Trips

Trips and Campgrounds.

Central and Northeastern Oregon

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Central and Northeastern Oregon
October 1st– 18th, 2021 (17 nights)

Fall is one of our favorite times of year for Scamp travel as campgrounds and small towns tend to quiet after the busy summer months.  As long as one doesn’t go too late into the fall, the weather can be very nice and the fall colors spectacular.  We had a great coastal trip to Oregon in Fall 2020, so this October we decided on central and northeastern Oregon.  We left earlier in October this time to minimize the chance for bad weather.  And, as a hedge against costly last minute cancellations due to weather or fire smoke (which is very common this time of year), we booked most of our stays through Boondockers Welcome and Harvest Hosts (no charge for stay overs other than annual membership and easy to cancel plans last minute).  Because we had a lot of one night stops on our previous Oregon trip, which at times became tiring, we made sure to schedule two night stay overs every few days to break up continuous travelling. In turn, this was our longest trip in our Scamp 13’ to date.

When going north, we have a couple of usual stops we like to make to see family.  The first is my cousin Jon’s house to see him and his family in Santa Barbara (about a 4-hour drive from our home in Carlsbad, California) followed by a stay with my sister and her family in Oakland (6-hour drive from Santa Barbara).  This trip was no different and we enjoyed seeing my cousin and his family briefly before heading up to Oakland the next day.   We had a nice fajitas lunch with my sister and her family and did some walking along the canals.  There was a very loud party behind our Scamp (parked in my sister’s driveway) at night, so we listened to white noise of water and animals in our earphones to block out the party and go to sleep.  The next morning we had time to hike in one of the many forests in Oakland before heading to our next stop, Lake Siskiyou.

We arrived at the private Lake Siskiyou Camp Resort on Lake Siskiyou at around 4 p.m. (after a 6-hour drive from Oakland).  This would be our last California stop before heading into Oregon.  Lake Siskiyou is near Mt. Shasta and is a beautiful lake with hiking, biking, fishing, and boating.  Although we usually stay at State campgrounds, there really wasn’t much else around and this private resort looked nice (although more expensive than State campgrounds).  We had a great campsite (REC2) with full hookups adjacent to the lake.  The campground wasn’t busy as their season was pretty much ending, although the weather was in the 80’s and they were still serving soft serve ice-cream in their general store when we arrived!  The highlight of our stay here was riding our bikes around the 7-mile Lake Siskiyou Trail Loop.  The lake and pines make a beautiful location to bike.  We had so much fun stopping and exploring on the ride that we lost track of time and had to rush to make the 11 a.m. checkout time to avoid getting charged for another day!  We set an all-time record in how fast we were able to get our Scamp set up to leave (less than 20 minutes)!  Since we left before lunch, we set up camp on the side of the road outside of the campground to eat (and even captured some drone images of Lake Siskiyou and Mt. Shasta!).

Our first stop into central Oregon was the town of La Pine (about a 3-hour drive north from Lake Siskiyou); the town is very close to Bend, Oregon and is in the valley of the Little Deschutes River.  The main road, the 97, which runs all the way to the top of Oregon, also runs north-south through the entire city.  We were fortunate to be able to stay at Red Oak Farms Alpacas, a Harvest Hosts location.  The farm is run by a husband and wife team and has a small number of Alpacas.  When we arrived, Ken showed us their alpaca fiber and explained the ways and economics of alpaca farming (the fiber currently sells for $4/ounce).  Ken’s wife, Nancy Lee, let us be amongst some of the alpacas and pet and walk a few.  Being at over 4,200 feet elevation, the weather was noticeably colder in La Pine, with morning temperatures around 30 degrees.  We parked our Scamp on one of their fields.  Fortunately, the Scamp’s furnace kept us warm all night.   After a quick overnight, we headed a bit north to Bend, Oregon (only a 30-minute drive away).

After a short drive from La Pine, we set our Scamp up in the driveway of a nice home in Bend, Oregon (a Boondocker’s Welcome location).  The hosts were away travelling but instructed us to park in their pull through driveway.  The weather was sunny and we set up our solar panels since we didn’t have any hookups here.  After lunch in our Scamp, we drove over to the Old Mill District close by and walked the Deschutes River Trail (while one of our bikes was being serviced at REI).  The area is very scenic and well developed with nice paths and parks along the water.  We also walked from the Old Mill District to Drake Park and then up to downtown Old Bend where there are plenty of fun shops and restaurants.   Bend has grown rapidly over recent years due to its attraction as a retirement destination and gateway for outdoor sports.

After spending the night in Bend, we continued north for 3 hours to the top of central Oregon and stopped at the Deschutes River State Recreation Area Campground.  The location is where the Columbia and Deschutes rivers join on the borders of Oregon and Washington State.  The site (A05) we stayed at has water and electric hookups.  Other than hiking and fishing, this location is pretty remote with not too much going on.  It was cold at night in the 20’s and the furnace came in handy again!  The deal breaker for us about this campground is that trains run all night long close by the campground and blow their loud train horns at all hours!  We did a long hike in the morning along the river and up on some of hill trails with scenic views over the entire area.  We saw another couple with a Scamp 16’ from Boulder, Colorado who we talked to a while, as well as seeing some other fiberglass trailers.  It’s the first time we’ve seen another Scamp in a campground.  After lunch, we were ready to move on.

Following the 84 Freeway east along the Columbia River and Oregon-Washington border, we made our way to Pendleton, Oregon (a small city best known for its major annual rodeo called The Pendleton Round Up).  We were headed to 5H Ranch, a 20 acre farm (Boondockers Welcome location) right outside the city.  The hosts offered us a great parking spot next to their blue barn with both water and electric hookups at no charge!  After setting up, we spent the afternoon walking around the farm and country roads.  The next morning, we set out and explored the small historic downtown of Pendleton.  The historic area has some nice Queen Anne Victorian homes built in the 1800s.  In addition, we learned about the Pendleton Underground – a vast network of tunnels that was once a hidden city underneath Pendleton built in the late 1800s by Chinese immigrants to provide safety from persecution.

We reached our main destination on this trip, Joseph, Oregon, a few hours after leaving Pendleton and spent four nights here.  Our campsite was at the Wallowa Lake State Park campground (site C55).  Wallowa Lake is a short drive from the quaint little town of Joseph and is in an area known as “The Little Switzerland” of Oregon.  Snowcapped tall mountains surround the lake, making it a uniquely picturesque destination.  Our campsite had full hookups, but since nights were forecasted to be below freezing, we didn’t hook up the fresh water hose (instead we relied on our interior fresh water tank).  We also poured RV antifreeze into our shower drain to protect the pump and left our hot water heater on at night.  Additionally, we kept our furnace set to 58 degrees each night so everything inside the Scamp (including ourselves) would stay warm.  In the morning, when getting ready for the day, we usually let the furnace pump hot air for a while to make the Scamp nice and toasty inside.  We took a pedal rail car tour on our first full day in Joseph at Joseph Branch Railriders!  The tour goes from Joseph to Enterprise and returns passing through farmland with stunning views of the mountains along the way.  The entire journey takes about 2 hours and is 11 miles round trip.  The pedal rail cars have electric pedal assist, so travelling back up hill to Joseph was an easy pedal (I even flew my drone and took pictures while we pedaled back!).  On the days following, we enjoyed hikes in the hills above the lake and walks through the campground and lakeside.  We did our laundry one morning at a coin-op in downtown Joseph and shopped along the tree lined streets until our clothes were washed and dried!  The tree leaves were mostly bright red as Fall had decisively set in up in this mountain town.  We even enjoyed some snow flurries a couple of the nights in our Scamp!  Joseph was our favorite stop on the trip because of its natural beauty and scenic town center.

To make up some time after the long stay in Joseph, we headed directly to Madras which took about six hours as we retraced our steps back along the 84 and then down through central Oregon on the 97.  Madras is a small city about an hour north of Bend and home to the Erickson Aircraft Collection, a privately owned collection of airworthy vintage aircraft.  This is a fantastic aviation museum located on the tarmac of the Madras municipal airport.  This airport used to be the home of a B17 bomber base during WWII.  We had the great fortune of being able to stay on the tarmac at this airfield and tour the museum (Harvest Hosts location)!  There are some notable WWII airplanes, including a B17, P38 Lightning and Corsair, among many others in the hangar – most of them kept in flying condition.  When we were there, the hangar was open and planes were being moved out onto the airfield so one plane could be taken out for flying.  The museum also has a great shop with some really awesome aviation related t-shirts.  There was only one other RV staying overnight so we each had plenty of space in the large lot adjacent to the runway.  After the sun set, air traffic stopped and it was very quiet all night.  We really enjoyed our stay at this historic stop.

The next day we drove only ten minutes to stay on a farm in Culver, Oregon (Boondockers Welcome location).  The area is extremely flat with wide open plains and mountains in the distance.  The owners of the 100-acre working potato farm put us up at the side of their barn and supplied us water and electricity at no charge.  We launched our drone and took some aerial images of the farm which we shared with our hosts (who later requested additional images).  In the wee hours of the next morning it became very cold inside the Scamp; the furnace had stopped because we ran out of propane in tank 1 (it was in the 20’s at night).  Fortunately, a quick flip of the propane tank selector and we were on tank 2 and getting warm air again!  An important point is to never travel on long trips in cold climates without two full propane tanks.  We enjoyed going for a walk in the fields the next morning with one of the owners, Karen, and her dog Zeke.  She told us about what life is like on the potato farm and gave us a tour of her home and garden.  Life on the farm sounds like a lot of hard work!

