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California Redwoods & Oregon Adventure

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California Redwoods & Oregon Adventure
May 31st – June 20th, 2023 (20 nights, 2,425 miles)

This was the longest trip we have taken to date in our Scamp 13′ and one filled with the most adventures!  The reason the trip was long is because the farthest destinations on this itinerary are not close to our home in San Diego (and we try not to drive more than four hours per day and like to stay at least a couple of days when exploring notable sights).  We only packed enough clothes and food for ten days (our usual trip length) and, instead, did laundry once midway through our trip (at the Laughing Alpaca Campground) and shopped for food a few times.  We really enjoyed shopping at the outdoor farmer’s markets in Oregon and were able to purchase organic produce including fresh organic duck eggs, fruits and vegetables, and local honey.  We did have one notable mechanical failure at the start of our journey which could have meant the immediate end to our travels (more on this later).  This trip also was the first test of two new systems (new marine grade SOK lithium house battery and new Victron smart lithium solar controller).  Usually we would have done a shorter trip first to test new systems just in case, but we didn’t have time.  So, there was some degree of risk on going out on a big journey without trying out these new items in the field.  Below are some of the trip highlights at each location.

Santa Barbara (Cousin Jon’s House):  Days 1-2
This was the first and last stop on our journey and always very memorable because we get to see our cousins!  Santa Barbara is about 4 hours from our home and makes for a good starting point on the way north.  We took a hike during the day (Jesusita Trail) and then went out to dinner with my cousins at Ruby’s Mexican Food.  Whenever visiting my cousins in Santa Barbara, we stay in my Cousin Jon’s driveway and are fortunate enough to be allowed to pick fresh fruit from their orchard (lemons and oranges).  This time we took a bag of lemons which gave us enough juice to make lemonade for half our trip (we made sure to bring our hand fruit juicer).  Although short, we had a great visit with my cousins.

During the drive to Santa Barbara, I was able to use the SOK lithium Bluetooth battery smart phone app to monitor the Scamp’s new lithium battery status.  This was important to get an understanding of the power draw while running our Scamp’s 12 volt option to power the refrigerator while driving.  With our Scamp’s original lead acid battery, we didn’t use the 12V option to run the refrigerator because it would drain the Scamp’s battery quickly (and we also chose not to run the refrigerator on propane while driving for safety reasons).  In turn, in the past, the refrigerator would stay off during drives – it would be cool but not cold inside since it wasn’t running.  Fortunately, the new lithium battery provides plenty of power to keep our refrigerator running using 12 volts (on this drive, using about 5 amps power draw per hour, so about 5% depletion of the 100ah battery per hour).  Because our 7-way connector was providing about 5 amps of power from the car to the trailer during driving, we arrived in Santa Barbara at 100% State of Charge (SOC).  Based on this successful test of the new lithium battery, we continued to run the 12V refrigerator throughout the trip while driving and it worked great!

Morro Bay (Morro Strand State Park):  Day 2-3
About two hours north of Santa Barbara, Morro Bay is best known for the giant rock that sticks up from the water.  Morro Rock is actually a volcanic plug formed about 23 million years ago when it exploded off the top of a volcano.  It’s been used as a navigational aid for over 300 years since it stands at around 576 feet tall.  In Spanish, “Morro” means crown shaped hill.  It’s also known as the “Gibraltar of the Pacific”.   There’s a road (causeway) that connects the rock to the mainland.  This is the first time we have visited Morro Bay when it was actually sunny.  On all our other visits, Morro Rock had been shrouded in fog.

On the drive up to Morro Bay, the SOC on the Scamp’s lithium battery ran down from 100% to 86% SOC.  We learned that there are many variables (including the tow vehicle’s battery charge) that may affect the current draw on the lithium battery while driving with the 12V refrigerator running.  On this drive, the lithium battery depleted at about 7% per hour of driving.  No worries though as this was the perfect opportunity to try out the new Victron smart lithium solar controller on our 100W solar briefcase.  And, it performed really well – providing over 6 amps per hour of energy back into the Scamp’s lithium battery under partly cloudy skies!  The Scamp’s new lithium battery was fully charged to 100% SOC within a few hours!

We had the opportunity to stay on the beach at Morro Strand State Beach Campground.  Morro Rock is visible from the campground and is a little over three miles south.  Normally, the campsites here are very difficult to reserve.  However, because our Scamp is only 13’ long, we were able to fit into the van and tent camp area (which was relatively empty).  There are water spigots in this area and good Verizon service.  The RV area down the beach has full hookups (water, electric, sewer) and was very crowded.  We had spot 001 ($35/night) and really enjoyed it.  We had a very memorable visit partly because we had a fantastic bike ride from the campground along the beautiful bike paths (some along the beach and others in wooded areas) all the way to Morro Rock (via the causeway)!  We saw seals and sea otters during the journey.  And, the bike ride took us through the charming seaside village of Morro Bay (with its quaint shops and restaurants).  It was a leisurely four hour ride which stretched into the early evening.

