Posts from the ‘State Parks’ Category

Jan 2

Sunrise At Anza-Borrego Springs

Keen to catch at least one full sunrise during our trip, Kelly and I awoke early and emerged from the Airstream in time to watch the sun rise in the Eastern sky. Like the many sunsets we have watched these past 10 days, the sunrise was equally wonderful to observe.

I snapped a few pictures, all of them taken within a few steps of Mabel – our roaming home.

Our Airstream

Class-A in the distance

Reflection off front bedroom window

Foothills in the distance

Morning moon

Reflection off the dinette window

Large group of Class-A rigs

The Watson’s rig – love the polish in the morning light

Class-A rig catching the first shimmers of direct morning light

Our neighbors super polish rig

Jan 1

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Wandering With the Watsons

California’s largest desert park

Yesterday Kelly and I arrived to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, our destination for a few days until we continue the crawl back towards Half Moon Bay. We continue to dry camp, this time alongside fellow Airstreamers – Tim, Amanda, and Phineas … aka WatsonsWander. They arrived a few days before us and scouted out a very nice spot – spacious, with only a few other RV’s scattered across a vast landscape. The site is California’s larger desert park – exceeding 900 acres. Generous with the rules, there is no time limit to stay, and at free, the price is definitely right.

Basically, it is perfect.

Our mobile homes, just down the path

A closer look at the picture above

Tim and Amanda joined Kelly and me last night for dinner and great conversation. This afternoon, the four us (plus Lilly & Phineas) ventured to the Calcite Mine Trail, a remote area about 10 east of our campsite. The trail is pretty cool – a diverse network of slot canyons easily traveled, less some spots requiring a bit of bouldering/scrambling. There is also an abandoned access road which, as evidenced by the number of Jeeps we saw, is now a popular 4×4 off-roading destination.

Approaching the trails – Lilly and Phineas leading the way

This area is prone to flash flooding, our trail today included. Over what I can only assume to be hundreds, if not thousands of years, the rushing water flows have carved an Alice in Wonderland like maze through these slots, which are significantly taller than they are wide. I’ve never seen anything like them before.

Slots

More slots

After a while we ascended the canyon in search of the mining remnants, but never did find the site. However, the views from high above were fabulous.

The climb starts with some scrambling

Up, up, up

Cactus perched near the top

Eventually, we completed the loop satisfied with the hike, but a bit bummed we missed out on the mining remains.

On the way home, Lilly enjoyed a post-hike treat in the car.

Enjoying a post hike treat

Oct 12

Day 1: Los Banos, CA (part two)

Like many California State Parks, the San Luis Reservoir is decent enough, but way overpriced in my view – $38 bucks for no hook-ups is a bit on the steep side I think. By the way, the Golden state will hit you up for an additional $1 to shower for five minutes. That said, the campsites are huge, offer plenty of elbow room between neighboring sites, and are level. Nice.

This time of year the park was mostly empty; so all in all, we had some nice downtime to relax.

Per usual, we did get out for some park exploring … or at least tried to. Many of the most “marketed” trails were closed for the season; not sure what that’s all about. Not to be deterred, we walked the park roads in an attempt to make the most of things. In the end this was ok since the park was basically empty.

Also we did manage to see some wildlife during our stay.

Like these elk:

Elk grazing the fields

And lots of these bugs:

Desert Stink Beetle

And by far the biggest spider I’ve ever seen outside of a museum or zoo:

California Tarantula

Another big downer about this park is that many of the more heavily marketing trails are closed for the year, but not marked as such. We found this out the hard way – after driving 15 minutes to the trail parking lot, walking another ten minutes to the trailhead, then finding access to the trail itself sufficiently cut off by a gate.

Rolling hills under clouds

The lone highway through the park

Despite some otherwise pretty scenery, I give this park a big thumbs down.

Not sure I can recommend this park

Once we settled in for the evening, I started a nice fire ($6 for a small bundle of wood) and Kelly made a fantastic pizza. We had fresh-baked cookies for dessert (ok, they were Tollhouse).

Enjoying warm cookies and milk.

Afterwards, we settled in to begin watching season-1 of Showtime’s TV drama Homeland. Wow, what a good show.

Sep 23

No Dogs Allowed

Kelly and I have become increasingly frustrated with all the NO DOGS restrictions here in Northern California (NorCal as the hipsters call it). Coming from Washington state, we were accustomed to bringing our dogs along to hiking trails pretty much wherever we desire. I guess we were spoiled in that sense. Too bad the same cannot be said around here.

Our dog Lilly loves to join us on the trails and we are happy to have her join us. Unfortunately, here in NorCal we’ve had to pass-up some really neat spots which would have otherwise been so cool to visit. Damn this state.

Today, Kelly and I went to visit Windy Hill Preserve, one of the few open spaces in the area which allows dogs … on leashes. Actually, we always walk Lilly on lease, so such restrictions are moot for us. Anyway, the preserves is pretty nice. Situated midway atop the Peninsula ridge-line, Windy Hill offers a nice mix of tree cover and open grasslands woven into a mostly up and down single track hike. Outside of the tree cover, temperatures were a bit hot for my preference, but overall a nice hike.

Kelly and I like this place, but as it’s located about 20-25 minutes away, the location is not overly convenient.

Lilly seems to have a super-sense whenever we are headed to a hike and today was no exception. There is no doubt that she is a big fan of Windy Hill.

A few snapshots from the hike are pasted below.

Love the bark pattern on this tree

Some interesting art in the midst of the forrest

Lilly, impatiently waiting for Dave and Kelly.

Looking up through the tree cover

Lilly’s post hike routine

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

Posts from the ‘State Parks’ Category

Sunrise At Anza-Borrego Springs

Wandering With the Watsons

Day 1: Los Banos, CA (part two)

No Dogs Allowed

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