Silent Valley in all its Beauty

We arrived in Silent Valley last Tuesday, and as usual, we love being here.  Some people ask us why we would drive all the way up here to camp so far from "civilization," but I think one has only to see this place to understand the appeal.  The very first time we came up here with our former camping club, I couldn't believe ANYONE would want to drive this far, but then we began to explore the many acres of this wonderful campground.  I believe you just cannot view such beauties of nature as we see here without seeing God's hand at work.  
Yes, the drive up the mountain (eight miles up on Highway 243 and one mile down on Poppet Flats Rd to the entrance) can be a little daunting, but it really is worth the drive.  This picture is a view from outside our RV.  The second   

picture is an area we walk with the dogs each morning.  There are many very old trees in this park, and the sky is an incredible blue up here.  I think that is because we don't have all that urban smog here.  By the way, the altitude here is about 3500 feet above sea level.
 
Every morning we do a walk of about a mile and that's just on one side of the park.  We know how far we have walked because our Fitbit records the distance, and the number of steps, as well as how many calories we have burned with the walk.  The walk takes us past the Miniature Golf course, then the family pool and family activity center.

 
There isn't much going on here YET, but this place will be full of people and activity later next month.  As we continue our walk, we come around by the trout pond, where they have a fishing derby a few times a year.  I remember reading that the pond is stocked about twice a year, so those who fish have a good chance of catching a few!  Not our "thing" but many people do come here to fish.

However, it was nice to see the mallards that come here and hang out at the pond.  There is also a baby, but I didn't get a picture of him today. We have also seen a red-tailed hawk, some woodpeckers, robins, mourning doves, nuthatches and other beautiful birds here.  I forgot to mention that this park has areas where the wild flowers bloom.

I only got a couple pictures of these pretty flowers, but I will keep looking for more shots of the beauty we get to see every day.
Besides the natural beauty, we also have a couple nice play ground areas for kids.  Here's a picture of one of them.

And since we are nine miles away from the nearest town, we have our own fire truck to protect us, in the event of a fire in the park.  I also believe that God watches over Silent Valley, and keeps us safe from fires.  We have camped here a few times when there were fires raging higher up the mountain in the area of Idyllwild and also when there were fires below us on Highway 243.  However, there has only been one time I know of that fires actually came within Silent Valley, and even then, no campsites were burned.  
 
This park has not only a family center and pool, but also an adult center, and an adults only pool.  During the summer, the adult pool is open until 12 midnight, and we really enjoy that!  There is also what is called the Village Center.  Within that area is the camp store, the Chuck Wagon restaurant, and a bar called the Watering Hole.  During the summer time, there is family entertainment on Saturday nights in the open area between the buildings of the village center, and live music for dancing in the bar.  There are many great activities during the summer, especially on holiday weekends.  Another thing we like is that because of all the wooded areas, they do NOT allow any fireworks on July 4th.  Since our dogs are very afraid of fireworks, we are glad they don't have them here.  

They provide kids crafts every Saturday (during the season) at the Family center, and some adult crafts at the village center.  I forgot to mention that there are also snack bars at both the family center and the adult center too.  Is it any wonder we look forward to our month long stays up here three or four times a year?  They also have a Thanksgiving dinner, a Christmas dinner and a New Year's eve dinner and party, with a live band for dancing..............but I just can't take the cold of being here during the winter anymore.  

Several years ago we came up for Thanksgiving, and we even had SNOW on the ground.  It wasn't much, but we made a little snowman of it.  Then I laid down on the ground a took a picture, shooting upward at the snowman so he looked to be much bigger than he was!  Back then we had a Yorkie named Gypsy who had never seen snow so it was really funny watching her try to figure out how to walk in the fluffy white stuff.  

This evening we walked up to the adult lodge and pool.  It's all UPHILL to get there, but that means the walk back is much easier....down hill all the way, except that Jim decided to cross over the pedestrian bridge and come back on the other side of the area. 
    I could hardly believe my eyes when we saw these ducks happily swimming in the adult pool this evening.  It was such a hoot!  They were just making themselves at home.
 
Many years ago, a dear friend named Herve Collette and his wife Pat introduced us to Silent Valley.  He has since passed away, but his memory lives on in the hearts of ALL who knew him.  I just spent time trying to find a picture of them to include here, but I couldn't find one.  Back in 2012 I bought an external drive to store pictures in.  Our dear friend Robert White helped me to install it, and to transfer pictures to it.  One day I hooked it up and tried to show someone some pictures that were on it...................but it would not open and asked for a password.  I have no recollection of establishing a password, and Robert doesn't remember it either.  I tried several of the passwords I have used for other things, without success.  So for now, all of those pictures are safely stored where I CAN'T GET TO THEM.  
 
That's all for today.  Happy travels and many blessings to you all.  Stay well and keep the rubber side down!