Posts from the ‘Parks’ Category

Sep 2

Mt Madonna County Park

This past weekend, Kelly and I used the holiday weekend as an opportunity to put some miles on the Airstream and escape to Mt Madonna Count Park. Located about two hours south of HMB and nestled in the midst of a forest of Redwoods, the park seemed like a must visit spot.

Knowing the holiday weekend would likely draw big crowds, we decided to arrive Thursday afternoon in hopes of enjoying some quiet … a bit of calm prior to the storm’s arrival.

Our sweet corner spot #104

When booking the reservation, I tried to pick a spot that looked to be the most private. Often, campground reservation systems can be misleading, making it difficult to know what type of site to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised upon arrival. Our spot was very private, which coupled with my not so welcoming placement of the truck, did a fantastic job of completing the “please do not disturb” vibe we were looking to passive-aggressively establish.

A 3,688 acre county park, Mt Madonna is dominated by the giant redwood trees typical of the Santa Cruz Mountain range. On an otherwise hot and sunny Labor day weekend, the tree canopy provided nearly 100% shade coverage which kept temperatures cool and the outside lounge time quotient high.

Internet connectivity was a bust, but I did ok with limited over the air TV reception … the onset of college football being an added bonus.

Big trees at the campsite

TV time

Lilly on the move

The park contains miles and miles of shaded, rolling terrain – perfect for long dog walks. The trails are well maintained and provided loads of exploration opportunities.

Kelly also tried to find time for catching-up on yoga, but Lilly had other ideas.

During one of our walks, we visited the ruins of the summer home of Henry Miller, one of the largest cattle barons in California history. Born in Germany, Miller immigrated to New York in 1846 (during his 20’s) with only $6. By 1858 Miller had migrated to San Francisco and built a thriving butcher business. Shortly thereafter, Miller and his business partner shifted emphasis from meat products to cattle raising, and soon became the largest cattle rancher in California and one of the largest landowners in the United States – owning 1.4 million acres and controlling nearly 22,000 square miles of cattle and farm land in California, Nevada, and Oregon. At the time of his death, Miller was worth an estimated $40 Million.

Remains of the ballroom

Wandering the remains, I had a sense of familiarity – something about this place felt odd. I was convinced that Kelly and I had been to this park before, but I couldn’t remember a details. Initially, Kelly thought I would cuckoo but I insisted that we’d been here previously. Once back at the camper I checked my email archives and confirmed what I had suspected … we’d been there in April 2012 in our previous camper, only three sites down (#101).

I’m still not sure how it was we didn’t immediately recall the previous visit. But memories of this visit (and the accompanying documentation) should last for a while. Mt Madonna is a great park close to HMB and I’m sure we’ll be back.

Jul 7

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Avoiding Groundhog Day

A year ago Kelly and I completed our longest tow day ever – 11 hours on the road only to go nowhere. I’ve detailed events of that fiasco previously, but suffice it to say, I do not advise towing a fully provisioned trailer along a very crowded HW1 on the 4th of July, especially without a campground reservation securely in hand.

Determined not to make that same mistake this year, Kelly and I finalized holiday weekend reservations at Pinnacles National Park well in advance. This would be our second visit to America’s newest national park and our plan was to spend a few relaxing days hiking the trails we didn’t complete during our visit last fall.

Knowing the weather would likely be hot, our plan was to be on the trail by 7am each morning in order to be back at the trailer a few hours later, before temperatures rose to triple digits. Just as planned, the following morning we arrived to the trailhead around 8:30am.

Bathroom at the trailhead

I’d categorize the first trail as ‘ok’. The trail took us through rolling sections of tree cover and skirted some cool ravine areas before arriving to sketchy stairs carved into a rock face leading to a giant reservoir … which as far as I could tell, was inhabited mostly by snakes, frogs, and turtles. But mostly, the trail lacked in ‘wow’ factor. Perhaps I’m starting to become spoiled with the abundance of ‘wow’ scenery in California, but for me, this hike – while certainly pleasant, wasn’t the best I’ve seen, nor the best the park has to offer.

Headed over there somewhere

Kelly pauses for a look

climbing up towards the reservoir

Reservoir low on water – another victim of the severe drought conditions

Lots of snakes relaxing under the warm sun

Pinnacle rock formations

Day 2 started off a bit better – that is to say we arrived to the trailhead by 8am, but still sufficiently late for our 7am target (hey, it’s vacation, cut us some slack please). Anyway, our plan was to complete one of the larger loops which would take us to what one park ranger referred to as the “money shot” section of the park. Having seen the western side of the park during our last visit, I concur with the spirit of his comment – the area is stunningly beautiful, but I would prefer that ranges refrain from describing anything as being a money shot when conversing with me.

The weather seemed to be warmer than the day prior, and with no cloud-cover in sight, we knew to expect high temperatures for much of this unshaded hike. However, before we would face any of the high heat, we first had to navigate through one of the park’s three caves. Technically, these are not caves per se, rather hundreds … perhaps thousands of boulders which have toppled onto themselves, creating a cave-like effect. The result is a section of trail that is completely dark, damp, and very cool (temperature-wise). Oh, and a lot of fun.

