The Central Valley extends from Bakersfield in southern California to Redding in northern California. Its one of the most agriculturally productive regions in the world producing more than half of the United States fruits, vegetables and nuts.
Central Valley
The Central Valley is bordered by the Coastal Range to the west and the Sierra Nevadas to the east. Because of winter storms, we skipped the northern end of the valley hoping to spend some time in Death Valley.
Sacramento, California
We stayed at a beautiful RV park just south of Sacramento facing a lake.
Unfortunately, it rained almost daily, areas flooded and there were ducks and geese everywhere. Jake got Giardia from the geese, poor dog, but it responded well to Flagyl.
The resort had four pools and two hot tubs. The indoor ones were perfect because of the wet and windy weather. They also had a sauna, work out room, a game room and a restaurant.
Amador County Wine Region
Nestled in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range; it was a location of the California Gold Rush. Even though wineries were started during the Gold Rush, Prohibition in 1920 devastated the frontier wine community. It had a resurgence in the 1960s and produces some of California’s best wines.
There are over 3,700 acres of vines planted on rolling hills at 1,200-2,000 feet in elevation. About 600 acres are 65 years or older. Warm days and cool nights with good sunlight provide ideal growing conditions. The volcanic Sierra soil with decomposed granite and ample rainfall allows growers to dry-farm some of the best zinfandels in the country.
The wineries had smaller and less ostentatious tasting rooms compared to Napa. It was nice to have minimal or no tasting fees, affordably priced bottles of California’s great wines, and to meet the owners and wine makers. The topography was similar to Paso Robles, rolling hills and large oak trees. Just beautiful.
The foodie scene was somewhat sparse, but good none-the-less.
Jackson Rancheria, California
Even though the amenities in Wilton were fabulous, our patience for mud and geese poop wore out; so we changed locations to Jackson Rancheria. It’s a casino with a very nice RV park.
We were a couple of weeks too early to see the daffodils blooming.
Kirkwood Mountain Resort, California
They were still digging out of a recent snow storm. It was a beautiful drive through the mountains and a refreshing lunch.
Stockton, Central Valley, California
We stayed at a marina on the San Joaquin River.
Our site faced the river.
The San Joaquin River connects to the San Francisco Bay. Each day there were container ships. They brought in liquid fertilizer, cement, sulfur, steel and molasses.
When there weren’t tugboats and container ships, there were fishing boats, people sailing, and rowers.
Unfortunately there was a lot of washed up trash on the banks of the San Joaquin, so Sandy bagged up as much as she could during our stay. Lots of backpacks, sneakers, beer bottles and plastic.
Lodi, California
We were in the Lodi area a couple of times. The second was so that we could replace a hot water circulation pump for our front coach heater in Manteca, California.
Jessie’s Grove, Lodi, California
What a treat talking to Jessie’s grandaughter Wanda about the pioneer history of her winery and ranch. They have the oldest vines in the San Joaquin valley, which were planted in 1889. Wanda published a book “Jessie’s Grove: One Hundred Years In the San Joaquin Valley. She told us her families history and showed us her magnificent photos. Wanda is an amazing woman who had experienced not only a rapidly changing world but the origins of California wine.
There are so many incredible wineries in Lodi. This is zinfandel country. The wines tend to be high in alcohol, 16.2% with low tannins and acid. Very fragrant and full bodied with mature fruit. Our consistent favorite is Macchia. Not only delicious wines but inexpensive.
Although we were in the middle of zinfandel wine country with innumerable wineries, we limited ourselves to one winery a day.
Klinker Brick winery had very affordable full bodied wines that we enjoyed. A klinker brick occurs when bricks are fired in a kiln. Some areas in the kiln are hotter than others causing the brick to become vitrified, kind of burnt, creating misshapen, darker and heavier bricks. They create a metal sound when struck. Originally they were discarded, but during the depression, every fired brick was needed in construction.
Downtown Lodi had a small foodie scene. There were abundant craftsman homes, leaving us wondering if it will be the next HGTV remodel location.
Bakersfield, Central Valley, California
Bakersfield is a Central California hub for agriculture and oil production. It’s also know for the Bakersfield sound country music. Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, and Dwight Yoakam were all inspired here.
We stayed at Orange Grove RV park. The sites are in the middle of an orange grove. We loved making fresh juice in the morning with the small, seedless, and very sweet oranges.
