The Santa Clara River

When we got to the Soledad Canyon Campground, the ranger who checked us in let us know that the roadway to the "upper" campground had washed out a few weeks ago in heavy rain, so access to the upper part of the campground was via a different county road and through what is normally the "emergency" exit for the upper campground. She assured us that we could walk across the damaged road, and that they have plans for repairing it, but are waiting on county approval of the plans.

On a walk around the campground a couple of days ago, we walked around the area where the Santa Clara River shows on the map. I had seen this on a website (http://santaclaritaguide.com/Glossary.html):

Santa Clara River
For many of us who have lived "east of California," we expect to see water in the area marked as the Santa Clara River on our local maps. However, the river is dry for most of the year. But beware, as heavy rains can make the usually dry riverbed a raging river very quickly.

There have been warning signs here "Caution: This section of road can become flooded and impassable during storms"

There isn't a storm now, but it is impassable due to safety concerns.

This is the Santa Clara River (bed) - and the edge of the roadway where it is closed.

I had worn sandals so didn't proceed down the sandy riverbed, but Dwayne walked a ways down (you may be able to discern him in the middle of the picture) until he got to a place where there was actually water in the riverbed (a pool of water, not flowing).

The family pool is also closed - I think maybe it was also impacted by storms - so the adult pool has hours that children can also use it. One of the few negatives about staying at Thousand Trails parks is that they tend to have little funding for infrastructure maintenance or improvement. I hope they are ultimately able to get these items fixed at Soledad Canyon.