After sunset, we tried out a new 4K Roku stick which allows phone mirroring (our old Roku stick gave out after years of use).  So, instead of having to hook up our laptop to play downloaded movies, we were able to connect our phone wirelessly to the Scamp’s television through the quick pairing setup and play a movie from the phone to the Scamp’s TV.  The mirroring on the device works really well and makes playing movies much easier than the laptop setup.  Note:  we had previously played movies from a Samsung Galaxy S9 directly to the TV via a cable, however, once we upgraded phones (to a Samsung Galaxy A52 5G), we discovered the new phones do not support HDMI video out.  In turn, we switched to the laptop method of playing movies.  So, it’s great to be back to the phone method since some services (like Paramount Plus) only allow downloading of content to mobile devices like phones and tablets (and block downloading to laptops / pcs).  For more information on how we play movies in our Scamp, click here.

The next morning we took a long walk along the beach, almost reaching Morro Rock.  We found a lot of sand dollars along the way and the fog had returned to Morro Bay.

Oakland (Sister’s House):  Days 3-4
We made it up to my sister’s house in about 4 ½ hours (parking in her driveway for the overnight stay), just in time to have lunch on College Avenue in Berkeley.  The area is usually buzzing with activity and this visit was no different.  We went to Rockridge Market Hall, a large indoor marketplace and deli, and ordered a garbonzo salad, some cooked bbq chicken and ravioli and sat at a table on the sidewalk to enjoy the meal.  Later, we had a great dinner with family and did a nice hike the next morning with everyone before heading farther north.   Just before leaving though, the mechanism that closes the ball in the toilet valve (which separates the contents within the black holding tank from the toilet bowl and preventing odors from coming out of the black tank below) broke (leaving the valve open)!  I was later told by the toilet manufacturer, Sealand, that it is likely the spring snapped in the mechanism and needed to be replaced (specialty part that needed to be ordered).  Just two days into our twenty day trip, we were presented with an obstacle that had the potential of turning us back towards home.  Instead, we borrowed my sister’s toilet plunger, removed the stick, and used it to cover the hole when the toilet was not in use.  It turned out to be a perfect fit and worked as well as the ball valve to close off the black tank!  Crisis averted!  Phew (Not Pew!)!

Bodega Bay (Wright’s Beach State Campground, Sonoma Coast State Park):  Days 4-5
With our toilet issue controlled, we still needed to dump our tanks before our next stop at Wright’s Beach campground in Bodega Bay.  This campground doesn’t have a dump station, but its sister campground, about five miles south, offers a free dump and water filling station for those staying at Wright’s Beach campground.  After dumping, we set up our Scamp 13’ on the beach (campsite WB13, with slight view of the ocean, across from the campsites directly on the sand which weren’t available when we made our reservation) at Wright’s Beach Campground.  There are no electric or dump services here, but there are some water spigots.  The Verizon service here is poor (although there is better reception above the campground when walking the Kortum trail).  The highlight here was walking the beautiful Kortum Trail high above the campground along the bluffs.  This easy flat bluff trail offers beautiful views of Bodega Bay.

Humboldt Redwoods State Park (Burlington Campground):  Days 5-7
We reached our first stop in the California coastal redwoods (Humboldt Redwoods State Park) after a five hour drive from Bodega Bay (with a brief stop in beautiful wine-country Healdsburg to break up the trip).  Our redwoods campsite, 037Bu ($35/night), was great – very private, spacious and within beautiful old growth giant redwoods.  There is a water spigot close to the site and we had poor Verizon service (although across the street on Grove Trail there was better reception).  There’s also free WiFi (about 3Mbs download when we were there) at the Visitor’s Center.  Because the water spigot was threaded, I was able to connect two hoses together (“two hoses” trick) to fill our Scamp’s fresh tank (and avoid having to use a water jug and dolly to move the water).  The campground is located within a dense forest which results in shade throughout the day, so using solar panels to recharge our Scamp’s battery was not possible.  Fortunately, our new SOK lithium battery has the equivalent energy of roughly two equivalent lead acid batteries – so, being in the forest for a week without electrical hookups or solar power wasn’t a problem.

There are a variety of great trails in the redwoods and we walked a lot of them.  They are mostly “easy” paths which meander through beautiful redwoods.  The size of these old trees is amazing (width as well as height).  We particularly enjoyed the Drury-Chaney Loop Trail, Founder’s Grove Trail, and Hidden Springs Trail (which leads down to the Eel River).  You can watch a video we took of the area here.

Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park:  Days 7-10
Driving about four hours farther north, we reached Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park (about 18 miles east of Crescent City, California).  We stopped in Crescent City for gas and groceries (Wild Rivers Market, good selection of organic and healthy food) before heading inland to the campground.