Our next stop was Train Mountain Railroad Museum in Chiloquin, Oregon (about a 3-hour drive south from Culver, between Crater Lake National Park to the north and Klamath Falls to the south).  This is the largest miniature railroad in the world!  The trains are small, but still can pull carts carrying people!  There are over four miles of tracks that weave through the surrounding pine covered hillsides.  The longest loop takes over four hours round trip!  On top of a fantastic location with a nice outdoor full scale train exhibit (you can go inside most of the trains on your own self-guided tour), Train Mountain has several great campgrounds.  We stayed at the free campground provided to Harvest Hosts members.  Although there are no hookups, we did find a water spigot.  We enjoyed the fun self-guided train tour the afternoon we arrived, the highlight being the mega beast radial snowplow train.  The next morning, we were lucky enough to be offered a free tour ride by a member volunteer.  We spent about half an hour on the train touring some of the park and hearing about how these little trains work and the hobbyists who run them.  This is a must stop for anyone with even a remote interest in trains!

After travelling over two weeks and a couple of thousand miles, this fantastic journey was finally coming to an end.  We made our way through Klamath Falls and then into California.  We could tell we entered California on our 4 ½ hour drive from Chiloquin, Oregon to our next stop in Corning, California when we noticed the price of gas jump over one dollar per gallon!  We stayed in the driveway of someone’s ranch home (Boondockers Welcome location) in the small city of Corning, a farming community with many olive tree farms (known as the Olive City, with an olive festival every Fall).  We had a nice walk down a flat farm road at sunset and a quiet overnight stay.  The next morning we continued to head south for three hours to Oakland and stayed over once again at my sister’s house.  This time we had a nice lunch at one of our favorite eateries, A+ Burger.  Now, with the 31st only a couple of weeks away, many homes in Alameda were spookified for Halloween.  We had a nice evening walk with my sister and nephew viewing some of these scary displays.  The next morning, we headed out early and arrived in Santa Barbara in the afternoon and set up once again in my cousin’s driveway.  We enjoyed vegan Chinese take-out that night with my cousin Jon.  We arrived home early the next day and washed our Scamp 13’ inside and out along with our tow vehicle to be fully prepped for our next upcoming adventure!

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 correctly. 

San Clemente State Beach Campground

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San Clemente State Beach Campground
September 12th– 14th, 2021 (2 nights)

Just an hour drive north from our home in Carlsbad, San Clemente SB Campground sits high on bluffs above the beach.  San Clemente is a small beach community (southernmost city in Orange County) which is located roughly halfway between San Diego and Los Angeles (just north of Camp Pendleton Marine Corps training base).

San Clemente State Beach Campground is very popular, especially in the summer months, but we found it quite easy to get reservations during the week (spots usually open up last minute).  The campground has full hookup along with dry camping sites.  We chose a dry camping site because these sites are more spaced apart (they are also less expensive and easier sites to reserve).  At the time we were there, the central Dump station was available for free.  However, staying just a couple of nights, we didn’t need it or even need to use our Holy Grail Portable Grey Water Tank Solution!  Our site, #122, had shade but also plenty of sunshine for our solar panels to keep our batteries fully charged each day.  There are spectacular ocean views from the hard to reserve sites closer to the edge of the bluffs, but also some smaller ocean views even from sites farther back (like our site).

When we drove into the campground, we noticed lots of white chalk type circles on the ground at each site (similar to a marked crime scene).  We later found out the purpose of these markings when our Scamp kitchen was invaded by ants the next morning!  The ranger told us that the entire campground is basically sitting atop a giant ant hill and they recommend campers purchase diatomaceous earth from the camp host ($10 a bag).  The white powder is supposed to be sprinkled around each tire and any other trailer part that touches the ground.  They said ants won’t cross the powder lines.  We found out the next morning after applying the powder that it doesn’t really work in the short run (as we had ants on the second morning) and witnessed them walking across the powder!

The beach is a short walk down a steep trail.  There is a small tunnel that leads under the railroad tracks onto the sand.  It’s a nice beach, but when the tide is high there isn’t much sand left between the water and the bluffs.  We saw a wave create a water surge that unexpectedly overran one sunbather and her blanket (forcing her to pick up all her belongings and move farther back to the bluff)!  We were seated much closer to the bluffs while flying our new kite, but took that as a warning as a time to head back to the campground!

There’s a really nice beach trail, the San Clemente Beach Trail, that runs parallel to the railroad tracks and goes about 2.3 miles from the campground all the way to the San Clemente Pier and beyond.  People walk, run, and bicycle on the trail while appreciating gorgeous ocean views along the way.  We did it early in the morning and it was very foggy.  We walked all the way out to the end of the San Clemente Pier and couldn’t even see land when we looked back!  There are a lot of nice restaurants and shops in town.  We ended up walking about 6 miles doing a loop from the campground along the San Clemente Beach Trail and then up Avenida Del Mar (past a lot of downtown stores and restaurants) and back via El Camino Real (which runs close to the 5 Freeway).

Another scenic trail is the Sea Summit Trail.  This trail is not too close to the campground, so it’s better to drive and park (we parked in a neighborhood adjacent to one of the trail openings, but there is also parking at the San Clemente Outlet Center).  The trails here are meticulously maintained and more like groomed walking paths than actual nature trails.  The paths are on top of the bluffs and provide stunning views of the ocean (and sunsets).  There are stairs that lead down to the beach.

Overall, we had a great time at San Clemente State Beach Campground.  The campground itself is very pleasant with the dry camping spots nicely spaced out.  There are fantastic views of the ocean and plenty of walking trails to enjoy.  Also, being so close to the sea, there are nice breezes that blow through the campground and keep things cool.  Be prepared for possible ants and remember that this campground is close to Camp Pendleton so it is common to hear booms from artillery units conducting training (we did hear booms until 10:30 p.m. while at the campground).  Spectacular sunsets can be enjoyed from the campground while looking out over the bluffs and watching the sun dip into the sea.  So, if you are in need of a little rest and relaxation and like the idea of being near the ocean and getting fresh air, reserve a spot at San Clemente State Beach Campground (just don’t forget to bring along your ant repellant!).  Itching to go back!

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 correctly. 

Central California  

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Central California  
August 22nd – August 29th, 2021 (7 nights)

This adventure was put together at the last minute after plans for our Mammoth Lakes trip were scrapped due to poor air quality (as a result of summer fires in California).  The locations were chosen based on towns showing good air quality on the AQI air quality map, the amount of time we had available for travel (7 days), and campsite availability.  We also had just purchased new bikes and a bike carrier for our Scamp 13’ and wanted to go places where we would be able to ride.

Santa Barbara
Whenever we head north, we make it a point to stay over a night in Santa Barbara (a 3 ½ hour drive from our home in San Diego).  Not only is it a fantastic location with great scenery and plenty to do, but our cousin Jon lives here and he lets us camp in his driveway!  This trip was a little different though.  When we arrived, we discovered a car in his driveway.  Jon’s son, Melvin, was in Italy and his car keys were nowhere to be found!  What to do with the Scamp?!!!  Fortunately, my cousin’s next door neighbor saw us and realized what had happened.  He generously offered to let us stay on his property (and even provided electric and water hookups)!  Phew!

On this trip, we visited the Old Santa Barbara Mission and walked around downtown Santa Barbara to eat lunch at our favorite Mexican food restaurant, Taco Pipeye.  We also rode our new bikes from my cousin’s house all the way down to the Goleta bike path, past the end of the runway of Santa Barbara airport, and toured UC Santa Barbara!  We also had a great dinner with my vegan cousin Jon and enjoyed his ocean view while we ate on his balcony.  Overall, we had a very enjoyable and busy 24 hours in Santa Barbara.

Pismo Beach
Just about an hour and a half north of Santa Barbara lies Pismo Beach.  Campsites in this beautiful beach town are very difficult to get.  However, we got lucky and two of the best possible sites at Pismo State Beach North Beach Campground just happened to show available when I was looking (likely last minute cancellations)!   In order to stay 3 nights though, we had to move from site #27 after the first night to site #29 for the remaining 2 nights.  Both of these sites are premium sites and right next to each other and directly in front of the beach.  The only downside with splitting the reservation is paying the reservation fee ($7.99) twice and being required to completely leave the campground between Noon to 2 p.m. the day the next reservation begins (for campsite maintenance).  “Rules are rules” is what we were told by one of the camp hosts!  So, we packed up after our first night and headed to a nearby horse lot where we ate lunch before returning to check in for our second campsite at 2 p.m.  On our way back to the campground, one of our tail lights on our Scamp 13’ blew out (our tow vehicle gave a warning on the dashboard showing short circuit).  Fortunately, there are two fully equipped RV supply stores right across the street from the campground and had the bulb we needed for less than 3 dollars a pair!

Pismo State Beach North Beach Campground is fantastic.  The campsites are very spread out and the beach is just over a little hill adjacent to the campground.  There are no hookups, but there are water spigots and a central dump ($10 at this time).  We had no problem staying 3 nights (even with the two of us taking a shower each night) by using our solar panel briefcase to recharge our batteries during the day and our “Holy Grail Portable Grey Water Tank Solution” to drain our Grey water tank after a couple of days.  The beach in front of the campground is very wide and beautiful with a glorious view north of the Pismo pier.  There are some nice walking paths that are on the perimeter of the campground.  One goes south above the beach toward Oceano.  Another leads into the Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove.  This site hosts over 10,000 butterflies annually.  The Monarch Butterflies flock to Pismo Beach from late October through February, seeking shelter from freezing northern winters.  The butterflies cluster in the limbs of the large Eucalyptus trees that tower over the grove.  Although we saw Monarch butterflies on this trip, we did not see even one at the Grove (not the right time of year)!

