Trips

Trips and Campgrounds.

Spring “Pie Country” Camping

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Spring “Pie Country” Camping
April 6th – 9th 2026 (3 nights)

Julian (in San Diego County) is the perfect place to go in spring for a fantastic camping experience in the Cleveland National Forest area, served up with a slice of pie.  This hallmark little town is known for it’s old main street country charm with quaint village shops and pie bakeries.  There are a number of private and public campgrounds in the area, so we decided to sample a few to get an idea of the offerings.  We had already been to William Heise County Park adjacent to Julian on a past trip, so we selected three others a little bit farther from town.

Chamber’s Park Campground (Lake Cuyamaca)
This campground is about one and a half hours from our home in Carlsbad, California.  It’s a private campground and sits adjacent to Lake Cuyamaca (a manmade reservoir created in 1888).  Like many private campgrounds, the campsites here are closer together and more expensive than those at Regional or State or National Parks.  We chose a premium site with a lake view (#22) ($55/night plus $8 campground fee).  Electric and water hookups are included with this campsite.  We had good Verizon mobile phone coverage during our stay.  We were able to try out our new flaming hitch marker and are really happy with it!  The marker charges all day and runs all night.  We got it to illuminate the front of our trailer primarily in dark areas where someone may not see our Scamp 13′ easily at night when driving along narrow dark campground roads.

Lake Cuyamaca is an attractive small lake surrounded by lush landscape, including pines.  Nature here is abundant, with many types of birds, plenty of ground squirrels, and deer.  The large Canadian geese are bold and casually walk amongst the campers, seemingly unafraid.  And the big egrets are spectacular to watch as they fly over the lake and land along its shores.  There’s a dam at the end of the lake, and during our visit the other side was a marshy grassland.  We saw a number of mule deer grazing on the fields here.

Because Julian is only a fifteen minute drive from Chamber’s Park Campground, we spent our first full day walking Julian’s main street, perusing the shops, having lunch (at Quecho Mexican Restaurant), chatting with a PCT hiker (Julian is on the PCT hike route), and picking up a pie at one of the many pie shops.  We chose Julian Pie Company and, surprisingly, there was no line or wait to buy a pie!  This is practically unheard of here as there are usually lines out the door at the pie shops.  Our visit was mid-week and off season (April).  However, the streets, normally packed with tourists, were eerily quiet.  One of the rangers we met speculated that it was the price of gas keeping people away (currently over $6/gallon in town).

Chamber’s Park Campground attracts many families who want to fish in the stocked lake.  Trout, bass, and catfish are the main catch.  There’s no catch and release for trout — if one catches a trout they have to take it home or there may be some trouble for them.  There are a long list of other rules at this private campground we were made aware of.  Fortunately, we didn’t get in any trouble during our stay.  The highlight of our visit here was our bike ride around the lake.  It’s very beautiful along the lake’s shores.  It takes about an hour to walk its perimeter and less if riding a bike.  Bike riding can be a little tricky though as the ground is rocky and uneven on many parts of the ride (mostly at the very beginning — if leaving the campground and going right toward the tackle shop first).  The second part of the ride is through marshland, a forest, and crosses a few bridges and is much easier.

Paso Picacho Campground
Only about a ten minute drive down Highway 79 from Chamber’s Park Campground, Paso Picacho Campground is one of two public campgrounds within Cuyamaca Rancho State Park.  We reserved campsite #8 ($40/night plus $8 reservation fee), which is one of the best sites (very private with a large picnic area).  There was one bar of Verizon mobile service at our campsite. There’s a threaded water spigot within the adjacent picnic area (which we utilized to refill our Scamp before departure using two connecting hoses).  Our new water fill device made this very easy!  There is a central dump at the campground exit ($10 at the time of our visit).

This campground’s sites are well spaced out and offers many nice trails.  We hiked the Paso Pacacho Trail Loop (about 1.5 miles, connected to the campground) as well as the Azalea Springs Trail (about 3 miles).  There are some much longer hikes, including one up to the top of Stonewall Peak  (strong ascent / about 4 miles round trip) for which we will have to return.

The night here was ink black during our stay.  When I opened our Scamp’s door to check on our flaming hitch marker, I could not see the ground (only darkness)!   For indoor entertainment, we tried out our new tablet swing arm — it makes watching movies great.  We had been using a mobile phone to download movies from Netflix/Amazon and play them on our Scamp TV using an HDMI adapter.  However, there were playback problems on a significant percentage of movies (due to security protocols we think).  So, instead, we now download movies onto an Android tablet and play them directly on the tablet (held close for viewing using the tablet swing arm).  It’s a very effective, inexpensive, and easy way to watch movies in the Scamp.

Note:  mountain lion and rattle snakes area warnings.

Green Valley Campground
A ten minute drive further down Highway 79 from Paso Picacho Campground, Green Valley Campground is the second of the two campgrounds within Cuyamaca Rancho State Park.  This campground also feels large like the previous one, but with campsites not as private as Paso Picacho.  We reserved campsite #38, which is at the top of a hill (sharing the road with campsites #36 and #37).  Our checkout time at Paso Picacho Campground was Noon and the check-in time here was 2 p.m.  Fortunately, we arrived around 12:30 p.m. and the ranger said we could take our site early if no one was there.  It was good we arrived early, because there was no way to turn around and back in our Scamp without using campsite #37’s driveway!

After a nice lunch in the Scamp (with a piece of Julian cherry pie for dessert!), we decided to do a bit of computer work before hiking to Green Valley Falls (on the Sweetwater River), which is the most popular trail in the park.  Green Valley Falls is a very short hike from the picnic area down a steep dirt path.  Not so much a falls like Niagra (New York / Canada) or Iguazu (Argentina/Brazil), it’s more of a staggered series of two natural rock kiddie pools and slides.  We hiked down to above the pools and observed a three year old sliding down a short water shoot into a little pool and some older kids jumping into the lower pool from a rock perch about five feet above it.  What fun on a warm sunny late afternoon!

Note:  signs with mountain lion and rattle snake area warnings.

Impressions of Spring Camping Near Julian
Julian and the surrounding areas adjacent to the Cleveland National Forest are amazing places and ones which should be on every camper’s must-stay list.  Now having been to four different campgrounds in the area and enjoying them all in different ways, it’s safe to say one will not be disappointed going to any of these campgrounds.  If you are into fishing, birding, or visiting the town of Julian, Chamber’s Park Campground would be the top pick.  However, if you are into hiking and spread-out campsites, our number one choice is Paso Picacho Campground.  And, if you want some family fun playing in some natural water pools along a river, choose Green Valley Campground.  Or, do what we did, and spend a night in each and enjoy a variety of camping experiences!  And, don’t forget to pick up a pie (or at least sit down and enjoy a piece) when in Julian!

 

 

Disclaimer:  You will get the same great Amazon price by clicking on the links here compared to buying directly on Amazon, but by buying here you will also be supporting the continuation of this website as we get a small commission from each sale.  These are products and procedures we use for our own Scamp that we selected and developed from our own research and experiences.  However, we do not endorse any specific product and cannot guarantee that the products we use are exemplary and the procedures we use are complete, accurate, detail the correct recommended procedures, or apply to your model small travel trailer.  It’s always best to double check with your manufacturer or operation manuals to ensure you are doing everything right.

Free Camping in Anza Borrego Desert State Park

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Free Camping in Anza Borrego Desert State Park
February 23rd – 25th 2026 (2 nights)

Sometimes a spontaneous midweek break is the perfect way to take an adventure.  And, fortunately, there are numerous wonderful places for outdoor adventures to be had near our home in San Diego.  Anza Borrego Desert State Park is one such place.  This beautiful desert oasis, located just two hours east of San Diego, generally has great weather in the winter and early spring.  It’s renown for spectacular wildflower blooms in the spring as well as dark skies for celestial viewing, and hiking trails with unique outdoor scenery.  It’s also an escape for many snowbirds from colder weather environments who fill up the campgrounds within the park during the winter.  Palm Canyon Campground is one of Anza Borrego’s most popular campgrounds and offers hookups for water and electric and is located near the city of Borrego Springs.  This campground has an excellent Visitor’s Center, fun trails, and is a quick bike ride to its cute little town.  It was the first campground we visited after we received our 2020 Scamp 13!  Check out our trip report here.

Although traditional campgrounds can be great, sometimes one just wants to get off the grid — get away from neat rows of RVs, get off the asphalt, not see so many people, and maybe just hear the wind, birds, and other wild animals.  And avoiding the daily rate to rent the campsite pad can be a nice bonus as well!  So, how is this done?  Fortunately, there are plenty of resources for how and where to free camp (also called boondocking) online.    Anza Borrego Desert SP has a website which outlines the free primitive campgrounds within the park.  The free primitive campgrounds are called primitive because they lack water, trash collections, and other amenities/hookups.  No permits and fees are needed at any of these campgrounds.  However, there are still rules — such as packing all trash out and not leaving any traces on the ground (along with many others rules).

Before going out to free camp (whether it’s in a tent, car, van, RV, or travel trailer), it’s important to have a good mastery of one’s equipment, be aware of what and the amount of resources will be used (e.g. food and water, clothing, power, etc.), and have backup / emergency plans in case things don’t go according to schedule (e.g. always let someone know where you will be going and for how long).  Free camping in a travel trailer, like the Scamp 13′, is really nice because the Scamp is fully self-contained with it’s own bedroom, kitchen (including stove and refrigerator), furnace, shower, and entertainment system.  Our Scamp has two onboard propane tanks (offering plenty of fuel to power our stove, hot water tank, and furnace for weeks).  There’s also an onboard lithium battery which provides a large power bank for onboard electronics (such as pumps and lights).  We carry an additional battery to power our Starlink for communications when there is no mobile phone service.  We also carry emergency supplies such as a first aid kit, shovel, off-road tire traction boards, lithium battery engine jump starter, and more.  Here’s a list of our essential items.  We use GAIA GPS and download offline maps for all campgrounds we visit as many adventure locations have no mobile service.

Our plan for this trip was to try “free camping” primitive campgrounds within Anza Borrego Desert State Park.  Blair Valley Primitive Campground and Culp Valley Primitive Campground are well reviewed online and within thirty minutes of each other.  Both campgrounds are high above the desert floor above Borrego Springs, offering 5 – 10 degree cooler weather.

Blair Valley Primitive Campground (2,500 feet elevation)
Our first stop (after fueling at a nearby gas station on a Reservation called Santa Ysabel Roadside, off Highway 79) was Blair Valley Primitive Campground.  It’s located right off the Great Southern Overland Stage Route (a small highway).  Access to the campground is hard dirt and was relatively easy to navigate on its roads.  Because of the rain a couple of weeks ago, there were very large and deep pools of water on some of the access roads, but we were able to avoid these by taking higher adjacent tracks.  The campground is located in a large valley and the number of campsites is expansive (but not expensive — since it’s free!).  Beware:  the farther one travels down into the valley’s access roads, the sandier the roads get.  There were lots of nice sites with plenty of site separation right near the entrance, so we chose one of these when we arrived.  There are pit toilets at the front entrance (good for tent and car campers).  It’s best to arrive mid-morning as the sites are first come first served.  Though, there were a number of sites available at all hours the two days we were there on Monday and Tuesday in late February.

We chose a campsite at the base of one of the boulder mountains surrounding the valley.  Many of the campsites are clearly defined with a firepit.  It was tricky getting our Scamp 13′ level, even using our leveler.  We learned that it’s best to orient the trailer in the direction of the hill as there is much more ability to level front to back with the hitch jack (many feet) than side to side with a leveler (usually only about 6″).  The campsites in the center of the valley, on the flats, were much easier for people to level up.  During our visit, we had 1 to 2 bars of Verizon mobile service — enough to send texts (although sending images was very slow).  There is no water here, nor trash receptacle nor dump station.  We made sure to bring 3 full six-gallon water jugs as well as arriving with our Scamp 13’s 12-gallon fresh water tank completely full.  We saw a handful of other campers during our visit and everyone was very friendly.  Some were travelling across the country.

There’s plenty to do in Blair Valley, and even if you want to just relax it’s great too.  Shortly after we arrived, two F35 fighter jets made a low pass over the valley and pulled out hard, making a radical bank as they turned away!  That was the most noise we heard during our two day stay!  We brought our mountain bikes and road on the Blair Valley Loop trail (sometimes very sandy), which goes on for miles.  There are Indian pictographs and other artifacts to be seen on this route.  There are a number of hiking trails in the area as well.  We enjoyed sitting outside and taking in the beautiful sites and sounds of Blair Valley.  At night, a large owl hooted from a branch extending from a rock outcropping directly overhead!  And, stargazing is incredible as this is a dark skies park.

Culp Valley Primitive Campground (3.400 ft. elevation)
Located about 35 minutes from Blair Valley, Culp Valley Primitive Campground is off Montezuma Valley Road S22 going down into Borrego Springs.  It’s the highest campground in the park and offers cooler temperatures than many of the other campgrounds.  The campground is down a small, almost hidden dirt road and is much smaller than Blair Valley Primitive Campground.  Coming from above, there is no sign, just the dirt road is visible.  A street sign saying Culp Valley Camp is posted for drivers coming up the S22 from Borrego Springs.  There are only about 12 campsites and we estimated only a handful were suitable for small travel trailers.  In turn, arriving here midweek and early in the day is essential.  We would recommend choosing one of the few campsites on the main road and avoiding the lower and higher roads (at least not without scouting them on foot first).  During our visit, the lower and higher roads were extremely rutted and would not be suitable for a travel trailer.