The first thing we did when driving into the campground was use the free Dump and water fill.   We were fortunate enough to have reserved one of the premium river campsites (#56, $35/night) for three nights.  There was no Verizon reception, but we did get it on some of the trails (most notably on the Hiouchi trail, where we were able to stream the morning news from Sling while walking to the Hiouchi Café).  We were also able to use the “two hoses” trick to fill our Scamp’s fresh tank from the water spigot located across the road from our campsite (best done in the early morning before anyone is awake and driving around to avoid having your hose driven over).  This was an awesome campsite, with a private trail directly to the Smith River behind it.  Just like the Humboldt Redwoods, there was mostly shade at this location.  There are two visitor centers here with similar goods and services – however, the Hiouchi Visitor’s Center offers ranger talks.  We went on an afternoon Ranger led walk on the Simpson Reed Loop Trail (one of our favorites).  The Ranger had a particular interest in forest bathing (like sun bathing, but in the forest) which we learned is the process of calming and healing just by being in the forest and exposed to the oxygen producing trees for a couple of hours.  We really did feel a quiet calming being in the redwoods.  We learned that the redwoods are the tallest trees (like NBA players) while the sequoias are the biggest volume trees (like NFL players).  Grove of the Titans Trail is another great trail which leads through spectacular old growth redwoods.  We met a very friendly deer on the trail who followed us for a little while and didn’t mind being close.  On our last day, we tried the Hiouchi Café and ordered their famous 16” giant pancake (although we couldn’t eat much of it).  We were told by our waitress that in the four years she has worked at the café, she has only seen four people finish the pancake (and one was a skinny 14 year old girl)!

Click here to see a video we made while visiting Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.

Cave Junction, Oregon (Laughing Alpaca RV Park):  Days 10-12
We made it to our first stop in Oregon, Cave Junction, in an hour’s drive from the redwoods.  We had a beautiful campsite (#19) along the river at the Laughing Alpaca RV Park ($35/night, full hookup site).  There was free WiFi, cable TV, and good Verizon coverage at this park.  The owner, Jeff, is very gracious and greeted us upon arrival, helped us back into the campsite, and spent time telling us about all the things to do in the area (including a weekly farmer’s market which we attended).

The main draw for us here was to visit Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve (we had reserved the Discovery Cave Tour long in advance).  But, the short two day visit turned out to be much more.  We made friends with the owner of this RV park (along with his family and alpacas) and made a promotional video for his business (click here to watch).  We also found ourselves in the middle of an RV club outing (The Rogue River Ramblers), became friends with a number of the Ramblers, and were invited to their meals!  They were very generous and we had a fantastic rockfish dinner which was freshly caught and cooked up by one of their members from Newport, Oregon.

On Friday afternoon (starts at 4 p.m. on Fridays), we went to the Cave Junction Farmers Market in Kerby, OR, just down the road from Cave Junction.  It was a lively affair, with plenty of seller tents and a lot of produce.  We purchased organic duck eggs ($5/dozen), fresh strawberries, and local honey.  The next morning we drove to the caves (about 45 minute drive) to take the two hour cave tour.  There are some parts of the tour where low crouching is required and there are a lot of stairs and climbs.  Some of the rooms are very cavernous.  Overall, the caves were spectacular and the tour given by a park ranger was excellent.  Click here to see our video in the cares.  We did a little hike outside the caves which offered fantastic views of the Siskiyou Mountains.  Later in the day we washed our car because it was really dirty and a little sappy from sitting in the redwoods for a week.  I also purchased a really nice super slim and bright rechargeable flashlight (Nebo Slim Mini 250) at NAPPA Auto Parts that works really well in the Scamp (it has a magnetic base so I can hang it on the wall).  We also fit in laundry and the Rogue River Ramblers’ fish dinner, making it a very long day.  The next morning we left for Ashland.

Ashland, Oregon (Ashland Creekside RV Park):  Days 12-14
We made it to Ashland Creekside RV Park in about 1 ½ hours.  Our site, #24, was by the river with partial hookups (electric & water).  There is a free central dump station which we used when leaving.  Although the park offers free WiFi (which we found to be slow at our campsite), the campground does have fast (120Mbps download/16Mbps upload) Verizon connectivity.  There was a nice bench alongside our Scamp, so we were able to set up an outdoor mobile office with our laptop plugged into power from the Scamp’s external 120 volt outlets.  There are a few wineries in the area (we visited Weisinger Family Winery), but the main place to visit is the cute little town of Ashland which is about 5 miles away.  We walked Lithia Park, browsed the stores on Main Street, had homemade ice-cream (cherry-oatmeal flavor) at Mix Bakeshop (which was very refreshing on this sunny and warm day), and saw historic Victorian homes.  The town has a very friendly feel and is home of the world famous Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  We stopped for a visit at the Rogue Valley Growers Market (Tuesday mornings) on the way out of town on our last day.  It’s a very large farmers’ market and offers a wide variety of produce (among other things).  We purchased some local honey, coffee beans, and jams.

McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park:  Days 14-16
We drove the 5 Freeway south along Siskiyou Pass over Siskiyou Summit on our way back towards California.  It’s one of the most hazardous stretches of road along Interstate 5.  The summit is at an elevation of 4,310 feet and is the highest point along the 5 Freeway.  The road goes straight up and straight down (a steep 6% gradient) with plenty of curves!  In the winter, it can be covered with snow and ice.  Fortunately, we had no issues with our tow vehicle and trailer.