Walking over the sand dunes from the campground onto the beach and taking long walks is a favorite activity for many campers here.  We enjoyed walking the sand from the campground to the pier and strolling out to the end of the pier.  Exploring  the town of Pismo Beach is also entertaining. There are a lot of shops and restaurants and plenty to see.   For example, we enjoyed perusing the toys and kites at “The Sky’s The Limit” on Dolliver Street.

Bringing bikes to North Beach Campground is definitely recommended.  We had a blast riding our mountain bikes up the coast along streets, bike paths, and dirt trails.  We pedaled almost all the way to Avila Beach (stopping right before the steep drop into town) – about 8 ½ miles each way.  We used Google Maps for directions and selected “Walking” so we would be off the main roads whenever possible.  Every day, we enjoyed cool ocean breezes and sounds of the waves from inside our Scamp 13’ so much that it was hard to leave after just a few nights.  We met one nice couple in an Airstream that reserves a spot here every summer for 2 weeks at a time as an affordable family yearly gathering spot!

Solvang
After using the central Dump on our way out of the Pismo Beach North Beach Campground, we drove about an hour south and inland to the quaint Danish town of Solvang.  We stayed at a Boondockers Welcome location, a home just a couple of miles from the center of town.  Our host location was part of a parcel that was once a large farm.  We stayed in their large driveway and the hosts provided us electricity and water ($5/night).  Our hosts were very friendly and gave us fruits and vegetables from their farm as well as shared bicycling tips for good routes throughout this wine country.  The only noise we heard in the evenings was the loud chirping of crickets!

The days were hot (90 degrees) but the mornings and evenings cooled down considerably (high 50’s).  We rode bikes in the early morning and late afternoon and relaxed during the day to avoid the heat.  The quiet country back roads of the Santa Ynez Valley are magical and we cycled passed beautiful vineyards and farms.  If you are in this area, we recommend these neighborhood streets to bike on:  Calzada, Samantha, Robler, and Baseline, with the winery called Bridlewood being the caketopper highlight (on Baseline).  We also had a chance to explore the Danish town of Solvang with its Old Mission Santa Ines and Danish shops and bakeries.  After a couple of nights and days of exploring, we bid our generous hosts goodbye and headed toward the ocean again.

Oxnard
Our last stop before heading home was to see our friends Cheryl and Hugh.  They were scheduled, with us, to go to Mammoth Lakes / Silver Lake before that trip was cancelled.  Instead, they invited us to stay in their driveway at their home near the beach in Oxnard (about 1 ½ hours south of Solvang).  The temperature really dropped as we drove up and over the mountains down to the coast.  The searing heat was replaced with cool foggy air – a welcome relief from the hot temperatures of the Santa Ynez Valley.  Our Scamp 13’ easily fit at the side of our friends’ driveway along with our tow vehicle.  They even have a Dump port in their driveway which we used to dump our Grey water!  Oxnard is a beach community with a harbor with shops and restaurants.  Cheryl and Hugh live only a short walk from the sand.

Our friends Cheryl & Hugh are super generous and treated us like royalty.  They fed us a great lunch, took us on a tour of downtown Oxnard on their new golf cart (with the Beach Boys music cranking on the stereo), and later treated us to a fantastic seafood restaurant dinner!  And, Cheryl made her famous gluten free Lava Cake (dark chocolate cake with molten chocolate oozing everywhere) for dessert back at home (of course there was vanilla ice cream on the side)!  To top it all off, they even gifted us plates with images of camper trailers on them for our Scamp 13’!  We are always blown away by their hospitality.  We had a fantastic visit with Cheryl & Hugh.  And, we also thoroughly enjoyed playing with their Havanese dogs, Avatar & Gidget.  On our way out the next morning, Hugh made sure we took a couple of King Salmon filets that he caught on his recent trip to Alaska (which we ate a couple of days later and were delicious)!  We drove back to our home in San Diego (3 hour drive) early enough to get our Scamp cleaned up and ready for our next trip!

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 correctly. 

Lassen Volcanic National Park (with lots of fun stops)

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Lassen Volcanic National Park (with lots of fun stops)
July 3rd – July 14th, 2021 (11 nights)

This was one of those epic Northern California summer adventures with the highlight being a stay at an otherworldly campground high up in the mountains surround by volcanoes and set on a beautiful lake.  Throw in some underground lava tube exploration and geothermal boiling sulfur pools and this trip is a recipe for a lot of fun!  And, best of all, it’s only about four hours north of San Francisco, right here in the United States!

Whenever heading north, our first stop is usually Santa Barbara to visit my cousin Jon and family.  The ride from our home in San Diego is usually about 4 hours.  But, on this strip, since it was the start of 4th of July weekend and a Saturday morning, we decided to leave really early to beat traffic.  We left at 5:30 a.m. and arrived in Santa Barbara at 9 a.m. making record time (3.5 hours)!  It seems not many people are on the roads this early!  We had a great day with my cousin Melvin and even tried an excellent Mexican restaurant called Tacos Pipeye which serves fantastic tacos, mole chicken, and enchiladas, for a very reasonable price!  We missed my cousin Jon and his wife Ida on this stop as they were on a Tesla drive trip out to Santa Fe, New Mexico, but we would see them at the end of the trip on our final stopover.

We usually break up the drive from Santa Barbara to Oakland with a middle stop in between (following our rule of driving no more than 4 hours per day), but since we wanted to experience 4th of July at my sister’s home in Oakland this year, we did the trip straight with just short breaks for gas.    We arrived in Oakland at around 12:30 p.m. (after a 6 hour drive) and used wood boards to raise the rear of our tow vehicle so that our hitch cleared the driveway transition, allowing us to get our Scamp tucked away in the narrow side yard space between my sister’s home and the bordering neighbor’s fence.  Since it was expected to be a very rowdy 4th at night, we felt like it would be safer in the driveway than sleeping on the street.  And, East Oakland did not disappoint – the mostly illegal fireworks started even before sundown and exploded all night long!  People were out on the street right in front of my sister’s home exploding firecrackers and igniting other illegal fireworks, so we were glad we weren’t sleeping in our Scamp out there this trip. Thankfully, with our ear plugs, white noise app, and the Scamp’s insulation, we were able to sleep soundly!  We had a great time with our family in Oakland, including a nice walk on Alameda Island the next day.

We met our San Diego friends Alexis, Chris, and Ben at Anthony Chabot Campground on Sunday (only a 30 minute drive from my sister’s house).  They rented a camper van and we arranged to have two adjacent campsites (#11 and #12) at this really woodsy campground overlooking Lake Chabot in East Oakland.  Although the campground is very close to Oakland, it feels very remote (a 20 minute windy road entrance).  Many sites are full hookup and under tall trees.  There are nice trails for walking and bike riding, including some that go down to the lake.  There is no swimming in this lake due to algae.  We had fun with our friends, went on a hike down to the lake, and even had some s’mores by the fire!  The next morning I was surrounded by a big group (rafter) of wild turkeys while I was writing my travel log at the picnic table!  They didn’t mind my presence and were just intent on looking for food on the ground.

We left for Russian Gulch State Park the next morning, a campground along the Mendocino coast about four hours north of San Francisco.  On the way, we stopped at the picturesque town of Healdsburg (just north of Santa Rosa in Northern Sonoma County) and had lunch in our Scamp.  We spent a little time walking around the charming town center and window browsing the quaint shops.  When we arrived at Russian Gulch State Park later in the day, we found our site #17 in an empty meadow, as it turned out the surrounding sites in the same meadow were closed during our visit.  There are no hookups at this campground, but there are water spigots close to each site.  There are great hiking trails here and we hiked the North Trail and Water Fall Loop Trail in the morning (which took us 3 hours for the 8 mile hike).  The trail goes through redwoods and fern forests and features a small waterfall.  In the afternoon, we walked the less rigorous Headland’s Trail (along the bluffs with spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean) to view the Devil’s Punchbowl.  This is a 100-foot by 60-foot sinkhole basin created when a tunnel penetrating inland from the ocean collapsed.  When the tide is high, the sinkhole becomes an explosive cauldron of sea water.  Although our friends Alexis and her family couldn’t get a spot at Russian Gulch State Park, they did find accommodation at nearby Caspar Beach RV Park (just a few minutes’ drive from our campground).  We enjoyed s’mores and hot dogs (and steak) with them (in that order)!  They are great chefs and provide fun company!  The next day we explored the coast including walking the quaint seaside town of Mendocino village, where I purchased a “Been Squatchin” tshirt (Big Foot / Sasquatch is a local legend in this area).  We did not spot Sasquatch on this trip though.  Note:  we had no HD TV or cell phone service down at the Russian Gulch SP campsite.  Instead, just a short drive up the hill to the parking spots next to the Ranger entrance booth provided cellphone service.