The Culp Valley is not as expansive as Blair Valley, but still is surrounded by mountains with plenty of boulders.  Just like Blair Valley, there are not many amenities other than pit toilets.  And like Blair Valley, the price was right (free)!  There is almost no Verizon service here (we received an occasional one bar).  However, at the top of the Culp Valley Trail, which is a high overlook to Borrego Springs below, there is excellent Verizon coverage!  The half-mile long trail is easy and well defined.  There’s a longer 2.2. mile hike to nearby Pena Springs as well.

Impressions of Free Camping in Anza Borrego Desert State Park
Free Camping in Anza Borrego Desert State Park is amazing.  There are so many different options for camping and each provides a somewhat different experience.  We really enjoyed Blair Valley Primitive Campground for it’s beautiful natural environment and lots to explore.  Culp Valley Primitive Campground provides a smaller feel with a trail that offers a spectacular view of the Borrego Springs valley floor below.  It also is a bit cooler due to its higher elevation than the other campgrounds within the park.

For ease of access, Blair Valley Primitive Campground is the clear winner between these two campgrounds as it is easy to get into, there are seemingly almost an endless number of campsites (and often can accommodate large trailers), and the roads are in better condition (or were at least during our visit).  Blair Valley also provides a nice loop for mountain bike riding.

Free camping takes the visceral feel of nature to another level beyond traditional camping.  Being immersed in all the scenery — the sights and sounds of plants, animals, and stars — without so many people and asphalt around creates an elevated experience.  For those perhaps intimidated to try free camping due to the isolation, Anza Borrego Desert State Park makes the experience easy as the campsite areas are often marked and there are usually other campers and park employees around to provide assistance if necessary.

We can’t wait to return for the Spring wildflower bloom (and perhaps super bloom due to all the rain)!  Perhaps we will try another one of the Anza Borrego Desert State Park’s free campgrounds!

 

Disclaimer:  You will get the same great Amazon price by clicking on the links here compared to buying directly on Amazon, but by buying here you will also be supporting the continuation of this website as we get a small commission from each sale.  These are products and procedures we use for our own Scamp that we selected and developed from our own research and experiences.  However, we do not endorse any specific product and cannot guarantee that the products we use are exemplary and the procedures we use are complete, accurate, detail the correct recommended procedures, or apply to your model small travel trailer.  It’s always best to double check with your manufacturer or operation manuals to ensure you are doing everything right.

Searching for Monarchs on the California Coast

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Searching for Monarchs on the California Coast
January 18th – 26th 2026 (8 nights)

After two weeks of strong winter storms, California was finally given a reprieve.  Clear blue, sunny skies and warm conditions followed.  The nice weather presented an opportunity to finally visit the Monarch Butterfly Grove in Pismo Beach.  We had visited the Grove many times in the past, but only during off season (Spring, Summer, and Fall) when no butterflies were around.  Peak season for the migrating Monarch butterflies is during the winter (with mid-November through December presenting the highest numbers).  With good weather forecast for the next ten days, we planned a last-minute trip which included a visit to Pismo.

We made our first stop on our way up the California Coast in Santa Barbara (about a three and a half hour drive from our home in Carlsbad) to visit our cousin Jon and his family.  We situated the Scamp 13′ in my cousin’s driveway for an overnight stay.  After setting up the Scamp, we had a great lunch at the line-out-the-door Pang Zi Noodle Shop.  We then walked off lunch along the waterfront (there’s an arts and crafts show on Sundays — ) and down Santa Barbara Stearns Wharf Pier.

After walking most of the afternoon, we were ready for dinner!  We met my cousin Jon and his wife Ida at the Santa Barbara Public Market and had a chance to catch up with what’s been going on in each others’ lives.  There are a number of restaurant stalls inside the Public Market, offering a variety of foods.  We had excellent pizza at Ca’ Dario Pizzeria followed by some of the best ice-cream we’ve ever tasted at Rori’s Artisinal Creamery.

The next morning, we went for a long hike with our cousin Jon, his wife Ida, and dog Toby (a Sheepadoodle).  We hiked through the beautiful Elings Park.  It’s the largest privately funded non-profit park in America, at 230 acres.  Everything was so green after all the rain.  During our hike, we discovered the Santa Barbara Model RC club and their small model airport within the park and enjoyed speaking to some of the members and watching them fly their models.  From Elings Park, we hiked through to the Douglas Family Preserve, a smaller park but with spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean.  After having a very fun visit with family, we continued our journey north to Pismo Beach to see the butterflies (and our good friend Jim)!

Pismo Beach North Beach Campground is a campground adjacent to the beach behind sand dunes in Pismo Beach.  It’s a very popular campground, offering premium beach side campsites for only $25/night!!!  There is good Verizon mobile phone reception here along with water spigots and a pay RV dump station (currently $10).  We reserved site #83 (pull through site) at the last minute, which is one of the best sites since it is right behind the dunes with a short walk to the beach and Monarch Butterfly Grove.  Sometimes great sites become available at the last minute as people often cancel for various reasons.  The first thing we did after setting up our Scamp 13′, was to visit the Monarch Butterfly Grove next door.  It was late afternoon and cool though, and the butterflies, we were told, were all sleeping!

The next morning we learned that the Monarch butterfly population is at historic low levels this year (down from tens of thousands a few years ago and hundreds of thousands in the 1990’s to only a hundred now).  Some reasons given for the population downturn are increased pesticide / herbicide use, climate changes, and shifts in milkweed growth (the exclusive food source for Monarch caterpillars).  The Monarchs seen at the Pismo Monarch Grove are the “migratory super-generation” that make their way over thousands of miles from Canada, down the coast of California, to the border of Mexico.  A ranger mentioned that because of the heavy rain this past year, there’s a chance the numbers will rebound next year.  There’s an app that allows tracking of some of the Monarchs (they are tracked with an extremely small and light bluetooth transmitter which is attached to their body).

We had a great lunch with our close friend Jim catching up and enjoying the excellent food at Old Juan’s Cantina in Pismo Beach.  We revisited the Monarch Butterfly Grove after lunch and saw more Monarchs which were enjoying the sun and warm afternoon temperatures.  We then walked from the campground down to the beach and along the boardwalk to the Pismo Beach Pier.  The SLO Cal pro surf event was happening during our visit and we had fun watching the surfing from high above on the pier.  Before leaving town for our next stop, we had to try the Old West Cinnamon Roll shop (established in 1972) as it is frequently mentioned as offering the best cinnamon rolls on the West Coast.  It did not disappoint!

Our next stop, New Brighton Beach State Park Campground, is one of the most popular beachfront campgrounds in California.  About a three hour drive north of Pismo Beach, the campground is located close to the cute beachside towns of Capitola and Santa Cruz (home to UC Santa Cruz), offering plenty to see and do.  The campground is at the top of the bluffs, looking down at China Beach and the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary, with some premium campsites offering spectacular ocean views (a number with electric hookups).  We had site #72 ($35/night) which is a good site with a partial ocean view ($50/night for premium sites).  There’s a threaded water spigot nearby and we were able to connect two hoses to directly fill our fresh tank (also using a velcro strap to hold down the water valve).  There is an RV dumpstation at the park exit which accomodates four RVs simultaneously (currently $10).

We had plenty of things to do during our two day stay at New Brighton Beach State Park.  There’s a trail which goes down to the beach from the campground, along the water and then up a stairway back to the campground (about a mile loop).  We saw sea birds and dolphins on our morning walks.  We explored the little town of Capitola (with attractive beach shops, restaurants, and pier).  There are some colorful photo-worthy Mediterranean townhouses (24) and a hotel (17 units) near the pier called the Venetian Court.  They were built in 1924 and represent one of the first condominium style developments on the California coast!  Next, we drove to the town of Santa Cruz, walking along the wharf (recognized as the longest wooden wharf/pier on the West Coast of the United States).  Hundreds of sea lions hang out under the pier on the rafters.  They put on a show, barking loudly and playing.  The sea lions are a lot of fun to watch.  At the end of our visit to Santa Cruz, we enjoyed touring the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Exploration Center.  Lastly, we hiked The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park, a nature preserve with over forty miles of hiking trails.  The Marks family of Salinas, California deeded more than 9,000 acres to the State for use as a public park in 1963.  It’s a forest of dense coastal redwood trees that cover most of the park which provide a peaceful experience.

Visiting family in Oakland was the final stop on our coastal adventure.  Just under two hours from Santa Cruz, “The Town” offers a myriad of fun things to do.  We always enjoy walking in the redwoods, visiting Alameda Island (posh eateries, architecture, and walks), playing pickleball at the local Montclair courts, riding the Bart, and enjoying celebrating birthdays with family and friends.  This time we celebrated a birthday by taking some scenic walks (one through a district with historic Queen Anne style homes), going to our favorite bakery (their almond croissants are phenomenal) and playing pickleball.

On the journey home, we stayed near Bakersfield at the Buena Vista Aquatic Recreational Area campground to break up the eight hour drive from Oakland to San Diego.  Our lake front site (#41) with full hookups cost $33 for the night.  It’s a relaxing place which we’ve enjoyed before.  Just make sure to avoid visiting in the summer as it can be very hot in the Central Valley that time of year.

We had such a great time on this trip, even though it was planned last minute and we didn’t see that many butterflies.  It shows that sometimes following a goal can lead to detours that become the highlight of the journey!

 

Disclaimer:  You will get the same great Amazon price by clicking on the links here compared to buying directly on Amazon, but by buying here you will also be supporting the continuation of this website as we get a small commission from each sale.  These are products and procedures we use for our own Scamp that we selected and developed from our own research and experiences.  However, we do not endorse any specific product and cannot guarantee that the products we use are exemplary and the procedures we use are complete, accurate, detail the correct recommended procedures, or apply to your model small travel trailer.  It’s always best to double check with your manufacturer or operation manuals to ensure you are doing everything right.

Lake Tahoe, California Coast & Beyond

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Lake Tahoe, California Coast & Beyond
June 25th – July 7th 2025 (12 nights)

Our first major Scamp trip was at DL Bliss State Park, Lake Tahoe about five years ago.  Since then, we’ve taken 43 trips at 162 locations and have spent 290 nights sleeping in our 2020 Scamp 13′ travel trailer.  And, we’ve seen and learned a lot along the way — observing fascinating things, tasting good food, meeting interesting people and making great friends.  When we heard Nevada Beach Campground in Lake Tahoe ranked as the hardest campground to get a reservation at in the United States in 2024, we thought it was time to return to this beautiful oasis in the high Sierra to see Nevada Beach Campground for ourselves.

Lake Tahoe is a large fresh water lake in the Sierra Nevada Mountains straddling both California and Nevada.  The lake not only has beautiful beaches with crystal clear water but also popular ski resorts.  And, on the Nevada side of the lake, there are casinos as well.  Emerald Bay State Park, on the southwest shore, is famous for the 1929 Nordic style mansion called Vikingsholm.  Lake Tahoe is also well known for outstanding hiking trails, mountain biking, and other outdoor activities (such as boating, kayaking, waterskiing, stand up paddle boarding, fishing, and horseback riding).

The process to get a reservation at Nevada Beach Campground can be challenging.   The camping season is typically mid-May to mid-October.  To have the best chance at getting a campsite it’s best to reserve six months in advance.  We wanted to be at the campground over 4th of July weekend to watch the popular fireworks show (fireworks are launched from a barge right off the beach close by).  We used numerous strategies to make it happen, but even still luck was involved.  To get a more detailed look at the strategies we used to successfully book reservations, see our article “How to Play Master Chess on Recreation.Gov”.

Our cousin Rebecca and her husband invited us to stay at their cabin in Pioneer, California (between the coast and Lake Tahoe).  So, we drove north along the coast (staying at a few campgrounds along the way) and then crossed inland in the direction of Pioneer and Lake Tahoe.

Carpinteria Campground
Located just south of Santa Barbara, Carpinteria Campground, in the charming coastal city of Carpentaria (known as “Carp”), is on the beach.  Many of the campsites are close together, so make sure to check out the campsite map before reserving.  Check-in is 2 pm., but they let us in at 1 p.m.  We were lucky and were able to reserve site A121 ($45/night + $8.25 reservation fee) at the last minute.  It’s a great campsite as there’s a lot of space around it (a frequent camper at this campground told us we got the best campsite in the entire campground!).  However, to fit into this 24’ campsite, we had to park our car perpendicular to our Scamp 13’.  It’s allowed to hang the trailer over the pad as long as the rear wheels are not on the grass.  We were able to hang about a third of our Scamp over the grass!  The beach and wooden boardwalk are just a short walk across the “day use” parking lot.  The Verizon cellular service was good while we were here.  There are water spigots (no threads) within the campground.  We used the free RV dump station when we left the next morning.  The train runs behind the campground, but the noise didn’t bother us during our visit.

The highlights of our stay in Carpinteria were walking the bluff trail to the seal rookery (about 3 miles round trip) and exploring the town of “Carp” (walking down Linden Avenue).  There are plenty of nice shops and restaurants to enjoy when visiting.  Make sure to grab a bite at The Spot (very popular with locals) during your visit!  The beach is known as the “World’s Safest Beach” due to its naturally calm waters.  The Channel Islands, along with the Santa Ynez Mountains, help to protect Carpinteria from strong winds and waves, creating its relatively calm and safe environment.

Pismo Beach
Our ride up the California coast would never be complete without a visit with our good friend Jim.  He has a policy that welcomes visitors—“if you ever visit Pismo Beach, lunch is on me”.  Since we don’t make it to the Central Coast very often, we enjoy catching up with our friend Jim over lunch.  Our go to lunch place is Zorros in Shell Beach for great Mexican food.  After lunch and spending time getting caught up, we made our way north to Hearst San Simeon State Park Campground (about an hour north).