McArthur-Burney Falls is a special hidden gem (a couple of hour’s drive south from Ashland).  It’s located at the top of California about an hour north of Lassen Volcanic National Park.  We had a nice quiet campsite, #86, in Pioneer Camp (with great spacing between other sites).  There was enough sun at our campsite that we were able to recharge our Scamp’s lithium battery to 100% SOC every day.  We are glad we didn’t stay at Rim Camp because it was loaded with lots of tent campers and families all packed in fairly close together and there was a lot of noise and smoke whenever we walked through it.  There are threaded water spigots (and the “two hose” trick worked again to fill our Scamp’s fresh water tank!) and a central dump station here.  We had no Verizon reception at our campsite, but there was fast free WiFi and electrical outlets for charging devices at the visitor center (walking distance from our campsite).  Since the area is along the PCT (Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail), lots of hikers with big backpacks would often congregate at the visitor center in the morning (there’s a PCT camp here as well here).  Note:  plan your visit mid-week and make campsite reservations as far in advance as possible, as this campground is extremely popular (especially among day use visitors on the weekends).

The main draw here is the falls, which are spectacular.  They are visible right near the park entrance.  But, if you are willing to do a short hike (about a mile), there is a great loop that goes down to the base of the falls (highly recommended).  Click here to see our video.  This hike is minimally strenuous (it’s on both flat pavement and groomed dirt).  There are some really nice bridges that cross the river along this loop.  We did this hike every day.  There’s also a hike, Pioneer Cemetery Trail, which goes to an old settler cemetery and then on to Lake Britton (there are boat rentals and fishing).  The small town of Burney is about 10 minutes’ drive away and is the closest place to get gas and groceries (the visitor center does sell snacks).

Update:  8/26/23
An article came out today in the LA Times about the new found over popularity of McArthur-Burney Falls!  However, if you reserve a camping spot here midweek, you can avoid most of the problems mentioned in this article!

Castle Crags State Park:  Days 16-18
Only about half hour’s drive from McArthur-Burney Falls, Castle Crags State Park is very close to the 5 Freeway.  We decided to stay here because we had seen the unusual rock formations in the past while driving by on other trips and wanted to explore the area.  There is good Verizon reception at this campground.  We stayed at a campsite, #26 ($25/night), on one of the lower campground loops on our first night (we could hear freeway traffic from the campsite).  We were planning on leaving the next day, but decided to stay another night to avoid extreme heat at our next planned campground.  Our original campsite was rented for the following night, but the Ranger gave us a list of available openings and we found a really nice site, #54 ($25/night), at the top of the upper loop that didn’t have traffic noise.  The site did require us to use our Anderson leveler to its maximum position so we would be level.  There’s a nice trail, River Trail, which crosses a train track and then a pedestrian suspension bridge which goes over the Sacramento River and follows the river for some time.  But, the hallmark trail here, which we completed twice, is the View Trail.  As you may have guessed, the trail ascends up to a spectacular viewing area where both Mt. Shasta and the unusual granite rock formations (formed more than 170 million years ago) of Castle Crags are visible.  There are even free viewing telescopes and benches at the top.

We stayed overnight again in Oakland (Days 18-19) (about 4 hour drive from here) on the way to our next destination of San Luis Obispo.

Harford Pier, Port San Luis Harbor District (San Luis Obispo):  Days 19-20
Four hour’s drive south from Oakland is the small beachside community of Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo county.  Harford Pier is a commercial pier located on a beautiful seaside bay.  We stayed at one of their premium campsites, site CG8, which has full hookups (although the sewer hookup is at the very back of the campsite which was too far a reach for our Scamp’s short hose).  Even the big rig RVs staying at these campsites either had very long sewer hoses or two long sewer hoses connected to each other.  That being said, it wasn’t a big deal since we didn’t need to dump– but, since this is the most expensive campsite we have ever stayed at ($100/night), we did expect better hookup service.  However, the campsite views and location more than made up for this inconvenience.  We were located right across the street from the water and had a spectacular view of the entire bay.  Additionally, the tourist town of Avila Beach is a short bike ride away and is loaded with nice shops and restaurants.  We had a great meal at Fat Cats just a brief walk from our campsite along the water.  The fresh fish and chips and crab cakes were excellent (just make sure to arrive early as they fill up fast and it’s first come first served!).  The cherry on top of staying here was being able to ride our bikes (we also walked it) on the Bob Jones Trail (also known as the City to the Sea Trail, about 4.6 miles one way from the Harford Pier to the Bob Jones Trailhead).  This is a wonderful environmental trail (mostly smooth and flat) that wanders next to San Luis Obispo Creek and passes through many natural scenic locations.

We ended our trip back in Santa Barbara (Days 20-21) with some more great times with our cousins before heading home to San Diego.

Final Thoughts
Taking a longer trip is definitely worth doing as it can lead to more interactions with locals, more experiences, and more adventures.  This trip seemed a more immersive and present experience than our usual trips as we weren’t thinking about an imminent return to home but were more focused on enjoying the present moments. The usual thoughts of the responsibilities regarding our home seemed to drift farther and farther out of our minds as we moved forward on our journey.  We found we were very busy every day and didn’t really even have time to sit in our Scamp for any significant amount of time.  We learned that being flexible and thinking out of the box was essential to making such an adventure work (such as the time we had to come up with an immediate solution to solve the toilet valve crisis).  Also, being prepared with the proper tools and equipment paid itself off with dividends.  For example, upgrading our Scamp’s house battery to lithium right before the trip saved the day when we realized there would be no solar charging for a week in the redwoods.  And, having two hoses really made things easy (I actually didn’t use the dolly/jug I brought to move water the entire trip)!  We learned that slowing down and appreciating nature can be very healing (as we witnessed and experienced during our time Forest Bathing during our stay in the redwoods).  We were blessed with perfect weather the entire trip which was almost unbelievable (our rain gear stayed neatly packed away in the back of the Scamp closet)!  Our top favorite new places we visited during this trip were: Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, Ashland, McArthur-Burney Falls, and Harford Pier.  Our favorite local experiences were shopping at the farmers’ markets in Oregon and interacting with other campers.  It seems campers are some of the nicest people.  Usually, they have a similar mindset of wanting to be out in and enjoying nature.  Now that we are back home, we can’t wait to plan the next long 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. 