After a couple nights and fun times at Russian Gulch State Park, we left for Lassen Volcanic National Park (a 5 ½ hour drive:  7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.).  I find if we leave early in the morning on long drives and still arrive early, then it doesn’t feel like we’ve spent the entire day driving.  There were a lot of curves and climbs driving from the coast, crossing the mountains, descending into the Central Valley (Redding), and then ascending again into the mountains to get to Lassen.  Lassen Volcanic National Park is at over 6,000 feet above sea level.  We stayed at Manzanita Lake campground which is right on a scenic lake with volcanoes in the background (including Lassen Peak).  The first thing we did on arrival was dump ($8 honor system) because we had just stayed at Russian Gulch State Park without any dump station there.  The dump station is right before getting to the entrance to the campground and was empty whenever we passed by.  The weather was warm (in the 80’s).  After we first arrived and had lunch, we went to a ranger talk close to the Loomis Museum (at the entrance to the park).  Our site (#A17) was completely shaded with very limited sunshine (which helped tame the heat).  This meant that we needed to move around our solar panels during the day to maximize our charging.  We left the solar panels out overnight and did not have any issues with them being disturbed (or getting wet since the air was very dry).  The spots are nicely spaced out, and although the campground was full, everyone seemed to have a good amount of room around their own campsite.  We had to drive up the road about a mile to Mile Marker #14 in order to get a cell signal (there is a turn out with usually a few cars parked making calls).

There is a little trail to the lake from the campground and a nice walking path that goes all the way around its circumference.  It takes about an hour to walk the full lake loop, which is a nice easy flat walk along the water.  People were swimming, kayaking, and fishing on the lake and everyone seemed to be having a great time.  We weren’t able to bring our inflatable kayak on this trip as our tow vehicle was full due to having to haul items up to Oakland for my sister.  Although it was warm during the day, the nights were cool (60’s) and sleeping in the Scamp was very comfortable.  We enjoyed watching movies at night (see article “How to Watch Movies in the Wild”).  Our “Holy Grail Portable Grey Water Tank Solution” saved us a lot of hassle and money during our three days at Lassen.  Instead of having to completely decamp in the middle of our trip and drive the Scamp over to the Dump and spend and then set up our Scamp again at the campsite, we stayed put by using our portable jugs and dumped them along with our regular Black and Grey water on our way out of the park!

One relaxing and really fun thing to do at Lassen is to drive the 30 mile Northern – Southern route to the other end of the park, stopping along the way at various mile markers which have different scenic activities (it’s about an hour without stops each way, so allow at least several hours and take your time).  It’s recommended to download the NPS (National Park Service) app at the Google Play store for free before you go and also download Lassen Volcanic National Park from within the NPS app into your phone so you won’t need an internet connection to access all the park information.  It’s also a good idea to download audio files you can play on your phone about the park here.

There is a reasonably priced gas pump at the campground store (Regular Unleaded only), so it’s best to fuel up before taking the Northern – Southern route drive since there are no other gas stations anywhere close by.  Along the way you can see Choas Crags (an area with volcanoes and rocks covering the ground due to a volcanic eruption 1100 years ago), the Sulphur Works (hydrothermal pit of bubbling stinky mud), various lakes, great views, …..  We spent a little time at the visitors center at the South side of the park relaxing before heading back (there are refreshments and food for sale inside the center).  Another fun activity which doesn’t take too long is to drive to Subway Cave Lava Tubes (just about 20 minutes outside the campground).  It was 102 degrees when we arrived at this lava tube but, after walking down the stairs into the cave, we experienced very cool temperatures (the temperature inside the cave remains a constant 46 degrees year round!).  The night before leaving for our next campground, we hiked around Manzanita Lake under no moon to take some Milky Way images!  It was pitch dark and we wore headlamps.  We saw deer and some other night creatures along the lake trail!  We were rewarded by a stunning Milky Way which rose above Lassen Peak and Manzanita Lake at around 10 p.m.!  We dumped (including 3 Grey containers) before leaving early in the morning for Oakland.

After a four hour drive to Oakland, we reached my sister’s house around lunch time.  We decided to set up the Scamp in the driveway again since it worked out so well on the 4th of July.  After lunch we took a long walk along Alameda Island beach (watching some kite surfers) and then had A+ Burgers for dinner at my cousin Rebecca’s house in Oakland.  We also played some card games and Qwirkle with our family before leaving for Washburn Campground in San Simeon the next morning.

Washburn Campground is about a four hour drive from Oakland and is located in the San Simeon / Cambria area on the coast.  It is a “primitive” campground (only $20/night + $8 reservation fee), although there are water spigots here.  For us, since our Scamp has a bathroom and we have solar panels, the type of campground really doesn’t matter too much if we are only staying two to three days.  In any case, we filled up our Fresh tank at my sister’s house in Oakland before we left.  We had site #W264 which had plenty of sun for our solar panels!  The sites are well separated and the area did not seem crowded.  The campground is high up on a hill with a nice view of the mountains and ocean below.  We walked down to the beach from our campsite along the road and it’s only about a mile each way.  There are also trails but signs warned of ticks with Lyme disease and recent mountain lion sightings so we stayed on the road.  The campground area was overrun with “cute” ground squirrels and they were not very shy.  Some even jumped up into the undercarriage of parked tow vehicles (not sure what they were doing under there).  We made sure to keep our Scamp door shut so as not to discover any unwanted guests inside.  Our San Diego friends were camping in the adjacent campsite (San Simeon Creek Campground) and we met them there in the evening for some excellent chicken burritos and salad!  Washburn Campground / San Simeon Creek Campground has a Dump Station at the entrance and the charge is $10.  Since our Grey tank was only 50% when leaving and we only had one more night left on our trip (and we also had our Holy Grey solution just in case), we skipped it and saved the money.

Our final drive before heading home to San Diego was back to my cousin Jon and Melvin’s house in Santa Barbara.  After the three hour drive, we decided to go to Tacos Pipeye again with our cousin Melvin since we enjoyed it so much at the start of our trip!  Once again, it did not disappoint!  We also had a nice walk through downtown Santa Barbara before and after lunch.  My vegan cousin Jon and his wife Ida were back from Santa Fe and treated us to a wonderful homemade dinner (risotto and Beyond Meat burgers) that night.  And, we also got to see our cousin Carolina.  The next morning we drove back to our home in San Diego (4 hour drive) and arrived early enough to get our Scamp cleaned up and ready for our next trip!

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 correctly. 

Yosemite National Park

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Yosemite National Park
May 10th – May 16th, 2021 (6 nights)

Yosemite is a must see National Park mainly because of its abundance of scenic beauty.  Waterfalls, huge granite sheer mountain walls, wildlife, and a beautiful valley with meadows and countless hiking and biking trails add to the immense wonder of the park.  If you can reserve a spot at one of the campgrounds in Yosemite, consider yourself very lucky as these spots are extremely difficult to get.  For tips on getting a spot, see my previous article “Winning Yosemite’s Campground Reservations Online Lottery”.

The drive from Carlsbad, California to Upper Falls Campground in Yosemite takes between 7 and 8 hours.  To make the drive easier, we decided to stop midway both on the drive up and way back home.  We stayed at two Boondockers Welcome locations, so the overnight stays didn’t cost us anything (other than the $50 annual subscription fee).  We stayed in the driveway of a nice home in Visalia going to Yosemite and at a miniature donkey farm in Bakersfield on the way home (this was our 2nd visit!).  Using this subscription is a great way to make trips easier and get some interesting experiences!

Yosemite has several campgrounds and we chose to stay at Upper Pines.  This is a fantastic campground nestled within the pines and having a sheer granite wall towering high overhead.  There are 240 campsites at Upper Pines and each has a picnic table, food locker and fire pit.  Although there are no hookups, there are bathrooms and access to drinking water from central spigots.  There is also a Dump Station at the entrance to Upper Pines campground.  We found the Dump Station to be completely empty throughout the day.  It gets busier around midday when people are checking in.  Although the campground has a lot of shade, there was enough sunlight at our site #126 to keep our solar panels out and charging our Scamp battery.  Site #126 was rated for a travel trailer with maximum length of 12 feet.  It is the responsibility of the camper to ensure that both the travel trailer and tow vehicle fit on the campsite pad and do not stick out onto the roadway.  With our Scamp 13’ and our Volvo XC40 (around 14’) we were still able to just fit by angling our tow vehicle slightly to keep the nose off the road.  A longer tow vehicle or trailer might have a problem in this short campsite.  So, it’s important to read the campsite description before reserving to make sure your setup will fit!

We made sure to use the Dump Station on entry to Upper Pines campground (which also includes a fresh water filling area) so our Scamp 13’ was completely dumped as well as filled with fresh water.  Fortunately, we carried our Holy Grail Portable Grey Water Tank Solution with us so we did not need to move our Scamp 13’ the entire 4 days at the campground!  On the morning of the 3rd day, I filled our 4 five gallon grey water tank jugs and drove them to the Dump Station and poured them out there.  We didn’t have an issue with our Black tank as it can generally go for about 6-7 days with two people.  Our electrical needs were taken care of by using our solar panel briefcase each day.

For just $26 per day, staying in Upper Pines Campground is a fantastic bargain!  It’s an easy walk or bike ride to sites throughout the Yosemite Valley, including Curry Village, the general store, Cook’s Meadow Loop, and Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls.  And, a lot of great trails, like the Lower Yosemite Fall Trail, Cook’s Meadow Loop, Mirror Lake Loop, Valley Loop Trail, Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall Trails, Mist Trail, John Muir Trail, and Yosemite Falls Trail are all easily accessible from Upper Pines Campground.  We chose to walk throughout the valley, but bike rentals are also available.  Alternatively, for a nice hotel within the park, plan a stay at The Ahwahnee hotel and expect to pay over $500/night!

