Caswell State Park is 25 miles from us. I'd never been there, so a morning trek targeted this lonely outpost of the Park system. Only 5% of original Central Valley landscape still exists. This is one of its islands.I felt like I was on the set of Lord of the Rings after taking one of the trails. A canopied, vine-laden, buggy forest ready to eat you up if you are inclined to meditative breaks. I tunneled through, walking parallel to the tortuous Stanislaus River, but not really seeing it without taking a few hardly beaten paths to its bank.
Little wonder that people didn't like having to deal with riparian forests and cut them down for orchards and farmland. Thankfully a bit of it has been preserved for us to enjoy and visualize what life used to be like when the Yokut Indians lived here.
Not a lot of color for pictures. Hope you enjoy them anyway.