Hearst San Simeon State Park Campground
Hearst San Simeon State Park campground is spread out between higher and lower elevations.  Our campsite, #24 ($35/night), is high on a hill looking out over the Pacific and probably one of the most spacious sites within the campground.  There was no Verizon reception at our campsite, but it could be had at the top of the stairs close by (as well as near the ranger station entrance).  Water spigots (without threads) are available.  There’s an RV dump station here ($10, we skipped it).

During our stay we visited the Elephant Seal Rookery (lots of giant elephant seals sunning on the beach), the kite surfing beach, Moonstone Beach (moonstones and other gems), and San Simeon Pier (opposite of Hearst Castle).  We’ve seen Hearst Castle many times before, so we skipped it this trip — but, if you haven’t been, definitely go!

We needed to backtrack south on the coast for about twenty minutes and head up the 41 Freeway since the coast highway was closed going north (it’s been closed for a while due to a landslide).  In order to continue our journey to our next campground in Monterey, we took the 101 Freeway.

Monterey Veterans Memorial Park Campground
Monterey is about three hours north of Hearst San Simeon State Park.  The campground is first come first serve and only has thirty campsites suitable for trailers (21’ limit), so it’s best to get there early in the day.  We arrived at the campground on a Friday morning in late June and there were several open campsites.  Our first choice, campsite 6, which is adjacent to a large grass field, was one of the open sites!  To get the campsite, park your trailer in the open site you want to occupy and then walk down to the iron ranger, fill out the form, and put cash/check in the envelope and deposit and place the detached portion of your campsite receipt on the post at your campsite.  Campsites are currently $54/night.  There’s slow Verizon mobile service.  We didn’t see any water spigots, but there is a freshwater hose bib near the top bathroom.  There’s a free RV dump station just outside the campground which we used the next morning when leaving.

To honor veterans, Taps and Reverie are played by loud speaker throughout the campground at 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. every day.

There’s a steep road going from the campground to downtown Monterey, so it’s best to drive into town.  The campsite is very close to the major attractions. (e.g. charming downtown Monterey, Fisherman’s Wharf, Cannery Row, …).  We enjoyed riding the free trolley from Cannery Row to Fisherman’s Wharf.  The wharf was crowded with tourists enjoying the pier and all its shops and eateries.  We walked back from the wharf to Cannery Row and saw many harbor seals along the way.  The famous Monterey Aquarium is a must see attraction if you’ve never been.

Pioneer
Located in a wilderness mountain area between the coast and Lake Tahoe, Pioneer is in the Sierra Nevada foothills at an elevation of around 3,000 feet.  Our cousin Rebecca and her husband Matt recently purchased a cabin here and invited us for a stay.  Their property is on about 10 acres with plenty of room for us to set up our Scamp 13’.  After a tour of their beautiful cabin and property, which includes a river, underground stream as well as a Frisbee golf course, we were treated to a cave adventure at Black Chasm Cavern National Natural Landmark.  The cavern is in the town of Volcano which is about twenty minutes from Rebecca and Matt’s cabin.  It was a warm summer day, so it was nice to descend deep into the cave where the temperate is always 57 degrees.  A guided tour (about an hour) is necessary to enter the cave and take the steep stairs down into the cavern.  The tour descends about 100 feet deep into the cave!  The cave itself is 225 feet deep, with an underground lake system at 200 feet below ground.  Black Chasm Cavern is known for its spectacular displays of rare helictite formations.  There is also a beautiful blue lake 80 feet below the second chamber viewing platform.  We greatly enjoyed this cave tour.  After the tour, we had a delicious dinner at Volcano Union Inn Restaurant and then explored the quaint town of Volcano.

Lake Tahoe – Fallen Leaf Campground (6,332’ elevation)
The drive from Pioneer to Lake Tahoe was about 1 ½ hours.  We stopped at the Kirkwood Ski Area for lunch as we had some time before the 2 p.m. check-in at Fallen Leaf Lake Campground (South Lake Tahoe).  Kirkwood Ski Area is a beautiful place with a small village at its base.  It resembles a scenic European ski town.  There was still some snow visible at the top of the mountain during our visit in late June.  Since the ski resort no longer offers summer mountain biking, the area was very quiet during our two hour visit.  Most of the stores and restaurants were closed.  We enjoyed the solitude, nice weather and mountain views from our Scamp while we ate lunch!

Fallen Leaf Campground is on the south shore of Lake Tahoe.  It’s a large campground consisting of 206 campsites.  Our campsite (site #169A, $47/night, 50% off with a Senior America the Beautiful Lifetime Pass) is right in the middle of the campground and, in turn, exposed to a lot of activity.  Since we reserved last minute, we didn’t have many campsite choices.  In the future, we will reserve a campsite on the perimeter.  Our friends Kat & David recommend campsite #21 if bear viewing is desired.  They said bears came to this campsite every day during their visit (see their video here).  There are threaded water spigots here.  There’s an RV dump station ($10).  There’s no Verizon mobile service at the campground.

This is a great campground to which to bring bikes.  There are numerous bike paths that wind along the edges of Lake Tahoe. There are also several great hikes here, including one with waterfalls (called Glen Alpine Falls) that flows into Fallen Leaf Lake.  Since our stay here was just one night, we chose to hike Maggie’s Peak (considered one of the best hikes in the area).  Our friend Bruce came down from Zephyr Cove to join us on this early morning hike.  Maggies Peak is in the Desolation Wilderness Area and a permit is required to enter (free at the entrance to the hike).  We parked just off the main road at the Bayview parking lot and walked up to the trailhead.  This hike is considered challenging.  There are plenty of steep sections and switchbacks, taking from 3 – 4 hours to make the round trip hike (4 miles total with 1800 feet of elevation gain over 2 miles).  The payoff is an outstanding panoramic view of Emerald Bay. We even ran into some pack goats on our hike!  There’s a private resort next door to Fallen Leaf Campground called Camp Richardson.  Their ice cream shop is a short bike ride from the campground and their ice creams are very refreshing on a hot day (and free Wi-Fi can be had at their hotel – just go inside and ask for the code)!

Nevada Beach Campground (6,100’ elevation)
It’s a 45 minute drive from Fallen Leaf Campground to Nevada Beach Campground.  To get here, you cross the state line and enter Nevada.  Nevada Beach Campground was named in 2024 by the popular online camping website The Dyrt as the hardest campground at which to get a reservation in the entire country!  To learn more about how we secured a reservation, click here.

We stayed at campsite #10 ($47/night, 50% off with a Senior America the Beautiful Lifetime Pass) for six nights.  It’s a prime campsite with a lake view and a short walk to the lake.  There is good Verizon mobile internet as well as water within the campground (threaded water spigot near the bathroom). There’s no RV dump station here, but there is one a few minutes down the road at Zephyr Cove Resort ($10).  We did notice many people using outdoor showers within the campground so as not to fill up their grey tanks.  A ranger I asked said this is OK as long as biodegradable soap / shampoo is used (since the shower water falls directly onto the ground).

This is one of the most beautiful campgrounds we’ve ever been too – the combination of striking views of Lake Tahoe with dramatic snowcapped mountains in the background and awe-inspiring trails through meadows and pine filled forests is amazing.  And, the beach is very beautiful.  Dogs are even welcome on part of the beach!  Even though we stayed through Fourth of July weekend, the campground, with only 54 campsites, never felt crowded.  Definitely bring your bike (our new rack worked out really well) as there are fantastic paved paths through wonderful pines to enjoy. Walking is fine too if you don’t ride.  You can even ride your bike or drive into town and do some shopping at The Shops at Heavenly Village.

We made some new friends, Kat & David, who were camped next to us in their Airstream.  They were extremely generous, and when they learned that I strained my back lifting a 6 lb. water jug (over 50lbs filled) to fill fresh water into the Scamp, they gave us a specialized water transfer pump!  The device allows water to be quickly pumped from the jug at ground level to up and directly into the travel trailer.  So, with a dolly and one of these pumps, heavy lifting is not needed.  This is a game-changer and we will only use this method for fresh water fill in the future.  We enjoyed spending time with Kat & David.  Kat enjoys working with plants and is an avid birder.  And, David is extremely knowledgeable on all things camping and the environment.  David pointed out to us what appeared to be a “T” on the mountain (Mt. Tallac) across the lake from our campsite.  The “T” on Mt. Tallac is a cross shaped snow formation visible in spring and summer associated with interesting folklore, particularly among the Washoe people.  The Washoe people considered Mt. Tallac sacred.  One legend says that if the snow melts out of the cross completely then a harsh winter will be coming to Lake Tahoe.  This natural phenomenon is particularly famous because it was used as the backdrop for the opening sequence of the classic TV show Bonanza (aired 1959 – 1973); the specific location where the opening sequence was filmed was Nevada Beach!

Our friends Bruce, Gracia, and their dog Ben just moved into their newly completed condo next door at The Tahoe Beach Club.  Bruce is an avid hiker and made sure we were up early every morning to complete a hike from his favorites list.  In addition to hiking Maggie’s Peak, we hiked up Round Hill (awesome views of Lake Tahoe) and walked around Spooner Lake.  We also enjoyed playing ball with Ben each morning – he loves to retrieve his ball from the lake.  One of the highlights of our trip was having lunch with Bruce and Gracia at their condo beach club (The Tahoe Beach Club).  We enjoyed burgers on the outside patio with spectacular views overlooking the lake.  And, watching the 4th of July Fireworks show from the campground was the cherry on top!

It was hard to leave our friends and Nevada Beach Campground.  We had such a beautiful time.  We plan to come back next year if possible.

Instead of making our way back to the coast, we chose to return home the more direct route on the US395.  Our next stop, June Lake, is a three hour drive from Nevada Beach Campground.

June Lake – Oh Ridge Campground (7,600’ elevation)
June Lake is often called the “Switzerland of California” due to its stunning alpine scenery and similar characteristics to the Swiss Alps.  June Lake is in the Eastern Sierra Nevada and surrounded by dramatic granite peaks, including Carson Peak.  The June Lake Loop is known for its four pristine glacial lakes (June Lake, Gull Lake, Silver Lake, and Grant Lake).

We stayed at Oh Ridge Campground and had campsite #27 ($38/night, 50% off with a Senior America the Beautiful Lifetime Pass) — one of the prime campsites up on a hill directly overlooking the lake.  The views of the lake and granite mountain peaks from the Scamp were amazing.  The water spigot near our campsite was painted red, so we assumed the water was not drinkable (although there were no explanation signs and no ranger warnings).  We used it for washing and showering.  There’s also a central RV dumpstation ($10).  The Verizon reception was good during our stay.  During our one night stay, we had a chance to walk down the hill to explore the beach.  It was a warm day and people were having a good time swimming and boating on the lake.

This trip was filled with many fun locations, extreme natural beauty, good food, and a blast of a Fourth of July.  We enjoyed seeing friends and family along the way as well as making new friends at the campgrounds.  Like all trips, this one left us with some ideas for future adventures.  We definitely want to go back to Lake Tahoe as well as try some new high elevation campgrounds in the Sierra (such as Big Pine Creek Campground).  Picking intriguing locations always sets the stage for new exciting experiences.  Travel writer Rolf Potts expressed this idea well when he said, “the secret of adventure is not to carefully seek it out, but to travel in such a way that it finds you.”

Disclaimer:  You will get the same great Amazon price by clicking on the links here compared to buying directly on Amazon, but by buying here you will also be supporting the continuation of this website as we get a small commission from each sale.  These are products and procedures we use for our own Scamp that we selected and developed from our own research and experiences.  However, we do not endorse any specific product and cannot guarantee that the products we use are exemplary and the procedures we use are complete, accurate, detail the correct recommended procedures, or apply to your model small travel trailer.  It’s always best to double check with your manufacturer or operation manuals to ensure you are doing everything right.

O’Neill Regional Park — Orange County, California

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O’Neill Regional Park — Orange County, California
May 7th – 9th 2024 (2 nights)

The main purpose of this trip was to have our Scamp’s rear hitch heavily reinforced to sustain the weight and forces of our new bike rack for long distance travel.  Although our Scamp’s rear hitch was already factory welded on both ends (bumper and steel frame), we decided more robust reinforcement would be desirable since we sometimes drive on rough roads and trails with our bikes on the rear hitch.  The last thing we would want is to have the hitch break away from our trailer while driving and have our new rack and bikes dragged on the road behind us (coincidentally, this is exactly what happened to a couple we met during this trip at O’Neill Regional Park – their new hitch broke off behind their trailer and their hitch and $17,000 in e-bikes were destroyed).  Not many bike racks are rated to be used behind travel trailers because of the extreme forces at their rear.  Our new bike rack is travel trailer rated as long as certain conditions are met (the rear hitch must be welded both to the trailer’s bumper and frame, a 2” receiver is used, and bikes must not exceed 42lbs per tray).

Our first stop was at our Cousin Chris’s house in Arcadia (a city in Los Angeles about 13 miles northeast of downtown). Chris is a professional welder and offered to fabricate necessary steel parts and weld them to our Scamp’s rear hitch.  The hardest part of the process is creating the design and fabricating the metal parts which will be used to ruggedize the union of the hitch to the trailer.  Chris is a master craftsman and created some phenomenal parts which he fabricated out of steel in his shop.  After placing all the metal parts to ensure a good fit, he meticulously welded each piece to the existing hitch, bumper, and frame.  While Chris worked, we enjoyed walking his nice neighborhood as well as interacting with “Feathers”, the resident wild Peacock who lives outside Chris’s house.  Feathers is not only big and beautiful but he also has a blood curdling scream which can be heard for miles!  He often flies up onto the roof and screams to ensure other peacocks can hear him (in which they often reply with their own screams from different nearby locations!)!  The welding process took about five hours and we left knowing that our hitch was now very secure.

