3 hours east up into the mountains. Our cabin in the woods was beautiful and quaint, and the weather was wet and cold. It reminded us of fall in Michigan. We stopped at Snowshoe Brewing Company before checking in to enjoy giant piles of nachos and flights of local beer. When we arrived at the cabin, we made plans for the next morning while warming up next to a fire in the gas stove.

We had breakfast at a local spot nearby, watched the Michigan-Michigan State game on our iPhones thanks to our big iPhone 7 Plus screens and Verizon’s stellar LTE network that works even in places that do not have in WiFi or cable. After breakfast, we headed out to the forest to explore. The trees and fall colors were majestic, but my favorite part of the hike was encountering a pack of (wild?) cows. We saw them before we made it to the trailhead and then again as we were excitedly talking about the burgers we wanted to devour upon after we finished our hike.

We enjoyed delicious burgers and cold, refreshing craft beer at The Lube Room Saloon, which is definitely the best dive bar we’ve ever visited. We continued exploring the area and loved the wineries in and near downtown Murphys, Grounds restaurant for breakfast in Murphys, and the Moaning Cavern. The Moaning Cavern holds the largest vertical chamber in a public cavern in California — it could fit the entire Statue of Liberty!

These weekend getaways are amazing. I will forever be amazed at how massive and diverse California is: snow-capped mountains, forests full of skyscraper-high ancient redwoods, rolling hillsides covered in grape vines, rugged coastlines, quaint towns along the Pacific Coast or in the mountains, massive cities, and vast, intimidating deserts. What an incredible place!