California Highway 1

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California Highway 1
October 19th – 25th, 2022 (6 nights)

October is the perfect month to drive up California Highway 1.  The weather is often clear and not too cold and the coastal scenery is magnificent.  On this trip, we chose to stop in Santa Barbara, Big Sur, Oakland, and Bakersfield (on the way home).  The main goal of the trip was to see my sister’s new puppy in Oakland.  Here’s a short video of some of our drive up California State Route 1.

Our first stop after leaving San Diego was Santa Barbara.  We departed on a weekday and purposefully waited until around 10 a.m. before leaving San Diego so that we would be driving through Los Angeles after rush hour traffic.  This strategy worked out really well; we were able to have a mostly traffic free drive.  We parked our 2020 Scamp 13’ in my cousin’s driveway for an overnight in Santa Barbara.  We had a great afternoon exploring Alice Keck Park, which has a nice variety of bird species (e.g. hummingbirds, ducks, geese…) as well as fish and turtles in this pond.  We sat down on a bench near the water and several ducks walked up to where we were sitting and sat down close by (very welcoming).  Some of the ducks are very colorful.  We also observed turtles swimming with their heads occasionally popping up above water.  Some turtles were sunning themselves on top of semi-submerged rocks.  We could have stayed at the park longer walking the nature paths and admiring the wild life, but needed to leave to meet up with my cousin Jon and his wife Ida for dinner.  My cousin, who is vegan, took us to Rascals, a vegan Mexican restaurant which offers tasty food (even for non-vegans!).  We had a great dinner catching up since it had been a couple months since our last visit.  We were treated to a colorful sunset that night as well as a beautiful sunrise the next morning.

We travelled up the 101 from Santa Barbara and joined California Highway 1 (SR1) where it starts in San Luis Obispo.  The four hour drive from Santa Barbara to Big Sur offers magnificent views of the coast and sheer cliffs.  But, be warned, the narrow windy stretches can be very dangerous, so it’s very important to be fresh and aware when driving (especially when towing!).  We passed some beautiful places along the way to Big Sur, including Cambria, San Simeon (Hearst Castle), and Ragged Point (especially windy) before arriving at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park.  Note: before arriving at the campground we planned to stop at Julia Pfeiffer State Park (day use only) to see McWay Falls (a waterfall that drops onto the beach sand/ocean).  However, the parking lot is very narrow and doesn’t allow campers or trailers, so we couldn’t stop.  Additionally, since we were only spending one night at the campground, we didn’t have enough time to backtrack the ten mile / 30 minute windy drive to Julia Pfeiffer State Park.  Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park campground is within a lush forest, including large old growth redwood trees.  Our site, #17, is under a dense canopy and almost completely shaded.  Fortunately, we didn’t need to bring solar panels on this trip because we were only staying one night and all our other stops provided power.  There is a threaded shared water spigot by campsite #17, although we didn’t need to use it this trip.  There is very limited cell phone service at the campground (we were just able to send texts without images).  There are lots of trails here and we did a bit of walking before dinner.  Along the way, we met a couple who had just purchased a Scamp 13’.  They came over to our campsite and we filled them in on the updates we had made to our Scamp over the first several years of ownership.  It’s always fun to run into other Scampers (Scamp owners tend to be very enthusiastic about their Scamps as these trailers have a cult like following)!

The next morning, we used the campground’s free central dump station (2 dump stations side by side) before making our way further north onto Carmel-By-The-Sea to visit the old mission.  This drive was much less windy and took us less than an hour.  Along the way, between Big Sur and Carmel-By-The-Sea, we passed several beautiful areas along the coast.  We took some aerial photography at a scenic seaside location on California Highway 1 as well as at the famous Bixby Bridge (built 1932).  The Bixby Bridge is Big Sur’s version of the Golden Gate Bridge!  It’s one of the highest bridges of its kind in the world (over 260 feet above a steep canyon).   We were able to pull over at the north end of the bridge on the side of the road (there is also a small parking lot at the end as well, but it was full and a bit crowded for our setup).  People were trying their best to get good photos of the bridge by positioning themselves at the edge of a steep bluff, which looked a bit risky.  Fortunately, our drone allowed for a safer approach – a flight out over the ocean for some stunning views of the bridge, dramatic cliffs, and sea below.

After our photo touring, we headed north to Carmel-By-The-Sea to visit the old mission.  An aerial video I took can be seen here.  The Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo was built in 1797 and is one of the most authentically restored Catholic mission churches in California ($13 admission fee).  It’s a beautiful church and one of only three California missions built of stone (made from native sandstone quarried from the nearby Santa Lucia Mountains).  Fortunately, there was plenty of street parking at the side of the Mission for our Scamp 13’.  After a nice visit, we continued our drive to my sister’s house in Oakland (about a two hour drive).

