Hello civilization!! We’ve just emerged from a week in the wilderness in Los Padres National Forest. It was a very relaxing week of Farkle playing, reading, hiking, and sitting by the fire. After the hustle and bustle of “city living” in Laguna Beach, it was a much needed retreat.

We headed North on the Pacific Coast Highway, not forgetting to stop every once in a while to enjoy the stunning views. The Pacific Coast Highway just South of Big Sur is as beautiful a drive as it’s famed to be. It is also very rugged, and there are long stretches with no towns to speak of. Of course no towns means no gasoline. We had under a quarter tank left and were starting to get a bit worried when we saw the Whale Watcher’s Inn and the long line of cars with drivers looking as relieved as we felt. Relieved until we saw the price that is, $6.50 a gallon for Regular! I think we’ve found our most expensive gas of the trip! We fueled up and continued to carefully make our way along the coast.

We had hoped to camp on a cliff above the water at Kirk Creek Campground, but as we thought might be the case, the campground was full even though we had arrived on a Wednesday. So we did the best thing we knew to do, we drove inland. We turned down an even more precarious road that climbed high above the rocky beaches and twisted us into the Los Padres National Forest. After about a half an hour we were wondering if we were going to come across the campground that our Outdoor Edition Atlas claimed existed. The little tent icons had not failed us yet! 

And then we came upon it, Nacimiento Campground. It only has eight campsites, and to call the “pit pot” stinky would be the understatement of the year, but we were beyond thrilled to find an available campsite! And at only $10 a night we decided to make it our home base for the next week. 

We quickly discovered that the sole water spigot at the campground was turned off so our next mission was to find running, potable water. We ventured back out to the coast to a little gift shop to buy the most expensive water of the trip. Then we found a nice little picnic spot beside the ocean.

Our lunch spot right next to the water

A great view of the Pacific Coast Highway

 While the coastal views were gorgeous, it was amazing to drive up through the “perma-fog” as the locals called it, and look down at the ocean. The clouds were so close you could almost reach out and touch them.


Between this key chain...     

                                                               
   ...and this face Marc has earned himself the nickname Captain.

Although we took many short hikes to explore the forest, our only real hike in the area was along the closed Central Coast Ridge Road. The road had been closed due to rock slides (although it looked perfectly passable to us) but it made for a nice wide trail to some beautiful vistas.

 

Now that's a big pine cone!

During our week long stay we saw many campers come and go and among them we had the pleasure of meeting the nicest Californians to date. Laurence and Andra, you guys are wonderful and we enjoyed sharing a campground with the two of you!

Laurence even provided us with dinner one night; fresh caught trout from the river by our campground!

By the look on  his face, you'd think I didn't feed him!

As you can see our time in Los Padres was all about relaxation, but after a week in the backcountry we will admit we are excited for a hot shower. Next it’s up the coast to San Francisco where we’ll add another adventurer to our crew. We will see you soon Mama T!

As soon as we entered into the California mountains we fell in love with the weather. After a bit of confusion and a few u-turns we found the Blue Jay Campground in the Cleveland National Forest nestled between the Santa Ana and the Elsinore Mountains. The road getting into the campground is a winding, unpaved road with beautiful views of Lake Elsinore.

     We made ourselves at home at our first California campground. Marc was in need of a haircut so he visited the Salon at Campsite # 5. 

We stopped by a wonderful breakfast spot in San Juan Capistrano on our way to Laguna Beach the next morning. Here Marc had "the most delicious bagel ever", jalapeno and cheese. Mine was quite tasty as well.

Finally we made it to the coast! Laguna Beach is a beautiful beach town with fine, white sand and clear, blue water that seems to stretch on forever. 

We met up with our friend Robert "Bobby" (ha ha) at his condo right up from the beach. 

We took some time to enjoy the perfect weather.

It is difficult to not envision ourselves living here one day.

                    

There is a bird at the corner of Robert's street that whistles at every beach-goer that walks by. Although he does tend to hold the note a bit longer for the ladies.

Robert was a wonderful host. He showed us around town and treated us to a delicious dinner at Asada.

Chuck, John, Marc, myself, and Robert

       We were able to enjoy some of the locals' hangouts in Laguna. Robert was even gracious enough to give us a real bed to sleep in for the night! What a treat!

After all the excitement, we needed a day of relaxation. We visited Huntington Beach to take advantage of their off-leash dog beach. Lucy and Max had a blast! 