The campground was very quiet but populated.  We had the opportunity of meeting a nice retired couple travelling in a van from Maryland (tent campers).  They invited us to dinner at their campsite one night (great salmon and rice dish) and we cooked them pasta on another night.  They are on a four month trip across the country visiting National Parks.   We were fortunate with the weather and crowds.  Every day was clear and sunny and afternoons were warm but not too hot.  We experienced dramatic starry nights and enjoyed watching the climbers’ lights as they scaled the faces of some very high vertical walls in pure darkness.  Our days were filled with long walks throughout Yosemite Valley and early morning hikes.  Our favorite hike was up to Vernal Falls – the most interesting part is a steep stone staircase that goes up to the top of the falls.  A rainbow forms across the stairs due to the heavy mist created by the water fall.  We ventured out to Yosemite Valley almost every night to enjoy the stars and engage in astrophotography.

Our four nights at Upper Pines Campground went by very quickly.  Yosemite is a great place to get outdoors and also relax.  There’s hiking, horseback riding, fishing, biking, boating, climbing, and countless other activities in which to engage.  We did speak to one of the rangers and he advised us that it does get like Disneyland in the summer with serious crowding.  So, if you can arrange it, go in early to mid-May because the weather should be good (although can be unpredictable), the water falls are generally raging, and it’s most likely going to be less crowded than during the summer months.  Yosemite National Park gets 5 stars!

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 correctly. 

Pinnacles National Park (With Fun Stops)

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Pinnacles National Park
March 6th – March 14, 2021

Although Pinnacles National Park is one of the newer national parks (established in 2013), it was actually declared a national monument in 1908 by President Roosevelt.  It’s not as famous as and much easier to get reservations at than the most popular national parks, but offers some very compelling reasons to visit.  Located in Central California, this adventure is an easy reach from San Diego and allowed us some additional fun stops along the way.  Our stops included Santa Barbara, Pinnacles National Park, Pfieffer Big Sur State Park, Oceano Campground (Pismo Beach), and a final stop in Santa Barbara on the way home. We search for openings at national and state parks because the sites are often spread out and tend to be economical.  When planning our stay overs, we also consider our needs for dumping, water replenishment, and electricity demand.  We generally need to dump every few days, but can usually find dump stations at gas stations if they are not available at campsites (which they often are in at least a centralized dump station at the campground).  On this trip we were able to test my new portable grey water holding tank solution (stay tuned for a future article!) to double our dry camping days (from 3 up to 6 days) and did not have to use a gas station dumping area.

Coming from San Diego, both Central and Northern California are a bit too long of a drive for a nonstop trip.  Since we like to follow our 4-hour rule (driving no more than this amount of time), we generally plan a stop in Santa Barbara when heading to these northern locations.  Santa Barbara is about a 3 ½ hour drive from our home and my cousin Jon lets us stay in his driveway (and hookup to water and electricity).  On this trip we stayed on a Saturday night (both on the way up and on the way back) and were treated to two fabulous BBQ fish dinners (grilled Salmon and guacamole and chips) with all my cousins.  We also had time to explore the area of the Old Mission Santa Barbara and do some hiking in Tuckers Grove Park.  It’s always great to be able to combine a Scamp adventure with a family visit.  We really enjoy our cousins’ company and their driveway is in a very quiet neighborhood and very peaceful for sleeping in the Scamp.  Additionally, the property is surrounded by heavenly tasting oranges which provide a great, seemingly endless treat.

The easy drive from Santa Barbara to Pinnacles National Park took about 3 ½ hours.  If you go, make sure to refuel your tow vehicle right when you leave the freeway (in our case the town of King City) because there is no fuel once you head inland to the park.  Also, there are two entrances to the park and if you are staying at the campground you must use the EAST Entrance.  This is very important as there is no campground access from the West side and the two entrances are very far from each other (over an hour’s drive).  The ranger station at the East gate entrance was unoccupied when we arrived and we simply drove directly to our site (#69).  I chose this site because it is far away from the other sites and, as it turned out, is a fantastic campsite being extremely private and quiet (and very dark at night).  Site #69 doesn’t have hookups like sites at the busier RV area close to the park entrance, but the solitude more than compensates for this.  Additionally, we only were staying two nights so hookups weren’t necessary.  There is a water spigot close by the campsite and a central dump station at the park entrance.  We arrived with a super full battery charge of 12.9 volts (charged while driving), full Fresh tank, 50% Grey tank, and 25% Black tank.  We put our solar panels out in the sun and our Scamp’s voltage shot up to 14.1 volts and kept that up as it charged the Scamp’s battery.  We had a nice lunch after arriving and then walked around the campground.  There is a small campground store which offers some souvenirs and camping supplies.  There is also WiFi near the store ($10/wk, $7/day, or $3/hr).  We couldn’t get cell service or HDTV signals at the campground but the WiFi allowed us to send messages and make phone calls over Verizon service.  There are some benches near the store where it’s possible to sit and watch for Condors and make calls, text, and browse the internet.

Pinnacles National Park is home to the California condor and also the impressive Pinnacles rocks on the high peaks.  Pinnacles was formed by an ancient volcanic eruption.  The area sits along the San Andreas Fault and, as a result, has unusual rock formations.  There were wild turkeys in the campground when we were there and they provided some amusement with their funny noises and colorful fanfare.  The skies at the park can be very dark at night (we planned our trip during a New Moon so it would be especially dark) and provide fabulous opportunities for star gazing.

After having a very pleasant night’s sleep, we headed out early for a long hike on Condor Gulch Trail to see the famous high peaks.  This hike is moderately strenuous and a long hike from the campground but can be shortened significantly by driving directly to the trailhead entrance at the Bear Gulch Nature Center parking area.  On the hike, we saw quail, deer, turkeys, vultures, squirrels, and the Pinnacles Rock Formations.  It’s worth noting that you cannot see the Pinnacles rock formations from within the campground.  So, it’s really important to get out and see the Pinnacles.  The absolutely easiest way to do it is just to walk toward Condor Gulch Trail at the bottom of the campground and take the short walk to the viewing area (a bench that looks up at the Pinnacles).  After our 4 hour hike (about 10 miles round trip), we were ready to relax a bit.   We had a nice lunch and strolled around the campground and went to the condor observation bench and watched the vultures (we didn’t see any condors on this trip).  We were treated to a spectacular starry night and we spent some time seated outside our Scamp looking up and taking pictures.  We saw plenty of satellites overhead and even an incredible meteor race across the sky (seemingly for seconds as we had to rotate our heads to continue to watch it until it fizzled out).  The next morning we used the central dump station near the park entrance to dump before heading out to Big Sur.

Big Sur is only a couple of hours drive from Pinnacles and a great location for spectacular ocean scenery and viewing the redwoods.  We arrived at Pfeiffer Big Sur Campground around noon (although check in is at 2 p.m.).  Fortunately, the ranger let us in early and we were able to set up at our meadow site #77 and have lunch.  There is a water spigot next to site #77 and the central dump station is at the other end of the campground.  There are no electric hookups at this park.  There is almost no cell phone service unless you hike up to either Buzzards Roost or Valley View trails.  Alternatively, one can drive a mile or so South to the Big Sure Taphouse restaurant up the hill and get free WiFi.  We wandered after lunch and enjoyed walking through the redwood forest which sits between two sections of the campground.  We also purchased some t-shirts and souvenirs at the Big Sur Lodge (walking distance from the campground).  Wild turkeys blocked our way on one of the nature paths and we chose an alternative route.  They can get a bit feisty and chase you if you get too close (we don’t know what happens if they catch you though).  The next morning we had pancakes for breakfast in the Scamp and hiked up to Buzzards Roost (moderately strenuous mountain hike up switchbacks to top of mountain peak – 5 miles round trip).  There are some nice sweeping ocean views at the top.  We had a wild hail storm at night!  The campground was very quiet and we were the only ones camping in our meadow area.  We also hiked the Valley View Trail (2 miles RT) on one day which provided some nice ocean views at the top (and cell service).  We enjoyed watching movies at night (downloaded from Netflix and using the Jackery 500 to supply power to the TV).  On the morning we left, three deer grazed right outside our Scamp’s windows!  We dumped on our way out and headed to Pismo Beach.  Because the coast highway was shut down South due to rock slides, we had to double back North and cut across inland farm country to reach the 101 and then continue South to Pismo (about a three hour drive).

Oceano Campground is a bright and open campground right next to the Oceano Dunes beach.  The hookup site area (right at the campground entrance) offers sites close together and not nearly as nice and spread out as the non-hookup area.  We chose site #46 in the non-hookup area which is fantastic and has a trail right next to it leading to the lagoon and beach!  There is a water spigot right next to the site with a picnic table and fire pit.  We used our solar panels to generate all the electricity we needed and didn’t need to dump as we took care of that at Pfieffer Big Sur Campground the morning we departed.  There isn’t a dump station at this campground, but there is one a few miles away at the North campground.  There is plenty of cell phone coverage here as well as HDTV channels to tune into.  We enjoyed walking the lagoon trails and along the beach.  Oceano Dunes is the only beach in California where cars are allowed and we did see a number of dune buggies and ATVs driving out to the sand dunes for recreation.  Our friends Jim and Betsy live nearby and came out and shared a great Mexican meal with us at our picnic table!  We later walked along the lagoon path.  Pismo Beach and its surrounding communities (like Oceano) are beautiful quaint beach towns and we had a great time during our visit here.  I expect we will come back to this campground again in the future and stay a number of nights as there is so much to do (such as ATV rentals to ride up and down the sand dunes – when they reopen after Covid).

