Thursday, March 26, 2015

Temecula and Lake Skinner


We continued our February 2015 trip to southern California by visiting family in Riverside County. My cousin, Scott, was our tour guide for the afternoon. We began by enjoying a wonderful lunch at the Third Street Smokehouse in Old Town Temecula. After lunch we cruised through Old Town Temecula with its eclectic combination of shops before heading northeast on Rancho California Road. We stopped to see the dozens of ducks at the Temecula Duck Pond before continuing through town to the vineyards of southern California's wine country. Besides admiring the remaining citrus groves and the vineyards, we stopped at a couple of hilltop wineries for a view of the valley. Next, we headed to Lake Skinner, a Riverside County Park. Here, water from the Colorado River Aqueduct and the State Water Project is stored before being filtered and distributed to 2.5 million residents in Riverside and San Diego Counties. Our final stop of the afternoon was back at my cousin's home where we watched a spectacular sunset.

Temecula Civic Center

Old Town Front Street

Temecula Duck Pond

Churon Winery vineyards with the San Jacinto Mountains

A residence on the left and the Miramonte Winery from the grounds of the Churon Winery

Dormant vineyard at Mount Palomar Winery with the San Jacinto Mountains

Falkner Winery, the Tucalota Hills, and the San Jacinto Mountains

Some of the vineyards of the Falkner Winery

Maurice Car’rie Vineyard & Winery

Abandoned farm building at Lake Skinner

Black Mountain

Alamos Schoolhouse

Tucalota Hills

Lake Skinner

Scott has taken garden railroading to new heights

Reflections in the pond

Fiery sky

The Lake Skinner website is http://www.rivcoparks.org/parks/lake-skinner/lake-skinner-home/.

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