Side note — in the late 19th century, the founder of Arcadia, Elias “Lucky” Baldwin, imported peacock breeding pairs from India to decorate his estate (now the Los Angeles Arboretum and Botanic Gardens).  The peafowl thrived on the compound and their population grew with some of them escaping onto the surrounding areas.  The feral peacocks continue to thrive to this day and are protected so they may roam Arcadia without being disturbed.

Instead of driving straight home to San Diego on the same day, we decided to spend a couple of nights at O’Neill Regional Park in Orange County.  A couple of weeks ago we enjoyed our stay at Ronald W. Casper’s Wilderness Park which is close by, so we wanted to try this other regional inland Orange County campground.  O’Neill Regional Park is like Caspers in many ways.  Both parks are run by the OCparks system and have similar beautiful maps and fun programs.  O’Neill Regional Park is on over 4,500 acres, located within Trabuco and Live Oak Canyons.  The campground has 79 campsites and can accommodate very large RVs.  There aren’t any hookups, but there are threaded water spigots and a free central dump station.  Campsites cost $20/night (or $15/night for anyone over 60 or people with disabilities).  We had campsite #34 which was a bit too close to the site next to it (unless you are travelling with family or friends).  Fortunately, we had quite neighbors on the two nights we stayed, but would choose a different site next time with more space between campsites.  There’s a threaded water spigot next to campsite #34 and we used a couple of our hoses to connect to it to refill our Scamp’s fresh water tank.  The Verizon service was good during our stay.  There’s also a free central RV dump station which we used on the way out.

The campground has a very natural feel and is very spread out.  There are numerous day use areas as well as Group and Equestrian campgrounds.  Oak trees are plentiful throughout the park and provide much needed shade when the weather gets warm (which it does since it is about 45 minutes inland from the ocean).  Temperatures were in the low ‘80’s during our visit in early May.  We heard temperatures were supposed to get into the 90’s on the day we left!  Similar to Caspers, ground squirrels are all over the campground and don’t seem to cause any issues with campers (although we spotted one standing up on his hind legs spending some time very curiously inspecting the underneath of our Scamp 13’).  There are plenty of other animals in the park including deer (a man said he and his dog were almost run into by a large deer at night during a dog walk), bobcats, coyotes, mountain lions, raccoons, crows, turkey vultures, and more.  We heard a large animal panting in the bush close to us while on a long hike, but couldn’t confirm what it was…

Like Caspers, there are plenty of trails to ride horses, bikes, and hike.  The trails here were busier during our stay than the back country trails we experienced at Caspers though.  We hiked the Pawfoot, Live Oak, and Coyote Canyon trails, which originate near the Ranger Station at the entrance to the park.  Another fun hike is to start the Pawfoot trail above the campground area (heading toward the Equestrian camping area) and take the short walk past an elementary school filled with farm animals (pigs, goats, sheep, and miniature donkeys) to the Trabuco General Store.  The General Store (open 8 am. – 7 p.m. during our stay) has some unique items, including tamales and homemade fruit preserves.

Make sure to check the weather before visiting both Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Area and O’Neill Regional Park.  Both campgrounds are inland, so it can get warm when the temperatures heat up.  However, a visit in the winter, spring, or fall might just be perfect for enjoying a tranquil setting with fantastic equestrian, hiking, and biking trails.  And, if you live in LA or San Diego, the trip to these parks won’t use much gas or cost much in campground fees.  So, take a jaunt to one of these Orange Country inland regional parks, save some money by camping local, and stop by the Trabuco General Store to stock up on tamales and home jam!

 

Disclaimer:  You will get the same great Amazon price by clicking on the links here compared to buying directly on Amazon, but by buying here you will also be supporting the continuation of this website as we get a small commission from each sale.  These are products and procedures we use for our own Scamp that we selected and developed from our own research and experiences.  However, we do not endorse any specific product and cannot guarantee that the products we use are exemplary and the procedures we use are complete, accurate, detail the correct recommended procedures, or apply to your model small travel trailer.  It’s always best to double check with your manufacturer or operation manuals to ensure you are doing everything

Caspers Wilderness Park — Orange County, California

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Caspers Wilderness Park — Orange County, California
April 21st – 24th 2024 (3 nights)

Located a little over an hour north of Carlsbad and just about twenty minutes inland from Dana Point, Caspers Wilderness Park feels very remote.  Situated on over 8,000 acres of wilderness land, the park was originally occupied by the Juanenos, a tribe of Native Americans. Eventually, the city of Orange County purchased the land and the regional park was opened in 1974. The park is notable for its expansive hiking and biking trails, equestrian access, and ranger programs.  Pets are not allowed here.  Although, if you are feeling lonely, there’s a scurry of California Ground Squirrels here that will keep you company!  Otherwise, you can stare up at the sky and watch the large turkey vultures circling.

There are several campgrounds within the park, each with its own focus.  The first campground encountered after driving through the entrance gate is Ortega Flats Campground (13 campsites).  It’s perfect for those who need to have electrical hookups (otherwise, skip this campground as it’s close to Ortega Highway and gets road noise).  The next campground is San Juan Meadow Group Campground (4 group sites), which accommodates large groups of people travelling together.  Farther back into the park is our top choice for setting up your travel trailer (or rv/van/tent) – Live Oak Campground.  It’s the largest campground in the park with 42 dry campsites. However, threaded water spigots are sprinkled throughout the campground. Additionally, there are restrooms and showers as well as trash receptacles.  The next campground, Starr Mesa Equestrian Campground (23 campsites), is for campers with horses.  There are horse corrals and horse trails accessible from this campground.  The final campground is another group campground, Owl/Quail Group Campground.

We arrived in the early afternoon on a weekday and the campground was very quiet.  Our campsite, #36, is spacious and there’s a threaded water spigot across the road.  Campsites cost $20/night (or $15/night for seniors 60 years or older or people with disabilities).  The Verizon service was very fast during our visit.  There’s a central RV dump station at the campground entrance (free for campers).  When we arrived we received a wonderful oversized trail map which illustrates all the accessible trails, their difficulty level, and what type of use is allowed (e.g. hiking/horse riding/biking) – similar to a ski area trail map.  E-bikes are allowed on the park roads but not allowed on the backcountry trails within the park.  There are enough trails to keep one busy for days.  There’s also a nature center (closed during our visit) along with interpretive and ranger programs (including the Space Ranger Program with night talks on space and stargazing).  For those interested in activities outside the campground, Caspers Park serves as a great base for exploring the beaches and towns of San Juan Capistrano (including the famous Mission) and Dana Point.

We brought our bikes and alternated between hiking in the morning (when the skies were cloudy and the temperatures were cooler) and biking in the afternoon (when it was more sunny and warm).  We hiked the moderate trails but only took our bikes on the easy ones to avoid very steep and rocky terrain (along the dry creek bed).  Some of our favorite hikes and rides were the Juaneno Trail (hike), East Ridge Trail (hike), Bell Canyon Trail (bike), Mesa Loop Trail (bike), and Cougar Pass (hike).  The Juaneno Trail is a good easy first hike in the park – it follows and crosses the San Juan Creek and the four miles round trip from the campground takes about two hours.  The longest hike we took (East Ridge Trail from the campground > Cougar Pass > Bell Canyon Trail) was around six miles and took two and a half hours.

We decided to move our campsite on the second morning to the adjacent site #37 for a bit more shade.  The ranger was very nice and said it was no issue to move us.  Since we were moving anyway, we used the free central dump located next to the park entrance to empty our tanks.  The threaded water spigot across the road from site #37 allowed us to fill our Scamp’s freshwater tank using two connected water hoses.

This trip gave us the opportunity to test our new bike rack for the first time.  It’s incredibly fast and easy to use and worked out really well.  The beauty of this rack is that there is no frame contact (protects the frame) and because there are only two contact points (front and rear tires) it takes only seconds to put on and take off each bike.  There are pistons in the arms which makes the process very smooth.  Additionally, because of its internal hitch locking mechanism, there’s absolutely no sway while driving.  We wanted to test the rack on this trip before using it on a longer adventure to Lake Tahoe this summer.  The rack really performed and we look forward to using it in the future.

Caspers Wilderness Park is a gem of a natural area that also has a fantastic campground.  We are fortunate that it is so close to where we live.  It probably doesn’t come up on the radar for most campers because it is a regional county park.  However, as we’ve discovered, even regional parks can have some secrets worth discovering.  In this case, over 8,000 acres of beautiful wilderness is hiding within plain sight minutes from the uber popular beaches and cities of Orange County.  One of the best ways to find hidden treasure is to use maps on specialized camping websites, like this one.  And, once you’ve discovered a regional park you like, odds are that there are other similarly good finds within the same regional park network.  In this case, we’ve already scheduled our next OC Park visit in a couple weeks at O’Neill Regional Park – stay tuned!

Disclaimer:  You will get the same great Amazon price by clicking on the links here compared to buying directly on Amazon, but by buying here you will also be supporting the continuation of this website as we get a small commission from each sale.  These are products and procedures we use for our own Scamp that we selected and developed from our own research and experiences.  However, we do not endorse any specific product and cannot guarantee that the products we use are exemplary and the procedures we use are complete, accurate, detail the correct recommended procedures, or apply to your model small travel trailer.  It’s always best to double check with your manufacturer or operation manuals to ensure you are doing everything

Camping Outside (and inside) the Box in Los Angeles

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Camping Outside (and inside) the Box in Los Angeles
March 22nd – 26th 2024 (4 nights)

What started out as a planned weekend to celebrate my friend’s birthday in Los Angeles, evolved into a trip leading us to discover some hidden campground gems.  Los Angeles itself has very few campgrounds for travel trailers.  According to The Dyrt, there are no public campgrounds in Los Angeles!  One usually has to travel to the distant foothills or the coast to find any places to park a trailer.  We found this to be the case too for many large cities we’ve visited, including San Francisco and Portland.  However, we did discover two nice campgrounds very close to Los Angeles that provide for beautiful natural experiences!

Valley Village, Los Angeles
We needed a spot to stay overnight in the center of Los Angeles since we planned to hike at Griffith Park on Sunday morning.  However, after finding no public campgrounds in the area, we brainstormed possible solutions.  We first tried Harvest Hosts (a subscription service which offers free stays at farms, museums, restaurants, etc.) and found nothing.  We don’t subscribe to their partner service, Boondockers Welcome, which lists private driveways, so we couldn’t determine if any driveways were available to rent.  We also tried Hipcamp, but nothing there either.  Since we grew up in Los Angeles, we thought of relatives living in the city who own homes that might be close to the park and have a driveway.  We got lucky — a relative living only 6 miles away from Griffith Park in Valley Village (a city in the San Fernando Valley) let us to stay on his driveway for the night!

We had a nice quiet evening at our relative’s home with our Scamp 13’ parked under a beautiful large Magnolia tree.  We enjoyed walking the quiet streets of this safe neighborhood in the early evening and morning.  Valley Village dates back to the 1930s when workers at nearby motion pictures studios built homes here.  The area was known for its apricot trees, orange and walnut groves, peach orchards, and cornfields.  It gets hot and dry here in the summer, but fortunately we had good moderate temperatures during our visit in March.  We probably wouldn’t stay in the San Fernando Valley during the summer months, but if we did we would definitely bring our portable AC for our Scamp 13’.

So, if you are travelling and need a place to stay where none exist or it’s not economically feasible, you might be surprised to discover you already have a close friend or relative living in the area who may provide you accommodation.

Malibu Creek State Park
Our friend’s birthday celebration dinner was at Paul Martin’s American Grill, a popular restaurant in Westlake Village (a city a bit north of Los Angeles).  In reviewing the location and campground map, we found Malibu Creek State Park a beautiful campground located halfway between the ocean and the valley in the Santa Monica Mountains.  The campground is only a short drive (about 15 minutes) from Westlake Village but feels worlds away from any city, isolated in a beautiful meadow in the Santa Monica Mountains.  Malibu Creek SP exceeded our expectations in many ways.  The campground is isolated from the rest of the park, so it’s very quiet.  And, it’s located in a beautiful meadow surrounded by tall mountains which light up at sunrise and sunset (reminding us a little of Yosemite).  Many television shows and movies have been filmed here throughout the decades, including M.A.S.H. and Planet of the Apes, with trails and signs leading to the filming locations and providing details.

Campsites at Malibu Creek State Park (no hookups) are $45/night.  We had campsite #62, which looks out directly over the meadow at the mountains (a great campsite).  There’s a central dump, which we were told costs $10 (we didn’t need to use).  Instead, we used our Holy Grail Portable Grey Water Tank Solution which effectively allows us to stay off grid for about five days.  There was acceptable, but not fast, Verizon mobile service during our stay (decent enough that we didn’t need to activate our Starlink Mini service).  We stayed here a couple of nights.

