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!
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