 Cow Mountain OHV Park Adventure
After arriving at the Northern California Off Highway Vehicle Recreation Park known as Cow Mountain, my friend Z and I (aka Kim) were unable to locate the campsite where we had planned to spend our weekend. It was, afterall, 10 PM Friday evening and it had been raining for several hours. Two hours of driving though somewhat torturous and very muddy roads we decided to make camp at the next clearing we saw. The first two pictures show the spot we picked and what we woke up to the next morning.
Mud was everywhere - on my tires and on us. Once it was daylight, we were able to locate our original campsite within minutes. After setting up camp, we drove to the main entrance of the park to check it out and to get more water since our campsite was without it. It was raining quite hard again by that time and as you can see by the picture below, BJ got a nice bath.
Cow Mountain, located west of Clear Lake, CA, is made up of beginning, intermediate and advanced 4WD roads for your enjoyment. The picture below shows a view of Clear Lake from Cow Mountain. Although it's a cloudy day, you can still enjoy the great scenery and beautiful sights the park has to offer.
Z and I traveled several beginning roads one of which led to the small knoll which I unofficially named 'Kinker Knoll'. It was fun for us beginners to go up and down on.
We decided to travel down one particular road that was very muddy. We took it slow but soon found out the road was to much of a mess to traverse and we decided to back out after going about 75 yards. We got about 25 yards back and slid into a ravine which we had trouble getting out of, but we managed to after about 10 minutes of trying. The two pictures below shows how messy the road conditions were and how 'BJ' handled it.   After 2 days and nights of muddy existence, we decided to head back to San Francisco and clean living. The final two pictures show just how muddy it was and how Z and I were able to clean it off (creek located inside Cow Mountain) before heading back to the City.   Z and I plan to do Cow Mountain again, but probably in dryer weather ! Hope to see ya there!! 
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