Larry and Sue Langley
With my cousin Beverly from Dodge City, Kansas visiting, we wanted her to experience how great our high country is so we decided to take her on a day trip up into the mountains to see Wishon and Courtright Reservoirs.
We loaded up the trusty Chevrolet Colorado with a picnic lunch and drinks, including a water dish for our traveling Corgi Maggie May, and hit the road about 9:30 a.m.
Gassed up in North Fork and then headed down Road 200 and turned on Road 222 towards Auberry. Nice, winding, scenic road. After crossing the bridge at Lake Kerckhoff, we drove through Auberry and turned left onto Hwy 168 which took us up to Shaver Lake where we turned right onto the road to Dinky Creek. Just before we arrive in Dinky Creek, we turned right on the road to Wishon.
McKinley Grove of Giant Sequoias
We were getting high up into the Sierra National Forest and took a rest stop at the McKinley Grove of Giant Sequoias, about halfway to the turnoff to Courtright. This grove contains some of the world’s oldest and biggest trees and is quite a sight to see. We wandered through the grove marveling at their size and grandeur. And naturally took quite a few pictures.
Leaving McKinley Grove we headed up towards Wishon but, before we arrived there, we turned left on the five mile road to Courtright Reservoir. Finally spotting the lake, we commented that Yosemite didn’t have an edge over the scenery here, just fantastic.
We took the left fork and headed towards a picnic area that had benches and views right on the lake. However, the mosquito population was too numerous for us to enjoy the site so we packed up and headed to the other side where the dam was located.
Courtright Reservoir
Ah, no mosquitos there and — we got to enjoy the fishermen landing one trout after another while we enjoyed our lunch. Hot setup was 4-pound test line with a small sinker tied on about 3-feet up. Floating Powerbait was the bait of choice and the action was quite good! We saw at least four limits caught while we were there. And I was cursing myself for not bringing my fishing equipment! Oh well, gives me incentive to head back to Courtright with my gear.
From Courtright, we decided to backtrack down the road and head over to Wishon Reservoir to check it out. Again, the scenery was fantastic and we scouted out campsites for future trips. My cousin Bev was amazed at the scenery and we kept quoting, “We’re not in Kansas Anymore, eh?”
Finally decided to head for home and arriving back at home in North Fork, we found we had traveled about 150 miles, a pretty long day trip but well worth it. We’ll do it again for sure and bring a few more supplies and fishing gear along.
These scenic spots are there for you to enjoy. Gas your car up, pack a lunch had take a nice drive up to our high country. You won’t regret it.
