Trips

Trips and Campgrounds.

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.

San Diego to Lake Tahoe (9 Days)

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San Diego to Lake Tahoe (9 Days) June 19th – 27th, 2020

This third Scamp adventure would be our longest trip to date and one in which we would test many of the Scamps systems.  We designed the trip so we would keep overall daily drive times to around four hours or less.  We packed the Scamp with enough food, drinkable water, and clothes so that we wouldn’t have to go shopping or eat out during the trip.

Our first stop, a 3 ½ drive from home, was at my cousin Jon’s house in Santa Barbara which is close to the beach.  He has a long level driveway on which we would park the Scamp and stay overnight.  But, upon rolling into the sloped driveway entrance, the bottom of the jack plate scraped the concrete.  We spoke to a helpful neighbor who works at a Sprinter conversion company and he recommended we flip our hitch (so instead of a 2 ½” drop it would have a ½” rise).  It appeared the hitch was rated for using it both ways and it does have “Drop” and “Rise” markings on it, so we took the hitch off the SUV and had a local shop remove the ball and flip it (as the nut was extremely hard to remove and pneumatic tools made it possible).  After the hitch was flipped, we found the jack plate easily cleared the driveway and actually made the Scamp level with the tow vehicle and easier to tow.  So, this turned out really well.  Once nicely in the driveway, we were able to hook up the Scamp to electric (make sure to bring your 30A to 110V converter cord!) and also City Water (hose).  We had a great time visiting my cousins Jon and Melvin.  We went for some long trail walks overlooking the ocean with my cousin Jon and Charlie (labrador) and had some nice meals in the Scamp (like salmon tortilla wraps).  It was a relaxing quiet evening and good night’s sleep in their driveway.  After breakfast, we took a long walk through Hope Ranch in the morning and tried to locate my old family home (but we think it was scrapped and rebuilt).  Our plan was to stay over again in a week on our way home.  We filled up our Fresh tank before leaving.  And to be conservative, we dumped our Grey and Black tanks at a 76 station on our way out of town since we didn’t know when we would have a chance again in the next several days.

The next leg was only about a two hour drive north to CP Farms in Paso Robles (an olive oil farm and Harvest Host site).  We arrived in the late afternoon and it was hot (95 degrees).  Harvest Hosts is an annual membership website where Hosts (mostly wineries, farms, and museums) provide “free” overnight stays with the expectation you buy something when visiting (we purchased a $22 bottle of olive oil from the farm).  Our Scamp doesn’t have AC, but the MaxxAir Fan is very good and although it was warm it was tolerable with the fan blowing hard, parked in the shade.  We opted not to pay for electric and water at CP Farms and found that our briefcase Solar Panel provided enough power for our electric needs (fan, water pumps, LEDs, etc.).  We used our propane for the refrigerator and hot water heater.  The WiFi here was also very weak.  There was a very friendly semi-feral cat named Nick who snuck into our Scamp when we weren’t looking (the door was left open for less than a minute) and when we returned we found him asleep on our dinette cushions!  The stars were brilliant here at night.  We checked the Scamp thoroughly to make sure Nick was not onboard before closing up and heading off to our next stop, Oakland.  We dumped at a Valero Station on the way out of town.

We headed next to my sister Hilary’s house in Oakland, about a 3 hour drive north from Paso Robles.  The entry slope on her driveway is very steep and even the rear bumper would have hit the driveway if we attempted to back in.  Instead, we parked on the street in front of her house.  But, the street is very sloped, so we used our special plastic ramp to level the trailer side to side.  Otherwise, being inside and sleeping in the Scamp would not have been too comfortable.  We set up our electric with an extension cord and adapter cable.  Instead of running a water hose across the sidewalk which could have created a tripping hazard due to the large diameter of the hose, we filled up the fresh tank.  Hilary made us a nice pizza lunch and our Nephew, Ro’e and his girlfriend Soph, made an excellent BBQ chicken salad for dinner.  We walked around the neighborhood in the evening and heard a lot of fireworks (which had been a nightly event for the past several months).  After breakfast, we walked at Redwood Gate Regional Park on trails in the woods.  We planned to return to my sister’s house in a few days after our time at D.L. Bliss State Park in Lake Tahoe.