Driving into a big populated city like Oakland while towing a trailer requires special care.  It’s important to be extra cautious as many city drivers in dense urban environments can be reckless.  Fortunately, we managed to arrive at my sister’s home without incident and quickly positioned our Scamp 13’ into its very cozy spot in the driveway (just a couple of inches from the chimney!).  We greatly enjoyed our three days visiting my sister and family in Oakland.  We got to meet the new puppy (and nephew’s new kitten) for the first time and had fun taking walks throughout the city.  We walked on Alameda Island (nice homes and pretty streets), Mills College campus (now a part of Northeastern University’s many campuses), and the Skyline National Recreational Trail (up in the hills with beautiful views above the bay).  We even took a tour through a famous cemetery, Mountain View Cemetery, and walked Millionaires Row (where many wealthy and famous people from San Francisco chose to be buried).  We saw the Ghirardelli Mausoleum where Domingo Ghirardelli (of chocolate fame) and his family are buried.  An interesting story of how he and his family came to rest at this cemetery can be found here.  No visit to Oakland would be complete without lunch at A+ Burger, and our visit didn’t disappoint.  We visited Treasure Island on our last night to take in the beautiful view of the City lights at night from across the Bay.

We divided the eight hour trip home into a couple of four hour segments, with a stay over at the halfway point in Bakersfield.  We selected the Buena Vista Aquatic Recreational Area (our first time here) to spend the night.  Located in the middle of seemingly nowhere (amid farms and dry earth), is a large lake, Lake Webb, surrounded by beautiful trees.  An aerial video I made can be viewed here.  The campground is only about a five minute drive off the 5 Freeway, down a long mostly deserted straight road.  The campground appears as an oasis (very green with trees and water) in the middle of a desert.  There were only a few other campers when we arrived and the late October weather was in the low 70’s.  We were warned at the entrance that the temperature here can get well above 100 degrees during the summer!  We had site #51 ($25/night plus $8 reservation fee) which is right on the lake and is an 84’ long pull through site (full hookups, there’s also a central dump for those sites without a sewer hookup).  We had beautiful wrap around views of the lake inside our Scamp.  There was one bar of Verizon cell phone coverage and plenty of HDTV channels.  Note:  the sewer hookup diameter at site #51 is the same as our hose (which we’ve never seen before), so I had to physically hold the hose over the sewer pipe while dumping.  We noticed on the drive getting to the campground, there is a bike path parallel to the road that provides a nice long ride through farmland.  We enjoyed walking near the lake and watching the ducks, coots, hawks, and other birds swimming on and flying over the water.  This is a popular lake for boating activities (swimming is not allowed).  We were told the busiest time is the Fourth of July (also one of the hottest times of the year here).  We found the Buena Vista Aquatic Recreational Area to be a perfect midway rest stop on the way from San Diego to the Bay area.

So, if you are planning a trip along California Highway 1, consider going in October.  The views are incredible and the weather can be practically perfect in every way!

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. 

California Central Coast 2022

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California Central Coast 2022
August 20nd – August 27th, 2022 (7 nights)

Santa Barbara
When heading to the Central Coast, Santa Barbara is a great stop.  It’s a beautiful place to visit and we have relatives there with whom we enjoy spending time.  We left our home in Carlsbad early Saturday morning (a must to beat the Los Angeles traffic) and arrived in Santa Barbara in about 3 ½ hours (a quick drive).  We packed breakfast so we could get right out and eat on the road.

On this trip, we visited Montecito, home to the rich and famous (including Meghan Markle and Prince Harry)!  This tony city has a small downtown, called Coast Village, where there are swanky stores and tasty eateries.  It takes about half an hour to walk up and down both sides of the main street.  If you look closely, you may see some famous people (locals told us Ellen DeGeneres hangs out at the Starbucks)!  But, we are more interested in seeing nature and animals, so we headed for the trails right up the road.  One trail close to Coast Village, Hot Springs Canyon Trail, leads to natural hot springs where one can soak in multiple pools (the hottest at the top).  We took the McMenemy Trail for a short hot August late afternoon hike; then dinner with relatives for some delightful paella.

Since check-in time at Islay Creek Campground in Montaña De Oro State Park, about a 45 minute drive up the coast, isn’t until 2 p.m., we had time on Sunday morning to take a hike at the Douglas Family Preserve with my cousin Jon and his wife Ida (as well as with their yellow lab, Charlie).  It’s a beautiful public park high on a mesa above Arroyo Burro Beach overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  Hope Ranch, another exclusive enclave, can be seen on the ridge opposite the park.  Douglas Family Preserve, the largest area of coastal open space within the city limits of Santa Barbara, has over three miles of park trails (and dogs can run wild once inside the park).

We could have stayed in Santa Barbara much longer with so much to see and do, but we had reservations at Islay Creek Campground in Montaña De Oro State Park!

