Our 4th of July week vacation with the travel trailer was spent in two sets of mountains: Mt Madonna (in the Santa Cruz Mountains) and Shaver Lake (in the Central Sierra National Forrest).

The actual 4th holiday weekend we spent close to home in Mt. Madonna County Park.  This was a very nice getaway and allowed for hiking, biking and even some very fun strawberry picking!

Mt Madonna Facilities

The park is tucked up in the mountains above Gilroy, CA (map).  The RV sites are spacious and shady, and many of the facilities are fairly new. The bathroom/shower building by our site seemed almost brand-new and was a very short walk from our trailer. The campground offers power and water at the campground RV sites but no sewer. There is a dump station at the campground though that is very conveniently located.

One word of warning about the road at the campground turn off (at Pole Line Road). It is really steep! Use your lowest gear if you are pulling anything when driving up the road. It is an almost constant climb to the ranger check-in station. The first time up it can be a little hairy.

Kids castle at Mt Madonna County Park

Right next to our campsite site the kids found a grove of redwood trees in what is called a “fairy ring.” Younger redwood trees grow in a circle around the stump of an older tree and take nutrients from the old tree. The kids thought it looked like a castle because the stump was hollowed out making a perfect lookout/castle.  This provided HOURS and DAYS of fun for the children staying in the RV campground for the weekend.

During our stay there we noticed the campground was not as full as the website had indicated. I’ve noticed many times people book a reservation but just don’t show up. It’s always a good idea if you can’t initially get a reservation to try again a little closer to your desired arrival date. You may be surprised a month or so before you want to go…you may actually get in!

Kids at the Miller Ranch Ruins

Our first morning there we went on a guided hike to the Henry Miller Ranch Ruins.  Only the foundations remain of these historical homes, which would have been considered legendary in their day. Henry Miller and his family would love to come to Mt. Madonna in the summer and enjoy the coolness and beauty of the area. It is a short hike, but bring bug spray. the mosquitoes were out on our hike.

The week before our trip to Mt. Madonna, Sunset Magazine’s ran an article on spending a day in Watsonville, which is just on the other side of the ridge in the valley from our campground.

Of the activities listed, we choose to take a bike ride along a wetlands reserve park which was scenic and  beautiful.  The ride began at the wetlands center which we should have taken more time to explore, but the kids were rearing to get going on their bikes.  Luckily there were several informative wildlife stations with information about what you were looking at along the way.

Claire picking strawberries

After the wetlands we headed to a “pick ‘em yourself” strawberry farm. It was really fun and the strawberries were very tasty.  We ran into some friends from San Jose, who had done just what we were doing … following the Sunset Magazine article and enjoying their day.

Sunday (the 4th of July) we decided to go to Morgan Hill for their fireworks show.  The fireworks were set to music and were very well coordinated.  It was a good experience and the kids had a great time.  We were able to take the back-roads back to Mt. Madonna and were in our beds before 11 p.m.

Our final day at Mt. Madonna started with a bit of high fog which burned off quickly but left a breezy day.  We looked at the park map to see if there was anything we could do before pulling out. There was an accessible trail to visit historic twin redwoods which had been deemed to be almost 250 years old!  We headed out on our bikes to visit the trees and walk a bit on a little wooded trail.

Ben tries to climb the giant redwood

We spent the rest of the morning cleaning the trailer for the next leg of our holiday trip which would take us to Shaver Lake and Camp Edison in the Central Sierra Nevada.   The kids spent the time in the magical castle and enjoying Mt. Madonna to the very last minute!