On our first day here, we visited our friends who were displaced from their home in Pacific Palisades due to the historic fire which burned down a significant portion of Pacific Palisades on January 7th, 2025.  Our friends were fortunate in that they quickly found a beautiful beach condo in Malibu which they have rented for a year while their home is being rebuilt.  Our friend Bruce gave us a tour of the fire destruction on the Malibu coast and Pacific Palisades.  Even though we’ve seen images of the aftermath of the fire numerous times on television, seeing the devastation in person was extremely impactful.  Walking through the Palisades village (where we grew up) felt like what we would imagine touring a war zone would be like.  Pictures of the scenes can’t adequately describe what it’s like in person.  After the tour, my friends joined us at our campsite and we sat outside on the grass under the oak trees and enjoyed each other’s company nibbling cheese, crackers, and sipping cold drinks.  While savoring the warm sunny spring day, we noticed a couple of campers having difficulty starting their tow vehicle.  A couple of rangers came by to help them start it with their battery jumper, but after a half hour they gave up.  I walked over and had a chance to use our Hulkman Smart Jumper Starter for the first time.  Being able to deliver up to 2,000 amps peak current, this jumper can even jump 8.5L gas / 6.oL diesel engines!  The Hulkman had their tow vehicle started in under a minute!  The campers were extremely grateful and the rangers were super impressed!

We spent our second day in the campground and park.  The Main hiking trail is up Crags Road, which follows the meandering Malibu Creek.  The small Visitor Center is open on the weekends (we only looked in the windows) and features information on the area.  We hiked up past the Visitor Center, through Ape City (where scenes from Planet of the Apes was filmed), and onto the M.A.S.H. set (a very popular television series which ran from 1972 to 1983 about a medical unit serving in the Korean War).  The weather was perfect and the trails are beautiful.  The Crags Road Trail up to the M.A.S.H. set is easy to moderate with only the last short section a bit challenging due to small rock fields (care is needed to prevent twisting ankles).  The hike was about 6 miles round trip from the campground, with an 837 foot climb, and took about two hours.

We left Malibu Creek SP feeling refreshed and very satisfied of our visit.  The experience felt like being in a very remote location even though it wasn’t too far from any city.

Crystal Cove State Park (Moro Campground)
We learned the street in front of our house was scheduled to be repaved the day we were supposed to arrive home.  So, instead of having to deal with parking our Scamp 13’ on the street and leaving it sit overnight, we decided to extend our stay and chose this beautiful location in Laguna Beach to spend the night.  Moro Campground (Crystal Cove SP) is usually booked solid year round, but we got lucky when a premium hookup campsite (#8) opened at the last minute on just the day we needed.  The premium sites are pricey at $75/night + reservation fee, which comes out to about $83/night (Electric / Water).  We normally don’t pay anywhere near this amount, but did want to try this campground as it has an excellent reputation and is in a beautiful area.  The central dump here is free (and we were surprised the park has 3 dump stations for just 28 designated RV and trailer campsites!).  The Verizon mobile service here was very fast during our stay.

The rangers at this campground are very strict on arrival time (we’ve only seen this strict adherence to the time once before – at Pismo Beach North Beach Campground) – check in is at 3 p.m., and if you show up any earlier (like we did), you are directed to park in one of the beach parking lots (we parked for free at Rock Ridge Beach parking lot and had lunch in our Scamp 13’ and then took a walk along the bluffs overlooking Crystal Cove SP). The campground itself isn’t particularly notable (though some of the front sites have ocean views) as it’s high up on a bluff away from the ocean and the sites themselves are close together.

The main draw of Crystal Cove SP are the beautiful beaches and bluff trails.  There’s also the historic district along the beach featuring beach bungalows (which can be rented) built in the 1930’s.  There’s a parking lot above the beach and one can either ride the free shuttle to the beach or walk down through a tunnel.  One of the beach bungalows (#13) was featured in the 1988 movie “Beaches” with Bette Midler.  The bungalows each have tags that have a number and the name of the bungalow.  The Shake Shack restaurant sits up a flight of stairs from the beach.  It’s usually crowded with tourists and locals forming lines to buy their popular milk shakes (they also serve hamburgers, fries, …).  If one tires of the beach, there’s a free trolley which runs through downtown Laguna Beach (plenty of shops and eateries).

Conclusions
Sometimes a short trip can be configured to become a fun adventure.  When no locations to stay at seem apparent, sometimes out of the box thinking can be rewarding.  You may have a close friend or relative who can accommodate a night’s stay or there may be private alternatives for parking your camper.  Exploring campground maps, like the one available on The Dyrt, can also provide ideas and alternatives for new campsites.  In this trip, we probably wouldn’t have gone out of our way to stay in Los Angeles without the need to attend a friend’s birthday party.  But, it forced us to keep an open mind and find options where none seem to exist and we ended up finding some hidden campground gems.  So, throw away the box, and let your thinking carry you to new horizons!

Disclaimer:  You will get the same great Amazon price by clicking on the links here compared to buying directly on Amazon, but by buying here you will also be supporting the continuation of this website as we get a small commission from each sale.  These are products and procedures we use for our own Scamp that we selected and developed from our own research and experiences.  However, we do not endorse any specific product and cannot guarantee that the products we use are exemplary and the procedures we use are complete, accurate, detail the correct recommended procedures, or apply to your model small travel trailer.  It’s always best to double check with your manufacturer or operation manuals to ensure you are doing everything

A Taste of London & Encountering Asses in Arizona  

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A Taste of London & Encountering Asses in Arizona
December 7th – 12th 2024 (5 nights)

What started out as a planned weekend to celebrate our Uncle’s birthday in La Quinta, California evolved into a trip leading us, in some aspects, across the globe and, then, onto an old gold mining ghost town inhabited by wild burros.

La Quinta
Our first stop was La Quinta, a desert resort community located between Indian Wells and Indio (and close to Palm Desert and Palm Springs – one of nine cities in the Coachella Valley).  About a two and a half hour drive from San Diego, it’s an ideal place to visit in the winter because the days are generally sunny and warm (around 81 degrees high during our December visit).  Many snowbirds come and stay here to escape harsh winters at home and enjoy golf, swimming and other outdoor activities.  We had planned to stay at Lake Cahuilla Veterans Regional Park Campground in La Quinta.  However, when we learned there was going to be a marathon here with restricted access during our visit, we changed our plans and parked our 2020 Scamp 13’ on our cousin’s driveway.  After a really nice family birthday weekend, we departed for Lake Havasu, Arizona (a three hour drive from La Quinta).

Lake Havasu
We stayed at Lake Havasu State Park, which is a beautiful campground directly adjacent to the lake.  We had campsite #22 (electric/water, $35/night, free Central Dump) which is very well spaced out (the view of the lake at this site is mostly blocked though by shrubs at the water’s edge).  Campsites directly on the beach are possible, but very popular and need to be reserved well in advance.  Verizon cellular service is very fast here.  Popular things to do at the lake are water activities like boating, kayaking, swimming, paddle boarding, and fishing.  There are nice trails (like the Mohave Sunset Trail) and bike paths which wind throughout the lowland desert and shoreline.  There are around 28 miniature replica working lighthouses along the lake helping watercraft navigate at night which are modeled after famous lighthouses throughout the United States.  There’s also the Arroyo-Camino Interpretive Garden which showcases the diverse life that exists within the park and this area of the desert.

Just a short drive outside the park, there is the English Village and London Bridge.  Park at the Visitor’s Center parking lot and walk into the English Village.  The Visitor’s Center is a good starting point (located on the mainland side of Bridgewater Channel).  The center sells souvenirs, offers free maps, and there’s a video worth watching detailing how London Bridge was created at Lake Havasu in 1971.  Additionally, there’s a tourist guide who is eager to share information on area highlights.  Right outside the Visitor’s Center is a waterfront shopping area with plenty of boutique and souvenir shops as well as restaurants.  Lake Havasu was created by construction of the Parker Dam on the Colorado River between Arizona and California between 1934 and 1938.  Factoid – Parker Dam is the world’s deepest dam, with 235 feet below the riverbed! London Bridge was moved to Arizona in the late 1960’s as a publicity stunt to attract people to the new community of Lake Havasu City.  The bridge was disassembled and shipped (individually numbered blocks) from London and reassembly was completed at Lake Havasu in 1971.  The bridge is lit up by colored lights for different holidays throughout the year.  During our visit, the bridge was lit up red and green to celebrate Christmas.  There’s a walking path, Shoreline Trail, that meanders along the water offering views of the bridge from different perspectives.

Oatman, Arizona
Oatman is an old gold mining town about an hour from Lake Havasu.  Since there aren’t any designated RV campgrounds in the small ghost town of Oatman, we stayed overnight at Crossroads RV Park in Mojave Valley, Arizona (full hookups, $60/night, fast Verizon internet).  This RV park is a large square cut out of the desert where people mostly come to ride out the winter and tend to stay for months.  Although there isn’t much here, it’s a short easy fifteen minute drive up to the mountain town of Oatman.  Be careful driving up the main highway as it’s common for wild donkeys to stand in the roadway, completely blocking the lanes.  This happened to us, as we had to stop for a few donkeys blocking the road.  We rolled down the window to get a better look and a wild burro and her baby walked right up to us and the mother stuck her face right into our car.  We weren’t really expecting this from wild donkeys.  Later, when we reached Oatman, a shopkeeper told us that the only time one is allowed to pet and feed the donkeys is in the town.

Oatman, Arizona was once a booming gold mining town.  In the early 1860’s, gold was discovered in these Black Mountains.  In 1915, two prospectors struck gold worth $10 million and the town’s population quickly grew to over 3,500 in one year.  The town was named after Olive Oatman, a 14 year old girl who was captured (along with her younger 8 year old sister, Mary Ann) and enslaved by Native American Indians in 1851 (who killed her parents and four siblings, known as the “Oatman Massacre”).  Her older brother Lorenzo was left for dead but survived. He tried to get help, but wasn’t successful in rescuing his sisters.  Olive and her sister were held captive for one year and then traded to the Mojave people.  Mary Ann died of starvation and Olive spent four years with the Mojave Indians, during which time they tattooed her chin with blue ink to signify her tribal enslavement.  Olive was repatriated to American society five years after the attack.  She became an oddity in 1860s American culture because she was the first known White woman with a Native tattoo.

Oatman is now a ghost town, a reflection of the early American Wild West.  Now, the main street is lined with tourist shops selling t-shirts, western leather products, and other souvenirs.  The old post office and jail are small relics of the past which still remain.  There’s even a wild west gunfight (times change daily, so best to call Outlaw Willie) in front of the old Oatman Hotel (the site of many alleged paranormal sightings).  Despite its fascinating history, the main attraction here are Oatman’s wild donkeys (as it’s one of very few places in the United States where it is legal to feed and pet them).  Each burro has their own name and they display unique and interesting personalities.  A young burro, named Diego, is known to kick his front hoof against shop doors which sell donkey food (many stores here sell a bag of donkey pellets for around $1).  We witnessed Diego in action and, fearing the glass might break, the shopkeeper opened the door and gave Diego some food (further reinforcing this behavior).  We saw another donkey walk inside a shop and block its entrance!  There are posted warnings that these donkeys are wild and may bite and kick, but we didn’t witness any menacing behavior.  On the contrary, all the donkeys we pet and fed had very sweet temperaments.  We even overheard one tourist say that these donkeys are tamer than the one she keeps at home.  It is wise though not to stand behind any donkey because they sometimes get into quarrels amongst themselves and sometimes kick back from their hind legs.  And, when feeding them, keep the food in your palm with hands wide open so fingers are not nibbled along with the snack!  The donkeys were surprisingly gentle with our hands, not biting the hands that feed them.

After a great trip, we chose to stop in Newberry Springs at The Barn 66 (a Harvest Host location free for members) on the way back home to make the 5 ½ hour drive more manageable.  The Barn 66 is a notable bar restaurant on the old Route 66 and is in the middle of nowhere (almost halfway between Oatman, Arizona and San Diego with Barstow being about twenty minutes away).  We read they have great pizza and burgers, but we found their hours to be variable and the Barn wasn’t opened when we arrived for a late lunch.  Route 66 was decommissioned in 1985, however its decline started in 1956 when President Eisenhower signed the Interstate Highway Act.  The new interstates, especially the I-40, diverted traffic away from Route 66.  Today, only about 85% of Route 66 can still be driven.  The transition away from Route 66 was a death blow to many small towns including Newberry Springs where The Barn 66 is located.  We parked our Scamp 13’ in the Barns 66’s dirt parking lot, surrounded by old dilapidated buildings adjacent to Route 66 (now with only occasional car traffic).  The I-40 interstate is visible in the distance from the parking lot with car and truck traffic buzzing non-stop 24/7.  There are also trains which run at all times of the day and night and were sometimes very loud with their horns blasting (note to light sleepers!).

We had a blast relaxing at Lake Havasu and discovering the old west in Oatman, Arizona.  It’s amazing there are so many places to uncover which have such unique history.  And, having a small travel trailer lets one immerse oneself in these bygone eras.  Learning about a significant piece of London history located in Arizona on the Colorado River was really interesting!  And, playing with the burro descendants of the gold miners and watching their funny antics made a lasting impression.  Although this was a short trip, it expanded our horizons.  And, we learned that being a wise ass isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

 

Disclaimer:  You will get the same great Amazon price by clicking on the links here compared to buying directly on Amazon, but by buying here you will also be supporting the continuation of this website as we get a small commission from each sale.  These are products and procedures we use for our own Scamp that we selected and developed from our own research and experiences.  However, we do not endorse any specific product and cannot guarantee that the products we use are exemplary and the procedures we use are complete, accurate, detail the correct recommended procedures, or apply to your model small travel trailer.  It’s always best to double check with your manufacturer or operation manuals to ensure you are doing everything

Falling for Color in the Eastern Sierra  October 13th – 20th 2024 (7 nights)

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Falling for Color in the Eastern Sierra
October 13th – 20th 2024 (7 nights)

One of the most spectacular places in the country to see the annual fall leaf color change is in the high Sierra.  Leaf peepers from all over the world come to the Sierra to feel the chill in the crisp fall air and observe the vivid colors which pop in yellows, oranges, and reds.  October is usually the month to go, but the actual timing per location varies.  One notable website tracks the color changes by offering onsite reports (the website published two feature articles about our adventure on their website during our trip).   The first article was about our experience at Sabrina Lake — click here to see the article with our photographs.  The second feature was on our visit to Lundy Lake Campground — click here to see this article with our photographs.