The drive from Oakland to D.L. Bliss State Park in Lake Tahoe was about 4 hours.  We used the central Dump station upon arrival near the Ranger’s station before driving down to our spot at the lake (Site #160, a Premium site which costs $45 / night + $7.99 reservation fee).  All sites at D.L. Bliss are without hookups, although there are the central Dump station and water spigots around the park.  Our spot #160 was the closest to the lake and has a water spigot close by.  In order to back into the spot, we needed to drive past the site and down to the upper beach parking lot and turn around so we could have the right angle.  D.L. Bliss is a beautiful park and we could see the lake while sitting inside the Scamp!  We used our solar panels to charge our battery daily and had no issues with keeping our battery at 12.5 Volts the entire three day stay!  We did use the Dump station once in the middle of our visit and again on the way out.  There are plenty of fun things to do at Lake Tahoe.  We hiked part of the famous Rubicon Trail.  There are Aleutian Canadian Geese on the beach and they are very friendly. There are giant Jeffrey Pinecones under the Jeffrey pines. If you smell this pine’s bark it smells like butterscotch and vanilla with a smidge of pineapple!  We also hiked the higher Lighthouse trail to see the highest Lighthouse in the U.S. (no longer working and looks like an outhouse).  After breakfast one morning we tried out our new 2 person inflatable kayak. It was awesome launching from the beach right below our campsite and paddling along the coast. Sitting just above the water on a kayak gives another perspective of the lake’s natural beauty.

On our final day at D.L. Bliss, we went for a hike to a famous house called Vikingsholm (home of the Vikings): a 30 room mansion Summer home built overlooking Emerald Bay in 1929 by a British lady (Mrs. Knight) and designed by her brother in law, Lennart Palme (a famous Swedish architect). There is a steep 1 mile walk down to the beach where the home sits near the lake’s edge. Scandinavian architectural influences can be seen in the sod roof and unusual wooden eaves and carvings. The owner had a tea house constructed on the only island on the lake opposite her house that she frequented daily for her afternoon tea.  Angelica made gnocchi pasta with pesto sauce and veggies on the stove for lunch which was excellent. Following lunch, a freak thunder and lightning storm with pea sized hail hit. We were ok in the Scamp, but everyone else here had tents and we could see people frantically trying to weather protect them. We hiked to Balancing Rock after the storm in the evening. It’s a magnificent large rock that appears to be teetering on a small base.

We returned to Hilary’s house in Oakland and spent the night on the street again after our time at D.L. Bliss.  The next morning we drove from Oakland to Morro Bay, about a 3 ½ hour drive.  We stayed at a private park called Morro Dunes RV Resort which is across the street from the beach within sight of the famous Morro Rock.  We had a $55 / night premium spot (facing the beach) with full hookups (including cable TV – although we didn’t bring the necessary cable to hook up to our Scamp).  The WiFi at our spot was non-existent and the park was over crowded.  Although we really didn’t enjoy this place due to the crowds and proximity of RVs next to each other, we did have a great hike at Montana de Oro trail – a bluff trail overlooking the Ocean with plenty of wildlife to enjoy at every turn.

Drive time down to Santa Barbara from Morro Bay was around two hours.  We were back at my cousin Jon’s house and his nice long private driveway.  We fed lunch to my college-age cousin Melvin and took a long walk with Jon & Charlie (lab) along the shoreline’s bluff with fabulous views of numerous kite surfers down below.  We had another nice quiet night along with a relaxing morning walk within the Douglas Family Preserve.   The drive back to San Diego was about 3 hours and we were already thinking about our next trip!

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

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Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

Date of Visit:  February 24 – 27th, 2020

Our first multi-day trip in our Scamp was in the desert at this beautiful State Park about a 2 hour drive from our home in San Diego. Our neighbor and friend Dewey organizes a trip here every February with a bunch of friends and invited us to come along this year.

We stayed in Borrego Palm Canyon campground within the park. The campground is surrounded by mountains, where the big horn sheep (borregos) can be spotted. We chose site #14 next to Dewey and we had full hookups. The full hookup spot cost us $35 / night plus a $7.99 online reservation fee through the California State Parks website.  If you are good with dry camping, less expensive sites can be reserved as well. There is a central dump and water available for dry campers.

The campground was very quiet and well organized, despite being very popular. We had some cell phone service with Verizon. It can be very hot here during parts of the year (e.g. Summer), so best to reserve Late Fall, Winter, or early Spring. There are nice trails (e.g. Surprise Canyon) and a great visitor center (with some nice t-shirts and other Anza mementos). The visitor center also provides short films on the desert as well as information on Ranger guided hikes.

Our days were spent relaxing in the Scamp, making meals, hiking on the trails, shopping in the visitor center and watching some nature movies there, going into town and visiting shops and restaurants, exploring the metal sculptures at Galleta Meadows, sitting by the campfire and enjoying nightly shared dinner with our bunch of friends, and watching the stars at night. With no moon, the heavens are incredibly bright and one can spend hours looking up and pondering the universe on a dark night.

The little town of Borrego Springs (a few miles away from the campground) offers some nice restaurants and some nice camping supply stores. It reminded of us of an old Western town lost in time from decades ago. We purchased some UV sleeves, UV buff, and a multiple stage metal canteen at one of the shops.

The things that we really enjoyed at Anza Borrego were the dramatic starry nights (pitch black space with millions and millions of stars), hiking on the desert trails, the desert metal sculptures at Goleta Meadows just outside the park, the great Mexican food at Carmelita’s,… and making new friends!