My Adventures: On the way to Twain Harte, CA

Once again I decided to venture out of Fresno and visit surrounding towns. This time I headed to Twain Harte. Twain Harte is a small town in the north of Fresno about 2 1/2 hours driving. The Arts and wine festival was scheduled to be there both Saturday and Sunday this weekend. I was more interested in wine, but art is good too. I decided to use one of my favorite apps Roadtrippers.com to figure out what else there is to see on the way to the festival. A couple of things were quite interesting. One was Quady winery, but they were not open early in the morning so I decided to go there after the festival.

My first stop was a Railtown 1897 State Historic Park. For $15 he can ride in a train from the 1900s. The tour last 45 minutes. This seemed to me like a fun and short stop, so I decided to add it to my trip on Roadtrippers.com. In 100°F weather the train ride is not that great since they do not have air conditioning inside, however they do have open windows. It is kind a neat for kids, but not so much for adults. But it is short and sweet and the admission ticket includes a tour of the whole facility.

The next stop was Dragoon Gulch Trail in Sonora, California. It is a short 2 mile trail of easy difficulty. You can complete the trail in a short period of time and it allows you a nice view of Sonora and surrounding areas. Since I feel I have not been exercising enough, I decided to hike the trail. It actually was really nice even though it was hot. There's a small parking lot consisting of four parking stalls but outside the park there is plenty of street parking.

At the end of the trail

Sonora, the town where the trail is located, is beautiful. The town itself is relatively small, but filled with history. Some building still had the old-fashioned historical façade. The stores were mom-and-pop owned mostly. Character, this is what you call it.

The main stop of the day was The Arts and Wine Festival in Twain Harte. There were quite a few vendors there, but I did not see any wine which was quite disappointing since the festival specifically has the name of Art and wine. I did however buy a delicious cup of lemonade and a raffle ticket to benefit Mother Lode Wildlife Care. We shall see if I win...

The town itself appeared to me very nice and peaceful, somewhere I would consider living in. They do get snow in the winter, because I have seen some signs warning about snow removal equipment. But a lot of houses are located in the woods with pine trees all over. Really nice...

On my way home, I stopped at Quady winery and was not disappointed. The customer service was absolutely incredible. In addition to a free wine tasting I also got a full tour of the facility. The guide was very knowledgeable regarding wine making and easily answered all my questions. Their wines are mostly desert wines, the sweetness of which some people may or may not like, but I found one that I really liked. Elysium had a sweet, yet slightly bitter flavor of dark berries which would mix nicely with dry champagne/sparkling wine.