The park literature and signage approaching all of the park’s caves strongly advise the usage of a headlight(s). Myself, I cannot imagine attempting to navigate the caves without lighting, but I’m sure some dumb-ass has tried.

Approaching the cave

Just inside the cave, looking back towards the entrance

The picture below was taken using a flash, but trust me, it’s absolutely dark in these caves. Note the guide arrow (pointing to the right) above Kelly’s left hand. Also, check out the size of the boulders – they are huge!

Kelly, cautiously making her way forward

Dave descending into the 2nd set of caves

Once through the cave section, the trail winds through a series of giant boulders and other rock faces before opening onto an expansive meadow. We then connected to a trail that winds atop some of the higher points (2500-ish feet) of the park, affording fantastic views. Total hike was about 8.5 miles. July isn’t the best time to visit – it’s crazy hot, dry, and much of the plant life is burnt to a crisp. With better planning on our part, I would expect springtime to be glorious … wild flowers blooming everywhere.

BIG rocks wedged everywhere

Transitioning from caves to meadows

More pinnacles as we hike towards the highpoint of the trail

Not long after we returned to the trailer, the air conditioning failed. Quickly, the inside temperatures of the Airstream soared to a sweltering state, but we managed to make the best of the situation … including Kelly’s usage of an ice pack to cool her aching head.

Turns out that the failed AC was caused by a tripped GFCI bathroom breaker … probably due to heavy load. Foolishly, I failed to consider this simple fact as part of my troubleshooting, so we had no choice but to sweat it out with many others for hours until the temps broke. Fortunately, I did notice GFCI after work today (Monday), which was easily reset with the push a button.

So it turns out the misery you see in the photo above could have easily been avoided had I noticed tripped outlet. Sorry Kelly.

Apr 6

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Arastradero Preserve

As our Airstream home on wheels has been grounded of late, Kelly and I have been focused on uncovering local attractions in and around our home base here in HMB. More specifically, those destinations which welcome not only us, but our pooch Lilly as well.

A few weeks ago we stumbled across a location with good potential and have since been there twice.

Situated an easy 30-minute drive from our place, sits Enid Pearson Arastradero Preserve. Located just outside the city of Palo Alto, the 622-acre preserve offers sweeping views of the south bay, and is also a great overlook to Stanford University’s impressive campus.

Like many of the grassland foothills in this area of the peninsula, Arastradero Preserve offers any visitor – human or canine – numerous trails to explore. Overall, the preserve is great option for us. Sure, I wish it was closer to where we live, but visiting the preserve in the morning creates an easy excuse to venture into Palo Alto afterwards and visit great restaurants for lunch, before returning home. A win-win…

And best of all, Lilly loves this place. I’m sure we’ll be back again soon.

Beautiful start to a hike

A few sections of tree overgrowth

sweeping views of the valley

A selfie gone bad

Banana slug on its way

Arastradero Lake

Big Tree & little tree

Wild flowers blooming

Orange

Lilly in the mix of purple and yellow

Heads down into something

Frolicking in the grass, under the warmth of beautiful sunny skies

Jan 25

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Almost Perfect

Some days are damn near perfect; today was one of those days.

As hoped, this side trip detour of ours to Coyote Lake Campground has been time (and $24 in campground fees) well spent. As all the elements of a relaxing day fell into place, Kelly and I took full advantage of 73 degree temperatures and a mostly empty campground.

Following an extended night’s sleep, I ventured outside the trailer this morning to find that we had a new neighbor a few sites away. To his or her credit, they didn’t make a peep setting-up last night … which is much appreciated.

Under clear blue skies, we ventured out for a morning hike. Our 3-hour loop trail took us through some rolling hillsides before ascending atop the main ridge-line, and back down again through more rolling hills, and ultimately back into the campground.

Given today’s glorious weather and it being the weekend, the trails were a bit more crowded than yesterday, but nothing I should complain about. Like us, people seemed thrilled to be outside, enjoying themselves in this lovely park.

The smog and haze around this part of California can be intense. Amazingly, just on the other side of the ridge-line, as we crested the top, the views were terrible. There is also a massive draught crushing the state which also contributing to the miserable haze. It hasn’t rained in months; consequently, dust and other micro-sized elements linger airborne, exacerbating the problem.

Quickly enough, we made our way back to the “clean” side of the valley and began our descent through the cover of trees and back to the trailer.

Look closely at the photo above and you will see our lovely home basking under full sun. More and more, I am loving the solar panels I installed this summer. It’s so convenient to know the house batteries are quietly sipping energy while we are out playing.

Returning to the Airstream, we had a mostly lazy afternoon and evening. We both did a bit of work this afternoon, but not too much such that it took away from our day.

Hey … almost perfect.

Full-timing since April 2015 … Dave, Kelly, and our dog living and traveling full-time in our Airstream trailer.

Posts from the ‘Parks’ Category

Mt Madonna County Park

Avoiding Groundhog Day

Arastradero Preserve

Almost Perfect

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