In order to get a good chance of seeing some fall color, we scheduled stops at various locations in the Eastern Sierra.  Our leaf peeping locations included two sites in the Aspendell area (above Bishop at around 9,000 feet elevation–at Sabrina Lake Campground and Four Jeffrey Campground), a stop at Lundy Canyon Campground an hour north near Mono Lake (elevation 7,800 feet), and lastly a visit to Convict Lake Campground (7,500 feet) near Mammoth Lakes.

Many of the campgrounds are either closed or closing at the middle to end of October, so it’s very important to research which campgrounds are still open if planning a visit this time of year.  Winter can bring extremely strong storms, including snow, and this area often becomes inaccessible after the first storm or two.  And, it’s not uncommon for a surprise snow storm to hit even in early October when campers are still at the campgrounds so it’s important to pack accordingly (this happened to us at Lundy Canyon Campground)!

Come prepared with your propane tanks full (ideally two tanks) as the weather can get very cold at night.  It was sunny and pleasant during our visit with temps in the high 60’s / low 70’s, but the evenings and mornings were cold (in the high teens and low 20’s)!  We set our furnace to keep us warm at night and early mornings, and were very glad we were sleeping in our 2020 Scamp 13′ instead of a tent!  We set a record on this trip by burning through an entire tank of propane in just six days!

Fuel stop tips:  we discovered a few good low priced gas stations during our drives — 5 Points Petroluem (Adelanto, CA), Fort Independence Travel Plaza (Independence, CA), and Yuhubi Nobi Gas Station (Bishop, CA).  Gas stations in Mammoth Lakes and Lee Vining (which we avoided) were significantly more expensive (around $2 more per gallon) than the service stations listed above.

Food stop tips:  the Alabama Hills Café (can be crowded on weekends) for great American food (Lone Pine) and the Lemon Food Truck for great Mexican food (Independence) make good stops for nourishment and help break up the long drive into the Eastern Sierra.  Glen’s Taqueria Food Truck (Independence) was also recommended to us, but we didn’t get a chance to try it.

Lake Sabrina Campground
This is a first come, first served campground with about 20 campsites.  There is no cell phone service here, but they do have potable water spigots, trash cans, and vault toilets.  Note:  the Cardinal Village Resort down the road offers free Starlink WiFi service (good enough even for phone calls).  We arrived at around 2:45 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon, figuring most people would have left the campground by the end of the weekend.  However, when we arrived, we found only two sites available!  Fortunately, the site we selected (campsite #20, $34/night) was not easy to spot, yet a very good one (we drove right by it on our first pass and the campground host showed us where it was)!  Make sure to bring either cash or a check for the iron ranger box.  The campground is very scenic and is situated along the Middle Fork Bishop Creek.  The abundant aspens in the campground had already starting turning color, with popping yellows.

The trail at the end of the campground off of North Lake Road led us through some spectacular fall foliage in magnificent red, orange, and yellow leaves.  We also drove up North Lake road to North Lake (a small lake popular for fishing) and enjoyed some stunning scenery of the fall color changes.  Sabrina Lake is about a mile and a half up the road.  There’s a trail that goes around the lake as well as a boat rental house.  The high Sierra mountains pose magnificently in the background thousands of feet above the lake.  One of the most popular activities here is fishing for trout, and even in October we saw a number of fishermen and fisherwomen.  But, probably the most popular activity in this area was taking photos in front of the lake and several leaf peeping worthy backdrops.

Another trip highlight included testing out a new tech toy.  We purchased a Starlink Mini for this particular trip and had ample opportunity to try it out at Lake Sabrina Campground.  There is no phone service near here and it was nice to conduct some additional research of the area, stay up to date on the news/weather and emails, and contact friends and families via calls and texts when not hiking or exploring the area.  The Mini is great because it is very compact (about the size of a laptop), the router and power supply are internal, and it uses low power (we can run it for hours on our Jackery 500).  We are able to store it in the small closet cabinet we constructed in our 2020 Scamp 13′ along with our laptop and tablet.  To set it up, just point it north and use the app to make fine adjustments.  We found the speed to be very fast (over 100Mbps download and around 10 Mbps upload).  We chose the roam plan which, at the time of this writing, is $50/month for 50GBs of data (additional GBs of data cost $1/GB).  We only used 11GB of data during our entire eight day trip (including streaming a few news broadcasts from Sling).  The plan can be paused (by the month) when not travelling. The upfront cost of the Starlink Mini hardware is currently $599.

Camp Four Jeffrey
Just about fifteen minutes down the road from Sabrina Lake Campground towards Bishop, Camp Four Jeffrey is off South Lake Road in the direction of South Lake.  Camp Four Jeffrey is a larger campground (with only the first 30 campsites reservable during the time of our visit) and has potable water spigots and an RV dump station (with two dumps) — dumping is free if you are camping here.  There’s no reliable cell phone signal, but signals come and go throughout the day and night in various locations throughout the campground.  For a more reliable cell phone signal, there’s a utility access dirt road across the main road that climbs for about 1/2 mile and overlooks Forks Campground down below.  We’ve found a reliable signal here on this as well as a past visit.  (Link to previous report).  Additionally, there’s a cell phone lot between Camp Four Jeffrey (although we didn’t try it) as well as the free Starlink service at the Cardinal Village Resort.  Or, if you have Starlink yourself, it works great at the campground.

This is one of the most dramatically scenic campgrounds we’ve been to as it’s surrounded by high Sierra mountains (covered in snow most of the year, with very little snow visible this fall).  Also, aspen trees grow throughout the campground, and were presenting full fall yellow popping color.  There’s a creek that runs through the campground and many campers enjoy fishing here.  We chose campsite #45 (not sure why we were able to reserve it since it’s not in the first thirty campsites and no other campsites were able to be reserved in this loop when we made reservations) because it sits high above all the other campsites and has dramatic views.  Some of the water spigots at the entrance are threaded and we used one to fill up our Scamp 13’s fresh water tank on the way into and out of the campground.  There are also unthreaded water spigots through the campground.

We spent a couple of days here and enjoyed hiking through the fall colors in the area as well as at Cardinal Village Resort.  While staying here, we decided to go back up to the Sabrina Lake area (since it is only about 10 minutes away from Camp Four Jeffrey) and drove up North Lake drive to North Lake.  We were rewarded with vibrant fall foliage at the lake.  There were quite a few people wading into and fly fishing in the lake.  After exploring, we enjoyed a satisfying burger lunch at the Cardinal Village Resort (they make pie daily here too).

Lundy Canyon Campground
After a couple of beautiful days at Camp Four Jeffrey, we made our way down the mountain to refuel in Bishop (Yuhubi Nobi Gas Station) and then drove north on Hwy 395 for an hour to Lundy Lake Campground (passing Mammoth Lakes and June Lake) .  We heard the leaves were changing color here too.  The campground is up Lundy Lakes Road just past the town of Lee Vining and Mono Lake.  Cell phone coverage ends shortly after entering the canyon and climbing up towards Lundy Lake (Lundy Lake is about five minutes past the campground, with hiking trails).

Lundy Canyon Campground (7,660′ elevation) is primitive with rough roads and no amenities.  There’s not even a camp host.  Instead, once we found a campsite we liked (#10) at this first come first serve campground (36 campsites along a 0.8 mile long scenic bumpy road), we took our cash ($16/night) for our two night stay and deposited it in the iron ranger box which is located near campsite #20.  Campsite #10 is surrounded by aspen trees that were bright yellow during our visit.  Most of the campsites were empty while we were here midweek in mid-October.  An evening rain storm made many campers leave as we were arriving, including a camper with a Scamp who left early fearing the Tioga Pass could get closed by snow.

After lunch, we drove around with the intention of checking out Lundy Lake, but the storm was fast approaching with fog and drizzle making hiking and taking pictures challenging.  So, instead, we headed down the canyon road to Mono Lake to check out the Tufas!  The Visitor’s Center was closed for the winter, but we briefly surveyed the gift shop which had a lot of books, t-shirts, and other souvenirs available for purchase.  After our store visit, we drove to the South Tufas, which are incredibly otherworldly rock like figures which naturally inhabit the shores and waters of Mono Lake (a must see).  Parking is either $3/person or free with an America the Beautiful Pass (which we displayed in our windshield).

Tufas are formed when calcium flows up from springs under the lake bottom and bonds to carbonates in the lake water, forming calcium carbonate (a type of limestone).  The calcium carbonate builds up on itself over time, gradually forming a tufa tower.  When the lake level drops, the exposed tufa stops growing.  A visit to the South Tufas is a fantastic way to explore the scenery and observe the magnificent and fascinating tufas.  There are paved paths and boardwalks which meander along the shore for at least a quarter of a mile.  There is free dispersed camping in the area near the lake, but the bookstore was unable to provide a detailed camping map.  Certain areas are off limits to camping, including the South Tufas and Navy Beach (where you can kayak), so further research is needed before planning a camping visit near the Tufas.  There are a lot of trails in the area including Panum Crater, so lots to do for a fun few days.  We hiked the rim of Panum Crater (entrance is one mile from the bumpy dirt road and driving speeds are less than 10 miles/hour). It was, however, worth the drive to see the stellar views of Mono Lake below.  The crater was formed by a volcano that blew its top, leaving a ring around a crater and a plug (volcano top) in the middle.

A cold rain storm swept through at night.  It was about 30 degrees around 7 a.m. in the Lundy Canyon Campground and our car was covered with slush.  By 11 am the sky had cleared, it had warmed up to 60F, and we travelled up the road to Lundy Lake and took the Lundy Canyon trail hike.  The road going up to the trail head was in disrepair with large holes and big deep puddles, so we parked right outside the Lundy Lake Resort (closed for the winter) and hiked up to the trailhead.  We spent a couple of hours walking the road and then up the trail to the third lake and back to our car.  The most scenic part of the hike was the lower part just above Lundy Lake Resort — there’s a pond and a fantastic view of a tall newly snow-capped mountain top.

On our last evening at Lundy Canyon Campground, the wind blew and we could only see white looking out our Scamp’s windows.  We enjoyed a good movie with our furnace keeping us toasty inside our Scamp.  The wind howled all night.  The campground and mountains were blanketed with snow the next morning.  The temperature was down to 19 degrees at 7 a.m.

We met a couple of ladies at the campground who encouraged us to drive 30 minutes further north to Bridgeport and walk the charming town with shops and especially the trading post (they had purchased some fine Navaho turquoise jewelry there which they were proudly wearing).  They also recommended taking a soak at the Travertine or Benton Hot Springs in that area as well.  We filed this information away for a future trip as we were just about to leave camp!  Next: Reservations at Convict Lake Campground were awaiting us!

Convict Lake Campground
Convict Lake is beautiful location with dramatic mountains surrounding a pristine lake.  The area has been featured in some commercials including Nature Valley and Delta Airlines as well as a number of movies including Star Trek: Insurrection (1998).

On the way up to Convict Lake, make sure to use the free RV dump station (if necessary).  This RV dump station is not labeled and easy to miss (we drove right by it on the way up to the campground).  The dump station is on the left just past the Convict Lake Resort (on the right side) and is notable for a number of orange metal posts.  There are two dump stations (side by side) along with a separate area for potable fresh water (threaded hose).

Convict Lake Campground has views of dramatic mountains which tower over the lake.  From the campground, it’s easy to walk to the lake and the Convict Lake Resort (which has a fine dining restaurant {$$$$} as well as a bar / lounge for simpler less expensive food).  A number of the campsites here are first come first served which can make the campground look fully booked when trying to reserve a site online even though there may be first come first served spots available.  We found that there were plenty of open campsites on the weekend and we selected campsite #7 ($37/night).  Campsite #7 has good space around it and spectacular views of the mountains (the lake is slightly above the campground, so it’s not visible).  There’s minimal to no cellphone service here (but free WiFi at the resort as well as an open sky for great Starlink).  There are water spigots within the campground as well as bathrooms.

We had a great salad and pizza dinner at the Convict Lake Resort next door (the bar/lounge section).  In the morning, we enjoyed taking the easy 2.5 mile hike around the lake (which took us about an hour).  Convict Lake is about fifteen minutes away from Mammoth Lakes; so, it’s easy to spend time doing other fun things in Mammoth Lakes if one has extra time or wants to try some different eateries, ride bikes and/or do some shopping (see our June trip report for more information on Mammoth Lakes).

Since it’s a long drive back home from Convict Lake (about eight hours with stops), we decided to split the trip in half and spend the night at either Fossil Falls Campground (BLM, $6/night) or Red Rock Canyon State Park Campground.  We first tried Fossil Falls (which we have stayed at in the past) on a late Saturday afternoon, but it was full (there are only a limited number of campsites that suitably accommodate RVs – sites 4, 5, 6, & 8).  The dirt rocky roads at Fossil Falls were in much worse shape than when we previously visited, so we would no longer recommend a stay here. Instead, we continued on about an hour further south to Red Rock Canyon State Park campground.  It’s a beautiful desert campground with towering red rock cliffs.  Many of the campsites are at the base of the cliffs.  The campground was almost full when we arrive late Saturday afternoon, but we did find a nice pull-though spot (#24 / $25/night)!  More information on both of these campgrounds can be found on our previous trip report here.  We are really glad we broke up the trip home as it made the drive much easier.  We left Red Rock Canyon SP early on Sunday morning (5:30 a.m.) and were home for breakfast (9:30 a.m.) and with plenty of time to wash our Scamp 13′, Volvo XC40, and do our laundry!