 That night we were, after some haggling and lots of driving up and down the Pacific Coast Highway, able to snag a tent spot at Crystal Cove State Park. At $50 a night the price was a bit rich for our blood, but you can't argue with the view from the campground. 

 We enjoyed our first West Coast sunset from our
camp chairs that night.

The next day we visited Marc's second cousin Joy in Newport Beach. She had us aboard her impressive 53 foot boat for lunch and a great afternoon of conversation.

Marc practicing his Captaining skills in the pilot house of the boat.

    

Marc and Joy

From Newport that day we had plans to travel up the Pacific Coast Highway a bit North of Los Angeles so we could visit some family friends of Marc's the following day. This is the point in our trip where our "fly by the seats of our camping pants" attitude came back to bite us. It became rapidly apparent that Californians spend much more time planning their camping trips than we had become accustomed to. It seemed as though every campsite from Laguna Beach to San Fransisco had been booked six months ago. Having camped in National Forests (where reservations are almost never accepted) for the majority of our trip, this was a foreign concept to us. By ten o'clock last night, somewhere along the Pacific Coast Highway, we were exhausted and out of options and we gave into a Motel 6. 

Today with a renewed sense of enthusiasm we are heading North to hopefully land a spot at the coveted Kirk Creek Campground in Los Padres National Forest. This campground, while it does reserve some spots, still holds a few for first-come first-served. 

We realize we may arrive to the disappointment of a full campground, but with fingers crossed... Northern California here we come!!

Hello again!

Last time we left you we were heading to Zion National Park. We took the very scenic East entrance into the park. We had heard that Zion was in a class of its own when it came to natural beauty, but to be honest we were a bit skeptical since we had been driving around canyons and through hot, dry landscape pretty much since Texas. 

         

Zion is however, more magnificent than most places we had been. The rock formations here are incredible; each turn of the winding road brings you to another breathtaking view. The sheer size of these “rock temples”, as the first explorers here called them, left us speechless. Let me just say that our camera did not do it justice.

 Unfortunately for us, Zion is a National Park and therefore has very strict rules concerning pets. We did have a nice lunch at a little cafe in the park and enjoyed the view from our patio table. Zion definitely makes our list of places we will visit again sans dogs.

Marc enjoying a cool treat.

From Zion we traveled West to the adjacent National Forest, where pets are welcome to enjoy every activity. Dixie National Forest is located on the outskirts of the small town of Pine Valley, Utah. It has a gorgeous landscape and is one of the best maintained National Forests that we have visited so far. The staff here was also quite friendly and helpful. 

Our second day at Dixie National Forest we set off on our hike up the Whipple Trail. Our plan was to take this to the Summit Trail and loop back to camp on Brown’s Peak Trail, all in all about an eighteen mile hike. Wow were we over ambitious! The Whipple Trail consists of the longest and largest number of switchbacks we have ever seen on a hike. The change in elevation quickly got to us and the six miles to the top felt more like ten. 

The trail did offer some great views out over Pine Valley. We stopped at the top for lunch and a short nap and then headed back down the countless switchbacks to end the most challenging twelve mile hike of our trip so far.

             

Marc finally got to use his skateboard that was taking up much needed car space. 

It even helped him get the water container back up the hill!

The Santa Clara Riverwalk, a beautiful stroll along the water. 

Laundry room with a view

After many mornings of Oatmeal and Cream of Wheat we indulged in a delicious breakfast of IHOP. Yum!

Our next stop was Lake Meade for a little fun in the sun and water. The woman at the entrance station was very blunt when Marc asked whether it was likely to cool down at night. “It could be 100 degrees at midnight here. We’re in the high desert!” It seems the heat had scared off most visitors as we were basically the only people at Echo Bay.

        

Even the Campground Host abandoned ship!

So after enjoying a nice cool swim we made our way quickly (as quickly as one can down the strip) through Las Vegas towards the mountains for some cooler temperatures. 

We stopped by the Hoover Dam.

        

We stayed at the Spring Mountain NRA at Kyle Canyon Campground. While the host was very accommodating, the facilities needed a renovation and a thorough cleaning.

We had to stop for pictures with the Joshua Trees.

           

Our fourth sticker met a tragic fate, so this is technically our sixth.
 

We were a bit exhausted from our time in Nevada, and to hot to stay any longer so we decided to head for the coast. California here we come!