We really enjoyed this trip, mostly for its diversity (which included animals, plants, mountains, and the ocean).  Seeing the ancient volcanic geography and dark starry skies at Pinnacles was amazing.  And, experiencing the awesomeness of the giant redwoods and a crazy hail storm at Pfieffer Big Sur campground (as well as seeing wild turkeys and the spectacular coastline of Big Sur) was inspiring.  Visiting the laid back beach cities of Santa Barbara and Pismo Beach was also pretty incredible.  In addition to all this, we were able to successfully test a new portable grey water tank holding system (look for an article on this in the near future) and had a couple of misadventures! The door key twisted off inside the Scamp lock on day one of the trip (fortunately, we were able to continue our trips, albeit with the front door left unlocked for the remaining 8 days!).  A new electronic replacement lock will be the subject of a future article!  And our Maxx fan stopped working (although we called Scamp and the fix was simply resetting the fuse).  For all the adventures and misadventures, just getting out in nature every so often is definitely worth it as a great way to recharge (and this trip provided plenty of that!).  Highly recommended adventure!

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 correctly. 

Wonder Valley (Twenty Nine Palms)

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Wonder Valley (Twenty Nine Palms)
December 12th – 14th, 2020

About a 3-hour drive from San Diego and close to Palm Springs, Wonder Valley is a desert oasis in Twenty Nine Palms, California boasting wide open views and dark skies filled with billions of stars.  It’s located very close to Joshua Tree National Park, which borders the Colorado and Mojave deserts.  The main features of the park are the magnificent Joshua Trees which stand over 20 feet tall and the massive boulder formations which take many shapes.  This is one of the few, if only, places Joshua Trees are found (some say they are also found in Jerusalem).

Although the overnight campgrounds were closed at the time of our visit due to the mandatory pandemic California shut down, the park was still open for day use.  We really wanted to go not only to see Joshua Tree National Park for the first time, but also to witness the peak of the Gemenid meteor showers.  Fortunately, there is a Boondockers Welcome location very close to the park entrance in Wonder Valley and the owner was very nice in accommodating us for a couple of nights!  The boondocking campsite we stayed at is a very large flat paved 2 acre area butting up to the desert.  There was one other travel trailer on this site when we arrived, but the area is large enough to fit 10 rigs, so we had plenty of space!

When we arrived it was very windy, but still clear and sunny.  We were careful to position our Scamp 13’ small travel trailer directly into the wind to minimize buffeting of the trailer.  The wind was very strong, but just blew right over us from the front of the trailer and we didn’t feel or hear much of it.  Since there are no hookups at this location, we made sure to fully charge our Scamp’s batteries the day before leaving, fill our Scamp’s freshwater tank with 12 gallons of fresh water and the hot water heater with 6 gallons of fresh water, bring one full 4 gallon jug of drinking water and 2 x 6 gallon water jugs to refill our freshwater tank, bring our Jackery 500 auxiliary power bank, as well as pack our refrigerator and storage box with enough food for a few days.  We found out later there is a free water spigot to supply campers’ water jugs at the Visitor’s Center at the entrance of the park on Utah Trail road.  We also made sure to bring our solar panels since we would need a little help from the sun to keep our Scamp 13’ batteries charged.

We had a nice late lunch in the Scamp after arriving (some pasta cooked up on the stove) and decided to check out the Visitor’s Center.  We found some really cool Joshua Tree t-shirts and spoke to some park rangers a bit.  They told us the park would be closed from 10 p.m. – 5 a.m. in honor of the coronavirus curfew now in effect.  Darkness falls early in December in the desert and we decided to wait until the next day (Sunday) to go into the park.  It was very cold and windy in the evening (early 30’s at night), so we decided to watch a movie hoping the wind would settle (see how to watch movies in the wild).  Our Scamp furnace kept us nice and toasty.  The wind did quiet eventually and we were able to see some meteors!  The sky at night here is very dark and the stars sparkle!  The location feels very remote.

The next morning we took a little walk around our campsite in the desert.  There are many interesting dilapidated shacks that dot the landscape – our Boondockers Welcome host explained to us that they are the byproduct of the Small Tract Act of 1938, a federal homestead act that deeded mostly 5-acre plots of land to distribute 457,000 acres of desert that the Bureau of Land Management deemed useless (the act was repealed in 1979).  Under the guidelines, homesteaders were granted the land if they built homes no smaller than 12 x 16 feet (192 square feet).  Most of these structures are tiny, currently in terrible condition, and many still have original old furnishings – we saw one with an old oven and a tea kettle still on the stove!  However, some of these shacks have been renovated and we also saw the new construction of a mini-home (supposedly by a man from Texas building his “dream” home)!

After a decadent pancake breakfast in our Scamp, we headed back to the Visitor’s Center to purchase an America the Beautiful Annual Pass ($80) which allows unlimited entry into National Parks for a year as well as other government lands.  We are planning on going to Death Valley National Park, Pinnacles National Park, Lassen Volcanic National Park, as well as other National Parks this year, so having the pass will save a lot on entrance fees (currently $30 per car at Joshua Tree National Park).  Driving into the park was easy and there are places to stop along the roads.  Based on the time of year and the strict pandemic orders, there were hardly any visitors during our trip.  There are a lot of very interesting trails, plants (including Joshua Trees), and rock formations to keep one busy for days.  We saw Skull Rock which looks like it sounds and completed an easy 2 mile hike to Split Rock.  We really didn’t have enough time to see everything and, in turn, we plan to come back in April with friends and will stay inside the park at Jumbo Rocks campground. Joshua Tree National Park is definitely a must visit if only to see the curiously interesting and one-of-a-kind Joshua trees!

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 correctly. 

Coast Trip from San Diego to Coos Bay Oregon With Stops (10 Days)

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Coast Trip from San Diego to Coos Bay Oregon With Stops (10 Days)
October 18th – 28th 2020

Driving the iconic Highway 1 along the coast of California from San Diego to its northern border is a must adventure for anyone who enjoys beautiful views, sensational campgrounds, and excitement on many levels.  It’s not a drive for the faint of heart since there are long portions of very windy roads.  But, with a small travel trailer, it’s entirely manageable.   And, there are many different types of geography to explore and plenty of really nice state parks to make the trip enjoyable.  We decided that it would be a great addition to cross the border into Oregon and stay over in Coos Bay before heading back home.

We made reservations just a week before the trip and were lucky in finding site openings in wonderful state park campgrounds.  And every site we had was a really nice one.  It seems if one is flexible and can vary campground locations depending on availability then openings are more easily attained.  Our main goal was to get up the coast without driving more than 4 hours at a time and stopping at some key locations such as San Simeon, Santa Cruz, and the Redwoods.  We prefer to stay at state parks because the sites are often spread out and tend to be economical.  When planning our stay overs, we also consider our needs for dumping, water replenishment, and electricity demand.  We generally need to dump every few days, but can usually find dump stations at gas stations if they are not available at campsites (which they often are in at least a centralized dump station at the campground).

Our first stop was at my Uncle Mel’s house in Santa Barbara (about a 3 1/2 hour drive from San Diego).  We parked in the driveway on the quiet street and got set up with water and electricity.  We made some pasta for lunch in our Scamp and my cousin Melvin joined us.  We then enjoyed a stroll in Tucker’s Grove Park with my cousin Jon and his dog Charlie.  In the afternoon, we enjoyed sitting and admiring my Uncle Mel’s beautiful artwork in his backyard studio garden.  My cousins made a really nice family BBQ dinner in the backyard in the evening.  The next day we visited some of our family in the Santa Barbara cemetery (along with a family of foxes who live there).  After a really quiet and restful sleep, we left for Hearst San Simeon State Park in the morning.

Hearst San Simeon State Park, about a three hour drive from Santa Barbara, is an enjoyable campground above a beautiful beach (which is within walking distance).  We paid $43 for Site #17.  There are water spigots at the campground and a free central dump.  The cellphone service here is poor (Verizon).  However, we were able to pick up 9 channels of crystal clear high definition television signals (HDTV)!  We set up our briefcase solar panel on the picnic bench behind our Scamp and were able to charge up our batteries while out exploring.  Moonstone Beach is a fantastic location for beachcombing.  There are so many beautiful rocks on the sand, including the famous shimmering moonstones.  We were lucky enough to find a few.  California Jade and other rocks can also be collected on Moonstone Beach.  We just purchased a rock tumbler and are currently tumbling these tones, hoping to transform them into semi-precious jewels!  If you are lucky, you might also find a sand dollar on the beach (we did!).  We also visited Elephant Seal Beach which is close by and enjoyed viewing and listening to the hundreds of seals that migrate through here.

The next day, after about a two and a half hour drive north, we arrived at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park (Santa Cruz).  We paid $43 for Site #27, which is a good and shady private site.  There are water spigots here but no dumps.  The cellphone service is poor (Verizon), but the HDTV is great since the campground is high up on a hill above downtown Santa Cruz.  There are really nice hikes at this campground, with one that leads up to an observation deck.  We were able to see deer, plenty of woodpeckers, beautiful redwoods, ocean views, and a nice sunset.  We drove down into town (about an 8 minute drive) and parked close to the Santa Cruz wharf.  We had a nice long walk to the end of the wharf and saw seals resting below on the wooden pilings.  The next morning, after a long hike and viewing the sites from the observation deck above the campground, we drove to the UC Santa Cruz campus (about 15 minute drive) and purchased a Slug t-shirt in their student store.  We also walked a bit on the campus which is like walking through the redwoods in a state park.