This trip was remarkable in many ways.  There’s something special about travelling off season in the fall with crisp mountain air and beautiful fall colors.  We were very fortunate in that the leaf color change was peaking at most of the locations we chose.  The fall colors were so dramatic during our visit that it was inspiring.  And, experiencing a surprise snowstorm at night and waking up with snow covering the ground was awesome!  We also learned about new locations which we may explore next July when travelling to Lake Tahoe (these locations include Mono Lake dispersed camping, Bridgeport, the Travertine hot springs, and Bodie Ghost Town).  We expanded our communications options to include satellite (with our new Starlink Mini) and will never look back.  Each of the locations on this trip had very limited or no cellphone reception and we greatly appreciated the ability to connect when off grid for an hour two each day (including the additional safety having communications provides).  Lastly, getting up in the Sierra mountains brings a form of serenity which is hard to achieve anywhere else.  The remote location, natural beauty, and fresh air reinvigorate the soul. John Muir described this feeling well in his quote: “Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.  Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.  The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.”

 

Disclaimer:  You will get the same great Amazon price by clicking on the links here compared to buying directly on Amazon, but by buying here you will also be supporting the continuation of this website as we get a small commission from each sale.  These are products and procedures we use for our own Scamp that we selected and developed from our own research and experiences.  However, we do not endorse any specific product and cannot guarantee that the products we use are exemplary and the procedures we use are complete, accurate, detail the correct recommended procedures, or apply to your model small travel trailer.  It’s always best to double check with your manufacturer or operation manuals to ensure you are doing everything

Oregon Coast Adventure September 5th- 25th 2024 (20 nights)

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Oregon Coast Adventure September 5th- 25th 2024 (20 nights)
The fall is usually when we take our biggest trip of the year.  The weather is generally optimal and places normally aren’t as crowded as during the summer.  This year our plan was to explore Oregon’s coastline.  We had made it up to Coos Bay in the past, but wanted to go further north.  So, we decided to head to Portland and then cut over to the coast via Astoria.  We joined Harvet Hosts again (annual membership was $79 on sale) so we could stay at some winery’s along with way.  Our first stop in Oregon was supposed to be a winery in Jacksonville, but the weather didn’t cooperate (98F degree temperatures were forecast for the two days we planned to be there).  So, instead, after stops in Santa Barbara and Oakland (it’s a long way to Oregon from San Diego), we detoured to the coast and stayed at Sue-meg State Park in Trinidad, California.  This turned out to be one of our all-time favorite campgrounds!

Sue-meg State Park (Sept. 8th – 10th)
The drive from Oakland was a long one.  It took us about eight hours with a couple of stops (including a farm honey purchase in Hopland, California) to arrive at the campground.  Sue-meg State Park is about one hundred miles south from the Oregon border.  It was foggy and around 60 degrees at the campground when we arrived in the late afternoon — perfect weather for hiking.  We had campsite #120 ($35/night + $8 reservation fee) at Agate Campround (there are other campgrounds as well within this large park), a lush and very private site.  The sites at the campground are very spaced out and there are water spigots throughout the campground.  Verizon coverage was fair but useable, even to text images and make phone calls.  There’s a free rv dump station one highway exit south at the Northbound Trinidad Rest Stop.

The first thing we did after a late lunch was head down to Agate beach for some treasure hunting.  Agates are semi-precious stones and part of the quartz family.  The stone is known for its striking translucence and colors.  It’s popular in jewelry and has a smooth polished surface.  Agate has been used in jewelry since ancient times.  The name “achates” comes from the river in Sicily where agate was discovered.  The agate is often formed when silica-rich fluids are sealed within volcanic rock and evaporate.

Agate beach is very long and wide.  There were only a few people on the entire beach when we descended the steep trail and stairs and stepped onto the sand.  The sunset was just breaking through, low over the ocean, when we started our search for agates.  We had watched a number of Youtube videos on agate hunting before our trip, so we had an idea of what to look for — translucent looking stones.  We brought our little bright flashlight with us (a phone flashlight may also be used for this) to verify the rocks we picked up were translucent (by placing the light behind the rock — light should be visible from the front of the stone).  We were amazed how many agates we were able to find — we filled up a couple of zip lock bags of them.  The stones are beautiful and come in different colors (white, amber, green ….).  The white ones are very easy to spot on the sand because they are so brilliant white.  The stones we found varied in size from one half inch to over 4 inches long.

In addition to agate hunting, Sue-meg SP has a lot more to offer.  There are miles of hiking trails through lush spruce forests and a lot of wildlife to see.  We climbed up to the elegant Ceremonial Rock to get a beautiful view of the bay and hiked along the Rim Trail.  There are a number of ocean overlook areas along the trail, including Patrick’s Point, Rocky Point, and Palmer’s Point.  If you are lucky, you might see whales and/or orcas swimming at Palmer’s Point.  There’s also a steep trail that goes down to Cannonball Beach where there are tide pools at low tide.  We saw a lot of wildlife, including a deer just a few feet away from us, squirrels, sea lions and harbor seals, and at night…bats flying.  We were warned by the ranger that bears had been seen within the campground, but we didn’t see one.  It seemed like we just scratched the surface of things to do and see here even after a couple of nights.  But, with a full schedule, we had to move on.  On the way to our next stop, we were treated to a sighting of a large heard of Roosevelt Elk crossing the highway near Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.

Cottage Grove, Oregon (Sept. 10th – 11th)
Our first stop within Oregon was at Baker Bay Campground at Dorena Lake (just outside Cottage Grove).  We had campsite #8 ($33/night), a beautiful spot adjacent to the lake with expansive lake views.  There are threaded water spigots within the campground and we were able to fill our Scamp’s fresh water tank at our site by using three zero-G rv and marine hoses attached together (25+50+50 feet hoses).  The dump station was closed for repairs during our visit, but there are waste water drains in which grey water can be dumped.  We used our grey water jugs and dolly to offload all the grey water after our visit.  There is no Verizon mobile phone service here, but there is coverage within a short drive to the historic town of Cottage Grove.  There are a number of leisurely walks within the campground.  Wild sweet blackberries are a delightful sweet treat when walking near the lake — just watch for the thorns when picking them.  And, if you bring your bikes, there is a 36 mile, mild to moderately skill level, paved bike path a few miles down the road which runs along the lake and past the historic covered bridges and into the Cottage Grove downtown area.

Sometimes called the “Covered Bridge Capital of the West”, Cottage Grove is a small quaint town with six covered bridges.  Some of the bridges were built in the early 1900’s to carry rail traffic hauling logs across the the Willamette River.  There’s also the “Swinging Bridge”, a historic suspension footbridge right in town.  We had fun walking its length and swinging up and down as we crossed.  The historic downtown area is small but charming with its shops and eateries.  We found the ice cream tasty and the townspeople very friendly and welcoming to tourists.

Portland Area (September 11th – 13th)
We couldn’t find any public campgrounds within the city of Portland and many of the private ones had reviews indicating crime is a potential issue.  So, we decided to stay just outside the city at two wineries (Harvest Hosts).  The first one we stayed at is a beautiful farm called Helvetia Winery in Hillsboro, Oregon.  We were able to park our Scamp 13′ out on a field in front of the owner’s home.  The owner, John, is very personable and gave us a detailed tour of his winery and offered wine tastings ($40 per person).  John gave us a background on the wine making process as well as a walk through his fields and look inside the wine room where the wine is made.  We also enjoyed playing with his labrador, Buddy (Chief Security Officer, vineyard dog).  After spending the night, we had a great breakfast at the recommended Longbottom Cafe and then moved onto the next day’s Harvest Host winery, Columbia Gorge Vitners.

To arrive at the Columbia Gorge Vitners we drove to the opposite side of the Columbia River, into Washington state.  This farm property, owned by Ray and Cheryl, is also very scenic and expansive.  We had a lot of fun walking through the vineyards and getting to know the farm’s horses, steer, sheep and guard dog.  There are rows and rows of apples here and we were given free reign to eat the sweet varieties.  In the afternoon we strolled through the wealthy town of Camas, Washington know for its competitive schools and expensive real estate.  We had a tasty dinner close by at the Washougal Times restaurant (excellent fish & chips and burgers).

Back at the farm, we got to know their very friendly Great Pyrenees guard dog, Whitey, quite well. He alone guards the animals and acres and acres of land all night long.  He’s two years old and since he’s been on patrol there have been no further bear, mountain lion, bobcat, or coyote sightings.  The last time a bear visited the farm, the apiary was completely robbed of its honey.  Now, the animals and the people can rest soundly at night knowing Whitey is on patrol as they sleep.

Astoria (September 13th – 15th)
Driving west about two and a half hours, we reached Astoria, where the mouth of the Columbia River meets the ocean.  A charming coastal community with stately Victorian homes, Astoria is the oldest American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains.  Its streets are saturated with themes of the Lewis & Clark expedition and all things “coastal military” (coast guards, Columbia River bar pilots, and old forts).  Established in 1810 as a fur trading post, it was once the salmon canning capital of the world.  Its Astoria-Megler Bridge is the longest three-truss bridge in the world.  Many movie fans will know the area as a filming location for the movie “The Goonies“.

We stayed at Fort Stevens State Park campground in nearby Hammond, Oregon.  Located at the mouth of the Columbia River where it joins the sea, Fort Stevens is the only military installation in the continental U.S. to be fired upon by a foreign power since the War of 1812.  At around 11:30 P.M. on the night of June 21, 1942 (during WWII), a long range Japanese I-25 submarine surfaced just south of Fort Stevens and began firing shells in the direction of the fort.  U.S. fort soldiers located the submarine by its gun flashes, but were told to hold fire.  No reason has been given why the hold order was given.  It might have been that the fort commander didn’t want to reveal the fort’s position.  The sub fired nine shells over approximately sixteen minutes before submerging and retreating beneath the waves.  Fortunately, none of the shells caused any damage.

Walking through the old fort and above its batteries built into the hillside is a glimpse back in time.  Some of the big guns still remain and at least one is still trained vigilantly out onto the bay.  Standing high above the batteries, facing the water, one doesn’t even have to close their eyes to imagine scenes of the surprise Japanese naval attack on the fort during WWII.  Each of Battery Russell’s two 10-inch rifles was manned by a team of 35 men.  A well-trained gun crew could fire a 617-pound shell up to 8 miles away, once per minute.

Fort Stevens State Park campground is very large.  There are multiple loops of campsites with 174 full hookup sites ($47/night), 302 electrical/water sites, 6 tents sites and 15 yurts.  We had campsite H15.  As a corner site, it provided us partial shade and full hookups as well as a bit more spacing between campsites than other choices.  The campground appeared full when we visited in September, but was still quiet throughout the day and night.  There is only marginal Verizon mobile service here.  A coin operated laundry is located right outside the park but we were advised by a park volunteer to drive about ten minutes to Marlin Avenue Coin Laundry in adjacent Warrenton, Oregon (he told us the one near the campground has a reputation for having sand in their machines due to its proximity to the beach).  There is a great paved, level bike trail network within the park that allows riders to travel from the campground to the Battery and other areas within the park.

Some of the highlights of our trip to Astoria included a visit to the historic Fort Stevens Battery, viewing the Peter Iredale (British) shipwreck from 1906 at the beach, walking around Coffenbury Lake where we saw big elk, exploring downtown Astoria by foot, and especially taking the Astoria Riverfront Trolley ($1 per ride or $2 for all day).  The trolley is a 3-mile heritage streetcar line that follows a former freight railroad track along the Columbia River.  The trolley does not have any overhead lines, so it uses a portable diesel generator (in front) to supply the electricity to move it.  Parallel to the trolley, the Astoria Riverfront Walk (4-mile paved trail from the Port of Astoria to Pier 39) is a long path which follows the river and makes for a scenic walk, run or bike ride.

Cannon Beach (September 15th – 16th)
After a quick drive from Astoria to Cannon Beach (less than an hour), we arrived at the Cannon Beach RV Resort.  It’s a private resort with amenities like a swimming pool and spa, gas station (full service only), basketball court, playground, pet area, and EV chargers.  The reason we chose this campground is that it is located within a fifteen minute walk to downtown and the famous Haystack Rock on the beach.  Check in is a fairly strict 2 p.m. (we arrive at 1:40 p.m. and they let us in but commented on our early arrival time).  We had site #13 ($86/night) which is on a curve in the road and has a little more space between spots than other locations.  Elk can often be seen wandering just outside the campground.

We walked into town from the campground (about 15 minutes) and explored some of the well-groomed shops and galleries along the main street, Hemlock Street.  There are many restaurants as well in the downtown area.  The area has an upscale beachy Del Mar / La Jolla vibe with an approximate 6 block city center and high end homes along the water (mostly beach rentals now).  After a quick tour of the downtown, we walked onto the beach toward Haystack Rock.  Similar in appearance to Morro Rock in Morro Bay, Haystack Rock juts high up out of the water.  You can practically walk right up to it during low tide, however, the rock is an environmental preserve and is roped off to protect the birds and animals.  There are also tide pools near the rock which can be observed for sea life at low tide.  Haystack Rock is one of Oregon’s famous landmarks and has been featured in many movies.  Tufted puffins can be seen on Haystack Rock from early spring to mid-summer offering the most accessible viewing of these puffins in the Northwest.  Many other varieties of birds can also be seen on Haystack Rock.  Like Morro Rock, Haystack Rock was formed millions of years ago from volcanic activity.

