My Knights Valley Day

Knights Valley is the most remote area of Sonoma County's wine appellations. It snuggles up against the northwestern flanks of 4342 foot Mount St. Helena - this part of the county's most notable feature. Ideal mountain growing conditions have resulted in Cabernets of regal quality that are sought after for their rarity - there are only two vineyards in Knights Valley!

I was very excited to go on a road trip again. I didn't mind that it was raining "cats and dogs" ho ho ho!!! (Note from Mom: at times, we had to pull off the road because wipers just couldn't keep the rain off the windshield fast enough to see!) It took two hours to get there, so I just snoozed.

We eventually got into the real country. This cool red barn is just north of Calistoga.

Finally we turned into a woodsy place and parked. I began investigating immediately and found lots of things I liked, such as trees, good scents, humans, and ... FOOD!!!

Dad grabbed a long tool and a big sled and I led the way up a steep hill, where I veered off the path to check out these trees! Since it was so wet, the smells were just heavenly. I know there were lots of squirrels right above me!

After tromping around and galloping through a ton of trees, I sat by this one and gave it my smile of approval.

Then Dad got out that weird tool and went to work on it. I tried to help, but Dad said I could assist later. So I supervised.

What'ch'all think? It looks a little lopsided, but I made sure there were no critters in it.

This is the view across Knights Valley from the top of the hill where we found our tree. It was trying to clear up, but failed miserably.

I needed some exercise and time to investigate the woods up here.

Then I became GPS dog and guided Dad back down to the car.

We passed some of these views and places on the way down. Mom and Dad would love to live in that cute woodsy house down there, with smoke curling from its chimney. Mom loved the smell of those cedars.

Cute, huh?

This nice kid gave me lots of pats - I encourage and really dig all the scritches I can get.

Okay: this was something I'd never seen before. Here's a movie about what it does heheheh!

And here's another of me visiting:

On the trip home, we passed some other trees with some odd things hanging from them. Nature's X-mas trees? Anybody know what those clumps are in this old live oak tree?

This looks like a witch's tree to me! Any guesses on this one? Will let you know on my next post! Hope you're all having a great weekend!