The next morning, we spent about four hours driving north to Van Damme State Park (Ft. Bragg).  We paid $48 for site #68 – a pleasant, private site (the meadow sites near #68 are also good).  There is no cellphone service here (Verizon) and no over the air HDTV.  There is a gas station very close by.  There are water spigots and a $10 dump site.  The area campsite was too shady for using our solar panel, but we had plenty of power to charge all our devices using our lithium powered Jackery 500 battery power bank!   There’s a nice long walk to a beautiful beach down below the campground.  We found abalone shells on the beach.  There are great hiking trails in the redwoods as well as an interesting pygmy forest hike close by.  We met some really friendly people at the campground and had a very relaxing stay here.

The next day we drove four hours north to reach Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park (located in Humbolt County near the town of Orick, about 50 miles north of Eureka).  The park is over 14,000 acres and is home to some very old giant Coast Redwoods.  There is a big meadow and you can sometimes see large Elk grazing (we did!).  This campground is about 1,500 feet above sea level and was a bit chilly when we visited in October (clear and sunny but in the 50’s during the day).  The chill gave us a chance to try out our gas powered Scamp furnace (which is very effective at quickly creating hot air and blowing it into the Scamp).  It doesn’t take long for the Scamp to get really toasty with the furnace running!  There is no dump here, but there are water spigots.  We paid $43 for site #49 which is nice and private (but too shady for solar panels).  We had no cellphone service (Verizon) here and couldn’t receive any over the air HDTV signals.  Our water bandit came in handy in filling up our water jug as the faucet sprayed too wildly for the stream to be contained and efficiently fill the jug.  The redwood hikes are spectacular with trees so huge they seem to be from fairy tales.  We watched a couple large bull Elks in the meadow in front of the visitor center for a couple of hours in the morning.  The visitor center is nice for souvenirs (I bought a cool hat that says Redwood National & State Parks and I purchased the Elk pin for the hat since we saw two big Elk!).  This park is a must visit.

The drive to Coos Bay, about four hours north along the Oregon coast from Prairie Creek Redwoods SP, is spectacular.  With huge rocks jutting out of the ocean along the rugged coastline, the views on this part of the journey are spectacular.  We parked for lunch at a beach rest stop in the Gold Beach area and had fantastic views right out of Scamp’s rear window.  Sunset Bay State Park (Coos Bay area, Oregon) is a wonderful campground with nice amenities.  We paid $45 / night for our full hookup site #D01 and stayed two nights (note:  we paid a 30% surcharge imposed on non-Oregon residents).  The site we had was an end spot and very quiet and there is good spacing between campsites here.  We had no cellphone service (Verizon) and no over the air HDTV reception.  However, there is an RV park close by and there is mobile data (Verizon) reception out in front.  The hosts at Sunset Bay SP are really friendly and spent a lot of time talking to us about the area.  There is a great beach within walking distance (a trail leads from the campground to the beach).  In addition, there is an awesome hike (about 2 miles each way) along the top of the bluffs to a state park called Shore Acres Botanical Gardens (it was originally an estate owned by a timber baron, but sold to the State of Oregon to use as a park in 1942).  There are a couple of homes on the property as well as wonderful gardens.  We met a nice couple from Salem, OR (Todd & Yvonne) who occupied the site next to ours and they recommended the botanical garden hike.  They were taking their first trip in their small Helio travel trailer and we enjoyed talking with them about all things small travel trailers!  We’ve kept in touch via email since coming home and learned we share many common interests.

It was nice having a small travel trailer on our journey because we often unhitched and were able to easily explore the areas with just our SUV.  We had a couple of such opportunities while in Oregon.  We drove about 20 minutes from Sunset Bay SP to visit the waterside town of Coos Bay and also the fishing town of Charleston (where we purchased some excellent teriyaki smoked steelhead trout which we had on our breakfast toast the next morning)!

Having completed our coastal adventure from San Diego to Coos Bay, OR, we opted to take the more direct way home via I-5 on an inland route.  We drove about 5 hours from Coos Bay, OR to Weed, California (Mt. Shasta area).  This was our first stop during the trip at a private RV park (places we tend to avoid).  The Friendly RV Park in Weed, CA, was actually very pleasant and not very crowded.  It’s a full hookup RV park that is close to the freeway but is not very noisy.  We paid $49 / night for Site #13 (a pull through full hookup site).  The WiFi was weak and we couldn’t get the cable TV to work.  We did have cellphone service (Verizon).  We were also advised not to use a hose because it would freeze overnight.  We used our internal boondocking water tank.  We kept our water heater and furnace on all night as a precaution and to keep warm as it was cold.  There is a limited view of Mt. Shasta behind the campground (I sent up the drone and captured a full view of the mountain).  There’s not too much to do in Weed, but just a short 5 minute drive is the small mountain town of Mt. Shasta which has some nice little shops and a great view of the mountain.  This area is home to many legends including the 7 foot tall Lemurians – the beings that are said to live beneath Mt. Shasta; legend has it that they’ve evolved beyond the spiritual into the physical plane, and walk around town in white robes.  However, we only saw the town statue of one.  The next morning was very cold (18 degrees).  Hot cocoa helped!  Fortunately, everything in the Scamp was working except the dump valves which were frozen shut.  We were able to dump a couple hours later at a Pilot station when the temperatures were in the 60s.

After breakfast the next day, we reached Oakland five hours after leaving Weed and arrived at my sister Hilary’s house around 1 p.m.  We set up the Scamp on the street and, like last time, used our leveling wedge to get the Scamp reasonably level side to side (since the street is very angled).  We enjoyed seeing my sister and her family and had a nice dinner in her backyard.  The next morning we all took a long walk through a nice neighborhood on Alameda island.  We had breakfast in the Scamp before heading out to our last stop on a ranch in Bakersfield.

The Rock’n H Ranch is a very fun miniature donkey farm out in the hills of Bakersfield (about halfway between Oakland and San Diego).  It is a Boondocker’s Welcome location and there was no charge for our stay (although we did give the host a small gift for having us).  The host is very generous and has about 20 acres of land (located down a long bumpy dusty dirt road off the main road) and told us we could park anywhere.  We had access to water.  There was cellphone coverage (Verizon) and lots of HDTV channels.  We set up our Scamp on a hillside near the donkey pen and the donkeys seemed very interested in what we were doing as we set up our Scamp!  The host allowed us to pet and feed the animals.  There are also goats, horses, a cat and dog, and a llama on the farm.  We spent a fun afternoon with the host hanging out and playing with and feeding the animals.  We then had a nice quiet evening.  I took some drone images of the ranch at sunrise the next morning at the request of the host.  We left fairly early to be able to get home in time for lunch and then wash and clean our Scamp and SUV before putting them in the garage.

We had a fantastic trip, lots of adventures, and made some new friends.  Fortunately, there were no hard lessons on this trip and we look forward to planning our next adventure!  We did learn a few things about some supplies to improve future trips and will write about those in future articles.

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 correctly. 

Mammoth Lakes

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Mammoth Lakes
August 23rd – 29th, 2020

The drive from San Diego to California’s High Sierra is a long one (over 6 hours) and, following our 4 hour maximum drive time rule, would normally be broken up into a couple of stages. However, due to the intense summer high desert heat that prevails along most of the Highway 395 drive, we were forced to make the trip in one drive.

Our first stop was Silver Lake Resort, an RV park next to Silver Lake (elevation 7,200 feet) (about $49 / night including tax, although we were told later there are some discounts, if you ask, including AAA). The campground is in a stunning location which is surrounded by mountains, featuring a lake in the center. This is a popular spot for those who like to fish and people wanting to stay months at a time. The RV sites are fairly close together and this park is difficult to get a reservation as people tend to visit year after year and they are given priority for reservations. Large trailers and motor homes tend to be the norm here and our trailer was the smallest one in the park (although everyone made us feel very welcome)! We chose this campground because our friends Hugh & Cheryl (who we first met at Anza Borrego campground in February 2020) have been coming here the same week in August for the past 13 years and we wanted to see them again. They said the resort normally provides a lot of activities, but because of Covid things were much more limited this year. There is a general store and a café and great trails that border the property. There are also nice stables alongside that provide full day trail rides up to some of the high lakes ($125 per person for a full day ride including lunch as of 8/2020).

Our friend and neighbor, Dewey, also caravaned up with us in her Lazy Daze motorhome and parked in the spot next to ours. We were in spot D1, which was at the very end of one row, so we didn’t feel squeezed in by other giant motor homes. Dewey’s daughter, Lily, and boyfriend, Bretton, also came up from LA and joined us all. Dewey also brought her dachshunds Sammy and Lu Lu who love to camp! I just purchased a new astrophotography camera and was looking forward to taking images of the stars. It turned out that Bretton is also into astrophotography and we spent one fun late evening snapping images of the Milky Way! After catching the excitement of nighttime photography, we will try to plan future trips around the new moons for darker skies.

The first day at Silver Lake resort was a bit smoky due to fires across northern California, so we had to curtail our morning hike. However, we also brought our inflatable kayak and it was fun taking it out on Silver Lake. Lily and Bretton took turns with us enjoying kayaking on the lake as well. Additionally, there are some beaches on Silver Lake that are nice to walk along to see what the fishermen are catching. Our longest hike was to Lake Agnew and then to Gem Lake. It’s about 6 miles round trip to Gem Lake and took us about 4 hours to hike the steep trail and back. The trail is shared with the horses who take day trippers up to Gem Lake as well, so you need to watch your step. We saw the (utility) Edison’s mountain train along the way which seems to go almost straight up along the incredibly steep slopes, taking men and equipment up to lake Agnew to work on the power generation equipment at the dam. About a mile past Lake Agnew is Gem Lake within the Ansel Adams Wilderness area. Gem Lake is beautiful with striking blue waters.