Montaña de Oro State Park
Montaña de Oro State Park is about two hour’s drive north of Santa Barbara and is very close to Morro Bay.  With over 8,000 acres, including seven miles of shoreline, Montaña de Oro is one of the largest state parks in California.  Because Islay Creek Campground within the park has no RV dump station, we dumped our tanks ($7.50) at the 76 Station on Winchester Road in Goleta on the way up the 101.  We also filled our Fresh tank in Santa Barbara, which was good because the water spigots at the park are gravity fed from large drums and, thus, are very slow to fill water jugs.  We arrived at Islay Creek Campground at around 3 p.m.  We had site #16 ($25/night + $7.99 reservation fee).  The spacing between sites is good and each site can accommodate RV lengths of up to 27’ (and tow vehicles can generally park side by side with the trailer).  There is no cell phone reception within the park, but cell phones will work just a short five minute walk up the road to the beach.  The beach is easily accessible and wide, but the surf can be rough with rip tides.  At the water’s edge, there’s a large rock some like to climb onto (it can be more tricky than it looks because of slick sand) — great for photos above the rocks and sea.  One of the first things we explored upon arrival was the Visitor’s Center, housed in the historic Spooner home.  The home was owned a rancher family and has beach views and great docents anxious to tell the history of the place.

Being right inside the park, Islay Creek Campground is the perfect base to explore the many trails that Montaña De Oro State Park has to offer.  The most popular trail, the Bluff Trail, is high up on the bluff and goes on for a couple of miles (about two hours round trip from the campground).  There are spectacular ocean views on the Bluff Trail, featuring dramatic rocks towering high above the rough ocean below as well as pelicans and gulls constantly flying by.  We also had a chance to go into PG&E property (sign in required at entry) and explore the Point Buchon Trail (open 8AM – 5PM, Closed Tuesdays & Wednesdays).  Similar to the Bluff Trail, the Point Buchon Trail has other unique aspects, such as a large sink hole which features an ocean cave and beach!  Security inside the PG&E property is high as the Diablo Canyon (Nuclear) Power Plant is just miles down the road.  We were advised that if we didn’t check out by 4:45 p.m. that a security detail would be sent to get us.  We made sure we were back in time!

There are also some great back country trail hikes right above and behind the campground.  We hiked the Oat Peak Trail, Beebee Trail, and took the Badger Trail through Rattlesnake Flats back down to the Bluff Trail.  Some of the trails go on for over 30 miles.  There are certainly plenty of trail hikes to keep an avid hiker busy for days!

Pismo Beach
Just about forty five minutes south of Montana De Oro State Park (or an hour and a half north of Santa Barbara) is Pismo Beach.  Our favorite campground here is Pismo State Beach North Beach Campground.   We reserved site #29 for four nights – it’s a premium site directly in front of the beach.  To get this type of site, one usually needs to reserve it right when the reservation window opens six months in advance.  This stretch of beach also has a number of private campgrounds, but the campsites at the private campgrounds are generally very tightly spaced together (but many have full hookups).  There are also two fully equipped RV supply stores right across the street from the campground, so if you need any parts for your RV, this location has you covered!

Pismo State Beach North Beach Campground is fantastic.  The campsites are very spread out and the beach is just over a little sandy hill adjacent to the campground.  There are no hookups, but there are water spigots and a central dump ($10 at this time).  We set up our solar panel briefcase to recharge our batteries during the day and used 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 great view to the north of the Pismo pier.  There are some nice walking paths that are on the perimeter of the campground.  One goes south on a wooden boardwalk above the beach toward Oceano.  We saw many whales feeding close to shore while walking along this path (look for a “feeding frenzy” – this is when there are swarms of birds low over the water and indicates a run of sardines or anchovies)!  We could see whales popping their heads out of the water as well as blow spouts.  Don’t ever paddle into a feeding frenzy or this could happen!  Another trail from the campground goes 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.

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.

We met with my brother-in-law Bob for a couple of days during the trip, and then we needed to replenish our food supplies.  San Luis Obispo County has a number of farmer’s markets and we went to a couple on a Wednesday (Arroyo Grande & Pismo Beach).  We were able to buy farm fresh fruits and vegetables from various farmers.  There are also popular food stores close by, such as Trader Joes and Sprouts markets.

Other notable places within a short drive (or bike ride) of the campground which we enjoyed are Margo Dodd Park and Eldwayen Ocean Park.  Both are ocean front bluff parks which offer great sea life watching, including birds and sometimes whales.  There are giant rocks that rise high out of the ocean which the gulls and pelicans roost on.  We also drove over to Harford Pier, a commercial pier which also has some recommended restaurants on it, and enjoyed walking down the pier.  We saw a playful sea otter diving and surfacing and swimming on his back right below us!  Here’s some video we took from Pismo Beach.

We didn’t stay long enough to explore everything this area has to offer and we definitely would like to come back sometime in the Fall to see the Monarch Butterfly migration.  Our friend Jim who lives in Avila Beach gave us some additional places to visit for next time, like exploring the Architectural Graveyard on the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus,  taking a walking tour of the old Victorian houses in San Luis Obispo, enjoying a docent led tour of the Mission of San Luis Obispo, going to the Mission Plaza, visiting Cave Landing, and having lunch at Fat Cats or Mersea restaurants.   Until next time!

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. 

