Complicated Planning for this summer

Those of you who have followed this blog for a while know that we take the entire staff of our company for a camping trip each summer. It's a great team-building exercise, and while everyone is free to do what they want during the day, each night a team is responsible for cooking and cleaning up. And since we work in the wine and food world, that means we have some pretty memorable meals.

That's the Moreno girls at left, cooking up a feast.

But finding a group campsite this summer was a bit of a challenge. Of course the really popular sites book up very quickly, but we've usually been able to find a spot without too much trouble. This year is different, and it's different because of the snow.

Yes, Recreation.gov is taking reservations for campsites all over the Sierra. But the rangers in those forests and parks are not in any way sure that the campgrounds will be open, or when they will be open. If we get a warm spring and the melting snow reveals no major road damage, then all is well. But we spoke to rangers in the El Dorado, Calaveras, Tahoe, and Sierra National Forests, and they all admitted they didn't have a firm date of when many of their campgrounds would open.

We found a spot that we think will work pretty well. But if you're looking, you better move quickly if you know where you want to camp--or take the advice of most of the rangers we contacted. They told us to check back in late May!