Our friends Hugh & Cheryl are incredibly generous and insisted we all have dinner with them, social distancing, outside their motorhome every night! Food highlights were the grilled hot dogs and the fresh trout which Hugh and his friend Louie caught on the lake! On our final day, Hugh and Louie served their grilled Silver Lake trout which included 5lb and 7lb rainbow trout (career records)! Cheryl always made sure we had enough ice cream from the general store to follow the meals [including rocky road, turtle tracks (caramel and nuts), and mint chip]!!!

Before leaving Silver Lake, we had a chance to walk across the street to check out the public Silver Lake campground (which borders the lake). The campground is much more spread out than Silver Lake resort [and cheaper at as low as $23 / night (or $12.5/night with Senior Pass 62 or older)], with many of the spots offering extremely private surroundings. The main drawback here is that there are no hookups (and no dump station). There are water spigots spread out within the campground. So, if you plan to stay here you must account for how long you will be able to stay without a dump or electrical hookups. I think if we took outdoor showers we could probably stay about 5 days without needing to dump (black tank). Our solar panels allow us to have enough electricity pretty much indefinitely as long as there is sunshine since the Scamp is very energy efficient and we don’t have AC. Our top site picks after walking the public campground are sites: #18 (lake view, close to water spigot), #20 (lake view, private, water spigot close), #23 (along lake, private), #24 (private, no lake view, water spigot close), #25 (private, close to lake), #26 (private, mountain view), #27 (private, mountain view), #28 (private, mountain view, close to lake), #33 (private, close to water), and #37 (private, mountain view, and close to water).

We tried Birch Benders Pancakes (gluten free) for the first time the morning just before leaving Silver Lake ($4.49 / bag at Sprouts Market). The nice thing about these pancakes is there great taste and all you have to do is add water to the mix and then cook on your propane stove. Highly recommended (especially served with real maple syrup)!

The next few days would be without our solar panels (which I forgot to pack!). So, we weren’t sure if we would last from Thursday morning to Sunday morning (3 days) with just the power in our Scamp battery. We had 12.5V on Thursday morning (after being hooked up the past four days while staying at Silver Lake Resort) and were intent on making the battery last by using power sparingly. There are some essentials that are necessary to make the Scamp work (like the on demand water pump for the sinks, on demand pump for the toilet, and the pump for the shower drain).

Our second stop was the Twin Lakes public campground (30 minutes south of Silver Lake), part of the Mammoth Lakes chain. Dewey and Lily also joined us here (Bretton had to go back to LA early for work). At almost over 8,000 feet (8,563 ft.), this lake is high up there! Some campers told us they felt the altitude and some reported having slight headaches. Fortunately, we acclimated first a little lower at Silver Lake, so we felt ok. You may feel a little winded when exercising at this altitude. It’s important not to push it too hard your first couple of days and respect the elevation. We stayed at the Twin Lakes campground, which is a beautiful public campground adjacent to the lakes (which has a bridge between the two lakes) ($26 / night). There is water available here but no hookups, but the general store offers a dump ($15) and some other services including showers. We had Site #8 right next to the General Store. Our favorite site picks are: 23, 24, 31, 33, 34, 47, 49, 53, 54, 60, 61, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70.

The privately owned General Store here is excellent with some very nice souvenirs (including Mammoth Lakes t-shirts, coasters, and other Mammoth mementos), a lot of camping supplies, and food items. We purchased 2 lighters for our stove (always have a backup lighter!), Hershey bars, 2 High Sierra fisherman t-shirts, and 2 Mammoth coasters.
There is great kayaking and fishing on the lakes here and you can see the Twin Lakes Falls high up above. We hiked two great trails with Lily, one steep one up to the top of the Twin lakes Falls overlook and the other which looks down on the Twin Lakes from another side. We just had one night here at Twin Lakes (due to the lack of available reservations) but really enjoyed it. Dewey and Lily (and Sammy and Lu Lu) had to head back to home to San Diego the next morning. We headed on just a short drive higher to Lake Mary (elevation 8,966 feet), our third stop.

We stayed at Lake Mary Campground which is adjacent to Lake Mary ($26 / night) in sites #33 and #38 (we had to change sites due to availability). Our sites were not right on the lake, but were nice and quiet. Our favorite site picks at Lake Mary campground are: 12 (lake), 15 (lake), 18 (lake), 22 (lake), 23, 33, 37. Most of the campers here were tent campers with some motorhomes and trailers mixed in. There is a paved bike / walking path that runs through Mammoth Lakes and this path crosses through the campground. It provides a nice way to explore the area, including taking the Horseshoe Lake loop walk. It’s an easy walk that winds around Horseshoe Lake (a popular beach lake). You can also walk to Lake George from this campground (which is very close by). Lake George is popular for fishing. There were lots of stand-up paddle boarders and kayakers on Lake Mary. Coldwater Creek Campground is close by and serves as the trail head for the popular Duck Lake hike (long full day hike). We drove up to the campground, but it was so crowded that there was nowhere to park. There was a similar situation at Lake George with lots of auto traffic looking for parking spots. There is a small campground at Lake George, but we were told there are no reservations as it is first come first serve only.

Two must visit spots when staying at Mammoth Lakes are the Devils Postpile National Monuments and Rainbow Falls. They are about a half hour drive along a winding mountain road to get to the ranger’s station. After parking, its about a .4 mile easy walk to the Devils Postpile. It’s a solid wall of rock columns (columnar basalt). From there, it’s about 2 more miles to see Rainbow Falls which plunge 101 feet to the turbulent water below. Rainbows appear in the fall’s mist on sunny summer days. By foot, it’s about an hour each way to see both sights, but well worth it. It’s also possible to hike down to the base of Rainbow Falls, but that makes the trip much longer and more difficult.

In the end, we had a great trip and would highly recommend Mammoth Lakes. There are lots of things to do here with activities to satisfy just about anyone. Fishing, kayaking, hiking, stargazing, camping, biking and horseback riding are some of the top choices. And, as it turns out, that with careful use (only running the fan minimally and the lights and pumps when necessary) we were able to sustain our Scamp battery without solar panels. We ended the trip with 12.2V (minimum recommended voltage is 12V)! And our group of friends all decided to come back again next year!

Observatory Campground, Palomar Mountain

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Observatory Campground, Palomar Mountain July 29 – 30, 2020

Observation Campground is a California State Park located at about 5,000 feet above sea level on Palomar Mountain in the Cleveland National Forest (in San Diego County on the La Jolla Indian Reservation). It’s a popular spot for viewing the stars and, hence, named after the Palomar Observatory at the top of the mountain. There are cement telescope pads throughout the park each marked with N (North) for assisting stargazers by their campsites. During normal Summer times, astronomers set up their telescopes and allow anyone who has a desire to view the stars to peer through their lenses. But, these aren’t normal times and we didn’t see any astronomers with telescopes!

About half of the 1.5 hour drive from our home near the coast in Carlsbad (San Diego) was driving inland on the freeway and the rest of the time was spent winding up the mountain. The small towns at the base of the mountain have an abundance of citrus groves and fruit stands. There are about 27 sites available for RV camping. We paid $23 / night for our site #40 which was perfectly located in the middle of the meadow and a great location to view the stars. It’s a nice long and wide single site. They also had plenty of available sites that were marked first come first serve only.
Make sure to print out your reservation, as we found there is no cell phone coverage at this campground and some people were parked in our spot when we arrived. They insisted the spot was theirs. Fortunately, we pulled out our paper reservation and after some head shaking they eventually admitted they probably had reserved the spot for the day before. This campground is self-serve: no check-in procedures, no visitor center, no clearly marked trails – all on the honor system.

When we arrived in the late afternoon it was hot (in the high 80s) and buggy, but it cooled off quickly once the Sun went down. We watched a couple of Amazon Prime series episodes in the Scamp until after sunset and the temperatures had cooled. The mosquitos came out at night which made watching the stars a little unpleasant, until we started spraying our essential oils! Then, they eventually stopped bugging us (literally)!
The evening happened to have a very bright half-moon; so bright we could see our shadows. So we were not able to see the NEOWISE comet, nor the Milky Way. However, we still had a nice view of meteors, satellites, and some of the planets (Jupiter, Saturn). Next time we go stargazing, a New Moon night is a must. We were the only ones in an RV. Everyone else at the park was tent camping. There are restrooms and water spigots throughout the small park, but no hookups or dumps for RVs. We used our solar briefcase in the afternoon which kept our battery at a good level throughout the night (and filled our Fresh tank before leaving home).

We broke the solemn 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. campground quiet hours by accident when we decided to grab the mattress topper out of our SUV at 11:38 p.m. The meadow was completely quiet until I inadvertently hit the panic button on my remote (opposite side of door unlock). Car horns and flashing lights really amplify in a dark meadow, especially when everyone is asleep! Fortunately, I was able to deactivate the alarm after several seconds (which seemed more like 30!).

We tried hiking the Observatory Trail in the morning (which had tons of annoying flies) and made it about halfway into the 2.2 mile hike until we were forced to climb up to the road (as the trail turned into a dry creek and was blocked by vegetation). We walked the rest of the way to the Palomar Observatory (run by Cal Tech) on the road. Due to the Pandemic, the observatory was closed and we only really got a glimpse of it through the trees on the side of the road (although, our drone captured some nice images).

Perhaps next time we will try visiting in the winter when it will be cooler with less bugs. But, it’s known to snow here in the winter. Beware: many of the Palomar Mountain campgrounds have narrow roads not passable with two vehicles.