Exploring Remote Jalama Beach and Lake Cachuma (Santa Barbara County)

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Exploring Remote Jalama Beach and Lake Cachuma (Santa Barbara County)
March 6th – 13th, 2022 (7 nights)

The California coast is beautiful in late winter / early Spring and provides the perfect transition from winter desert camping.  On this trip, we were accompanied by a number of friends:

  1. one family of three and a friend plus their Great Pyrenees dog in a rented 27’ motorhome
  2. neighbor friends couple in their RPOD trailer
  3. friend couple from Oxnard in their Class A Southwind 32’ motorhome

For this adventure, we chose two beautiful campgrounds in Santa Barbara County.  The first campground we visited was Jalama Beach, a remote beach location about an hour north of downtown Santa Barbara and close to Vandenberg Air Force Base.  Since the drive from San Diego to Jalama Beach is a long one (about 5 hours), we decided to break up the trip by stopping for lunch in the small beach town of Carpinteria along the way.  We discovered, by chance, a park above the beach called Viola Fields (which happens to be a sanctioned model aircraft field!).  There’s a nice bluff trail here which looks down over the sea and the Carpinteria Seal Sanctuary.  There were lots of seals to view during our visit!

After a nice lunch in our Scamp, some drone flying and Frisbee games over Viola Fields, and a leisurely hike along the railroad tracks to the Seal Sanctuary overlook, we headed back onto the 101 North toward Santa Barbara.  Following an hour and a half drive and the 14.5 mile curvy road from the freeway to the coast, we arrived at the remote Jalama Beach Campground at around 4 p.m.  We chose a no-hookup site (#72, $30/night) close to the sand (2nd row) with some ocean views.  The wind was howling (Jalama Beach is known for being very windy) and we spent the evening in our friends’ rented motorhome playing the game Sequence for the first time (which we really enjoyed).  The location is very isolated and there wasn’t any cellphone service or HDTV signals.  However, we were able to log onto the free campground WiFi and use the internet and make phone calls (using WiFi calling).  The internet speed was decent for simple browsing, internet, and phone calls (at least for my phone).

Jalama Beach is located on a beautiful wide sandy beach and the campground has around 107 campsites (with 31 sites having electrical hookups).  There are water spigots throughout the campground and a free central dump station.  The beach is great for all sorts of activities, including walking, surfing, kite flying, surf fishing, fat tire e-bike riding, rock collecting, and more!  Jalama Beach has a grill restaurant that serves their “world famous” Jalama Burger.  We tried the burger and it is very good and juicy!  We road bikes, flew kites (including my new Scuba Diver kite!), explored during the day and played games and watched movies at night (and had a campfire and made s’mores one night)!  I flew my radio-controlled CR Climax sailplane over the bluffs one afternoon.  Riding bikes on the sand is super fun, especially since the beach goes on for over a mile!  One thing to be careful of though is tar on the sand.  As we discovered, it is very difficult to remove tar from shoes (our friend recommends rubbing olive oil and leaving on the tar for several minutes and then rubbing off).  The best defense though is to take a pair of beach shoes or flip flops that you just use when on the sand.

Following a couple of relaxing days and nights at Jalama Beach (and some beautiful sunsets), we packed up and headed to Cachuma Lake (around a one hour drive).  Cachuma Lake campground is very large and is located on one side of the lake.  Our site, #106 ($45/night), has full hookups and a partial lake view.  We walked the campground with our friends and identified some nice looking dry camping sites with beautiful lake views for possible future visits (#315, #313, #455, #453, #289, #288, #230, #231).  We arrived in the afternoon and had a nice lunch at the HOOK’d Bar and Grill (with outdoor seating overlooking Lake Cachuma).  There is a tackle shop (sells fishing licenses too) and a boat ramp near the restaurant to accommodate fishermen.  Lake Cachuma is a big fishing destination featuring trout, bass, and crappie.  Our friend rented a pontoon boat and caught a rainbow trout during our stay.  There are plenty of trails for hiking and biking around the campground.  Our friends told us they took a fantastic nature walk with a park host on Saturday after we left (sign up in person at the Nature Center).  Additionally, there are guided lake cruises by Lake Cachuma park naturalists on Saturdays and Sundays (Adults $15, Kids $10).  Reservations should be made as early as possible as these tours sell out.  Lastly, there is a world class Frisbee golf course that is very expansive.  Frisbee rentals can be obtained at the Lake Cachuma store (which also has a gas station and propane refill station).  Overall, we had a relaxing stay for a few days and nights at Lake Cachuma.  The campground was pretty quiet and it seemed there were a number of snowbirds camped out here for several months.

The last stop on our trip was at my cousin’s house in Santa Barbara, located only about 30 minutes down the CA-154 from Lake Cachuma.  We had fun walking within the Douglas Family Preserve, strolling Shoreline Park, having lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant in Santa Barbara (Taco Pipeye), and exploring the Ellwood Monarch Sanctuary.  The highlight of our trip to Santa Barbara was seeing my cousins and having a nice dinner with them in downtown Santa Barbara.

On this trip we learned that one doesn’t have to travel very far to have a fulfilling getaway if the holiday is combined with beautiful locations, close friends and family, and fun things to do together (like games, hikes/bikes, kites, and meals).  So, don’t hesitate to book a quick trip close by and make sure to pull the above elements together to ensure a happy adventure!  RV there yet?

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. 

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. 

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. 

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!