The Photograph above is of the California Sierra Buttes in Sierra County close to Gold Valley. A Forest Fire Lookout Station is on top of the highest peak. A very rough four wheel drive trail goes partly up the back side to a foot trail that will take you to the Station. Visitor's are welcome. It gets lonely up there and they enjoy visitors and explaining their job and the equiptment. The Station is manned during the Summer and Fall months until the first snow. The elevation is 8591 feet.

"Heavens Treasure"

This page was last updated on: March 7, 2006

"Things Carol Loved to do"

Whenever we went four wheeling in Gold Valley, Carol would start singing the song, "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." Everyone would join in and then start adding their own lyrics. Like, "He's Got the Little Bitty Deer In His Hands," and then start adding more of Gods creatures. Deer, Squirrels, Chipmunks, Birds, Trees, Gold Valley, The Creeks and many others. Try it, you'll have fun with it.

Something funny that happened the first time I took Carol and 2 of our kids to Gold Valley.           Our good friends Lee and Dorothy and their 3 kids also went.We got to the trail into Gold Valley at 8am after driving 5 hours from the San Francisco Bay area. We stopped and took the tops off the Jeeps and then let tire pressures down for better flotation on the snow pack when we got to it. We got to the top of the Mountain and then hit the heavy snow pack. We got on top of the snow crust, still frozen from the night and started toward Gold Valley. This was about 7 miles of running snow. Once in a while one of us would break through and either one of us would pull the other out or we would string out the cable from our winch and pull ourselves back up onto the snow crust, then continue until we broke through again. This happened several times. We finially got to a spot where the snow was badly drifted up the Mountain making it dangerous to try crossing it. I studied the area and then had Lee back up his Jeep a short distance. I backed up a few feet and then put the Jeep in 1st gear and turned the steering wheel to the left which would take us over and down the side of the Mountain about 200 feet. We had to go over some trees that looked about 6 foot tall. Carol said, "your not going down there are you?" Then seeing I was, said "You are." She said this loudly. Well we skied the Jeeps with the utility trailors on behind down the side of the Mountain to the bottom then jumped on the gas and up a short hill and headed for the trail a short distance ahead. Carol finally seeing we were all in one piece relaxed until we got to an off angle creek crossing through drifted snow. We stopped the Jeeps and looked the situation over and then shoveled a path in the snow for the left wheels of the Jeeps to follow, keeping us from sliding sideways into the creek. It worked and after reaching the other side we were out of the snow and Carol Relaxed again. Of course Dorthy was thinking like Carol that Lee and I were crazy. The kids just loved it.           We finially got into Gold Valley and camp at 4 pm and I pulled out the ice chest and took a bottle of champaign out that I brought along to celebrate. We hadn't eaten since early morning and you can imagine how the champaign took hold. We didn't care if camp was set up or not. I just took the tent out of the trailor threw it on the ground and said there it is.           We all, also made the bad mistake of not taking cigarettes with us with the intention of quitting. We ran out of smokes and things were Ok until we wanted a smoke. Lee and Dorothy's daughter Dinesse had smokes so we bummed them from her until she was out. Hee, Hee, we went back out the next morning for smokes and had a hell of a time doing it, but we got out and back. We also had a great time doing it. Carol was finally trusting me and the Jeep and enjoyed the trip out and back. You see, This is the very first time that Carol and our kids had done anything like this. The reason is I married a ready made family. Victor was 14 and Connie was 15. Vicky was already married and didn't go with us. Carol and the kids fell in Love with Gold Valley the minute they saw it and the more of Gold Valley they saw the more they loved it.

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