We visited Ecola State Park on our last day in Cannon Beach.  It’s a beautiful coastal park along 9 miles of coastline.  There are a couple of main parking areas which allow for hiking through forests of Sitka spruce and hemlocks sprinkled with breathtaking views of the Oregon coastline.  Terrible Tilly, the lighthouse just offshore, can also be seen from the park.  Lighthouse workers named the Tillamook lighthouse “Terrible Tilly” because the trip out was so difficult due to the unusually rough seas.  Many movies were filmed in Ecola Park, including “Kindergarten Cop“, “Twilight“, “The Goonies” and “Point Break“.  Indian Beach stood in for Bells Beach, Australia, in the story finale of “Point Break” , where Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swaze had their final showdown.

Cape Lookout State Park (September 16th – 18th)
Just an hour south of Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast, Cape Lookout State Park is just west of the town of Tillamook (yes, the cheese and ice cream giant).  The Tillamook factory is the main tourist draw in this town of Tillamook, Oregon.  Tillamook Creamery invites visitors to tour its cheese plant operation and purchase food and items from its gift shop.  There are paid as well as free self-guided tours available.  We took the self-guided tour with the highlight being the view from above the cheese factory floor.  Visitors can look down over the cheese factory workers though big windows on the second floor.  We were told there is no tour of the inside of the ice cream factory which is located in a building next door.  The Creamery can get very crowded with tourists, so if you want to visit then plan to arrive right when it opens and preferably on a weekday (it opened at 10 a.m. when we visited in September).

The town of Tillamook, however, also is home to the Blue Heron French Cheese Company.  The Blue Heron produces French brie cheese on its large farm.  The 1930’s Dutch colonial barn now houses the deli and gift shop.  There’s also a wonderful petting zoo on the farm with a miniature donkey, sheep, a cow, and other farm animals.  Guests can purchase food to feed the animals for $1.  The gift shop has a lot of great items produced in Oregon at reasonable prices (e.g. honey, preserves, toffee, brie, hot chocolate mix, t-shirts, ….).  There’s also a deli which, among other items, serves hot brie sandwiches (featuring their French brie cheese) and also has wine tastings.  Lastly, there is a field set aside for Harvest Host members to stay overnight for free in their RVs.  We didn’t stay here because we prefer to stay in state parks whenever possible.  We found the Blue Heron French Cheese Company to be the highlight on our visit to the town of Tillamook.

Cape Lookout State Park is about twenty five minutes outside the town of Tillamook, located on a sand spit between Netarts Bay and the ocean.  The campground is right behind a big sand dune, which separates the beach from the campground (no ocean views from campsites).  There are 38 full hook-up sites, 170 tent sites with water nearby, one electrical site with water, 13 yurts, six deluxe cabins, a group tent camping area, a hiker/biker camp, flush toilets and hot showers, and an central RV dump station.  We had tent site C1 ($28/night), which is an end campsite and is spacious with it’s own backyard and picnic table.  We used our three hose system to transport water from the closest spigot (two campsites away) all the way to our Scamp 13′ (to refill our fresh tank and fill our auxiliary water jugs).  The Verizon service here was very good.

Cape Lookout State Park is remote and only the campground can be found in this area (no stores or gas stations).  The beach, a few steps away, is a beautiful stretch for long-distance walking, as it goes on for miles.  There are also some long distance hiking trails that leave from the campground into the forest (including one that goes along Netarts Bay).  The signature hike is the Cape Trail (it can be reached from the campground, but it’s a long hike just getting to the trailhead).  Instead, drive to the Cape Trail parking lot a few miles away.  The Cape Trail itself is around five miles round trip from the parking lot and is rated as easy to moderate.  The 5-mile round-trip Cape Trail features views of the ocean and shore peeking through Sitka spruce and hemlocks on the way to the tip of Cape Lookout.  We found the first part of the trail to be mostly flat and easy, but the second half is riddled with large tree root obstacles and bogs of mud.  One has to be very careful in these sections not to slip or trip.  There are also a couple of sections of trail which are along sheer cliffs hundreds of feet over the ocean on one side (which are not roped off).  This hike took us about 2.5 hours, but allow three hours to be conservative and time for photos.  Walking miles on the beach along the Netarts Spit every morning was very relaxing and meditative.

A big storm came in on our last evening with strong wind and rain, but was gone by the morning.  We left Cape Lookout State Park heading south and in the direction of our next destination, Newport (about 1.5 hours south).

Newport, Oregon / South Beach State Park (September 18th – 20th)
Newport has a lot going on, with an old historic district featuring many fishing town shops and restaurants and even a first class aquarium.  Before arriving, we made sure to stop at Depoe Bay and the Yaquina Head lighthouse, both must-see attractions.  Depoe Bay is a small seaside town known for having the world’s smallest harbor as well as whale watching.  The downtown consists mostly of a street facing the ocean sprinkled with tourists shops and restaurants.  The draw for visitors are frequent sightings of whales that pass close by the coast here as well as a blow hole right along the main street.  We found a small city parking lot a few blocks back from the front street where we could park our Scamp 13′ for free.  We didn’t see any whales during our visit, but we did enjoy watching waves breaking into the rock channel forming the blow hole and shooting water straight up into the air!

After a short visit at Depoe Bay, we continued onto Yaquina Head Lighthouse.  The parking here is free with the America the Beautiful pass (otherwise it’s $7/vehicle).  There’s a informative visitor center which has some nice photos and historic information about Oregon’s tallest lighthouse as well as a short movie.  After learning about the lighthouse, we walked the quarter mile paved path down to the lighthouse.  There are currently tours of inside the first floor of the lighthouse, but the rest of the lighthouse, we were told, would be on tour after renovations.  We were able to see multiple whales swimming by from the fantastic views in front of the lighthouse!  There are also tidepools at a cobble beach below (if the tide is low — check tide table for planning your visit).

We stayed at South Beach State Park campground in Newport, Oregon.  This is a small city with a rich fishing history.  Accordingly, the Newport marina filled is filled with impressive large fishing vessels.  The campground is just a few miles south of historic downtown Newport, over the Yaquina Bay Bridge.  It’s located in a quiet isolated area surrounded by forests and the sea.  The campground is huge, with 227 elecrical sites with water, 60 tents sites, 27 yurts, and three group tent camps.  We had campsite D1, $44/night (electric & water), which is a good spacious and fairly private site.  Despite the campground’s size, we found it to be quiet at night (other than sometimes hearing the fog horn and sea lions).  The internet was great on Verizon’s network, with speeds able to stream movies.  There is a network of paved paths for bikes, and dirt trails for hikes, that run throughout the campground to the beach as well as all the way to the South Jetty (a large channel that boats traverse through when going from the marina out to sea).

We only spent a couple of nights here, but could easily have stayed a week.  There’s just so much to do and fun to be had.  We took walks to the South Jetty and road our bikes from the campground to the Oregon Coast Aquarium.  The aquarium is great and the highlights for us included seeing the Tufted Puffins, sea otters, sea lions, walking through the clear underwater tubes and observing sharks, rays, and other fascinating sea life swimming around us, and meeting Percy the Giant Pacific Octopus.  There’s also a hands on tidepool exhibit where one can touch star fish, sea anemones, and other tidepool creatures.

After a fantastic visit to the Oregon Coast Aquarium we had an excellent lunch at Clearwater restaurant (halibut fish chips, crab cakes, and chowder).  The restaurant is right in the historic downtown area and directly above the dock where the male sea lions like to hang out (from late August until June).  Watching these animals is hilarious — they are very loud and vocal and fight for spots on the dock.  Seeing these large animals up close is a special treat.  Don’t forget to visit Local Scoop if you still have room for ice-cream (it’s the locals’ favorite)!  When visiting the Welcome Center at the campground, the host volunteer triggered us by showing us her polished (rock tumbled for 30 days) agates she collected while treasure hunting on the beach.  After seeing her rocks, we had to try for ourselves.  She pointed us to Seal Rock (small parking spots at Quail Drive) and wished us luck.  Although not as fruitful a beach as Agate Beach was for us in California, we still managed to find some unique beauties!

We headed to the central RV dump on our way out of South Beach State Park campground at around 1 p.m. (check out time), only to find a long line of RVs (perhaps 10) waiting to dump (only one dump station for hundreds of campsites!!!).  We estimated the wait to dump would be over an hour!  Never before had we ever encountered such a thing … Since our next stop, Cape Perpetua, has no amenities, we knew it would be best to dump after spending a couple of days here.  We made some calls and found that there is a city RV dump station just a couple of miles away in Newport (and were told it is open 24/7 and free).  We left our place in line and arrived at the well-appointed city RV dump in Newport (run by their Chamber of Commerce) just minutes later with no one around!  We dumped quickly and left!

Cape Perpetua Scenic Area (September 20th – 22nd)
Cape Perpetua is perhaps one of the most scenic areas on the central Oregon coast.  This is where the forests meet the sea with large rock formations right off the coast.  Additionally, volcanic activity in the area has created unusual natural rock formations right at the shoreline which produce unique water features (e.g. Thor’s Well, Spouting Horn, and Devil’s Churn).

We spent a couple of nights at Cape Perpetua Campground (run by the National Forest Service).  It’s a small campground in a valley across Highway 101 and the ocean.  We stayed in campsite #37 ($38/night), the farthest site on the end (almost a mile from the entrance).  It’s a pull-in site and close to the group camping area (there’s also a site across from #37 as well).  There were lots of wild fresh blackberries to pick right at our campsite which we enjoyed with our morning granola!  There are water spigots here, but no RV dump station or electrical hookups.  There’s no internet at the campground, but free Wi-Fi at the Cape Perpetua Visitor’s Center.  We also were able to get Verizon internet a little way up the St. Perpetua Trail.  We arrived fully prepared, with completely empty grey and black tanks and a full fresh tank (along with two 6-gallon jugs of fresh water).  The campground is long and narrow in a valley and it tends to be dark as it is in a forest of tall trees.  Because it’s so dark at night in the campground and we had a pull-in campsite right off the campground road, we decided to set our LED underlighting to a “Warning Orange” color and left them on all night so anyone driving by would easily see our Scamp 13′.

Spending a couple of days here seems like the perfect amount of time for a visit to the area.  We hiked to the top of the St. Perpetua Trail (about 2.2 miles round trip / moderately difficult) and enjoyed the amazing views at the top.  We also walked around the coastal town of Yachats a few miles away.  The ocean’s awesome natural water features are another close by attraction to see (note — the America the Beautiful Pass is accepted at these scenic viewpoint parking lots in place of paying the day use fees).  Thor’s Well and Spouting Horn are right next to each other.  There are great views of these eroded natural fissures from viewing platforms above.  However, some people walk down onto the rocks which can be risky (large waves can come in without notice).  Thor’s Well is a large carved out section of rock where waves rush in and create a choatic basin of water smashing into rocks.  Spouting Horn is an ocean geyser where waves crash into the rocks which have a fissure carved out allowing the water to accelerate and then blow up through a hole in the top.  And, Devil’s Churn is a narrow chute carved out of the rock which allows waves to funnel up the shoot and crash into each other, creating a massive churning of white water.  All the of these effects are best observed at high tide.  In case you don’t have a tide chart, the Cape Perpetua campground host writes the time of high tide on the board near the host site each day.

We found Cape Perpetua very welcoming and beautiful.  We enjoyed many hikes in the area (including a free guided Ranger tour on Giant Spruce Trail, with a view of a 550 year old Spruce tree) as well as the natural ocean sights described above, just a few minutes drive from the campground.  Being in nature (with no cell coverage in the campground) was very calming and centering.  And, as a bonus, as we were leaving the area the next morning, we were treated to a free sunrise view of the Heceta Lighthouse at one of the view points going south on Highway 101.

Grants Pass (September 22nd – 23rd)
We chose Griffin Park Campground on the Rogue River in Grants Pass as just an overnight rest stop on our way back into California.  However, it turned into an adventure in its own right.  After a four hour drive from the coast to Grants Pass, we pulled into Josephine County Parks’ Griffin Park Campground.  It’s a very small campground with only 14 full hookup sites, 4 tent sites, and a yurt.  The campground is in a beautiful setting with a large grass field adjacent to the Rogue River (and all campsites have river views).  We set up our Scamp 13′ at campsite #6 (full hookup, $35/night).  It’s a pull through site that isn’t level and even with our Anderson leveler, we couldn’t quite get level side-to-side (although this didn’t really affect us).  There is good Verizon internet here.

After situating our Scamp 13′, we drove about fifteen minutes to the Rogue Creamery Dairy in Grants Pass (an organic farm).  It’s famous for its award winning cheeses.  We sampled their cheeses and took their free 2 p.m. tour (it’s short – we watched robots milking cows and observed cows in the barn eating).  After the tour, we ate a lunch on the farm, which consisted of their specialty (and only) item — grilled cheese sandwiches.  They are very good!  They also have a cheese counter with most of their cheeses available for sale.  We purchased their Caveman Blue Cheese.

Following the creamery, we headed to Grants Pass downtown area and took a stroll.  There are a lot of nice shops and restaurants in the historic district.  They have an iconic sign that says “It’s The Climate”, installed in 1920 as a slogan and tribute to its great weather.  If it’s warm and you feel like some Grants Pass ice cream, make sure to check out Udders Handcrafted Ice-cream for a fantastic selection of delicious flavors.

At the end of a fun day, we relaxed at the Griffin Park Campground and walked along the Rogue River.  We saw fast jet boats racing up the river and families playing in the park.  And, to top off our trip, when looking at the sand bar stones, we discovered a treasure trove of large agates!  What a fantastic way to end a wonderful three week adventure!  We had so many great experiences these past three weeks, that we can’t wait to plan our next trip!

 

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