Category Archives: CA camping

On The Beach

South Carlsbad State Beach is a wonderful camping site — very popular and almost impossible to get into.

I made reservations months ago for a beachside site. Here is what we see out our windows:

We have watched California Grey Whales migrate north along with pods of porpoises. The birding has been nice (Pacific Loon is a new life bird) as has been the chance to see Robb, Mary, Dane and Maeve down in Del Mar. We’ll be here several days more and then hang out in the Del Mar driveway (hookup, hot shower, great hospitality.)

Anza-Borrego Birds

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is the largest state park in California and after lots of recent rain, about to pop with wildflowers. Here are some of the early blooms as photographed by Sally.

The sunrises and sunsets here are spectacular.

As are some of the birds. One of the toughest birds for me to photograph is the Verdin. Not only do they bounce from limb to limb, they often seem to be buried in the brush. Here is one that paused for a moment.

This Western Bluebird gave us some great looks on a walk to the Visitor Center.

Likewise, this Say’s Phoebe posed early one morning.

Perhaps the most common bird here is the White-crowned Sparrow.

We are here for a couple of days more, then off to San Diego for family, friends, and birds.

Camping With Dane

Monday morning, Dane and I and our faithful Vizsla Penny launched for the long trip to Sequoia National Park.

Several months ago I went online to look for possibilities for campsites and wanted the mountains because I feared the temperatures elsewhere. I grabbed the only site available out of several hundred and as it turned out, it was probably the best campsite there.

The trip up was tough. We had to go through LA on I-5 (the five) and there were several serious backups. I’m not sure if it helps or not to have Google Maps tell you that “there’s a 25 minute delay ahead of you in five miles. You are on the fastest route.”

The temperatures were about 108 on the steep climbs north of LA and I watched the temperature gauge get higher and higher. Then I took a shortcut which looked good on the map but was as twisty and narrow a road I’ve seen. We entered King’s National Park and drove about an hour to our campground in Sequoia. Here’s Dane and Penny just below our site.

The campground was full with nearly every site having a campfire. The daytime temperature was in the low eighties -at 6700′ – and the nighttime temps were in the forties.

The first morning I was up early to walk the dog and met this young buck, whose antlers were in velvet, about 20 feet from the van. (I saw him and his brother/cousin each morning.)

One of the problems with National Parks is that they are not dog-friendly. You can not take them on any trails. I knew this but it’s still a pain. We took a drive down to the big redwoods Tuesday morning. Left Penny in the rig with hopes she’d not tear it up, and walked with dozens of others down to see the General Sherman tree – the largest tree by volume in the world. Going down was easy but still it was nice to rest.

Here is Dane in front of the tree and a shot of one of the many other stately trees.

The following day, we drove about a half hour over to the national forest where dogs are allowed. We cloned up an old logging trail where only elk and horse prints were visible, bushwhacked up to a mountaintop, and Dane tried, without success, to find a cell signal.

He took this photo of Penny and me before we headed back toward the van, with a slight pause for getting “unlost.”

The trip back Thursday was brutal. There was more traffic (getting a jump on the long weekend) and four or five major backups that went for five or ten miles at a time. Too many people for the 8 lane roads – and the thrill of having young Marines on motorcycles threading there way between the slow-moving cars and trucks, dodging wide mirrors, driving way too fast.

The outing was great. We got some exercise, ate well, slept well, and only got lost in the woods for about ten minutes. The Airstream worked well – I used the solar a few times to supplement the batteries, and Wednesday for lunch, we ordered pizza from the campground store. Now that is glamping.

2016 Trip Planning

I was watching the clock on my computer, waiting to try to reserve a site for our February visit to San Diego, as the February sites opened up at 8:00 AM August 1st (11:00 EDT). I knew that the South Carlsbad State Park was closing for repairs in mid-February so had planned a week’s stay just ahead of that closure date. What I did not know was that much of the park was already closed and that very few sites were open.

As 11:00 clicked on, I counted to ten and loaded a page I had pretty much ready-to-go but could not find any sites in the area we had stayed before. There were only about 30 sites available and as I selected one and hit return, it would be gone. I lost about five along the beachside this way and soon only a couple on the opposite side of the road were available. I got one and locked it in and took a deep breath.  I had heard of folks fighting for Florida sites as soon as they became available but had not run into this before — too much tension but ten minutes later all were booked and I felt fortunate to get one.

This site is closed during our February visit but we'll be rather close and happy to have a campsite.

This site is closed during our February visit but we’ll be rather close and happy to have a campsite.

It turns out that California has a restriction that you can not reserve a campsite more that seven months away. New Mexico has a six-month restriction. Most other states we visit do not.

I have locked in a couple of weeks at Patagonia Lake State Park in Arizona prior to our California visit and then about ten days at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park after we leave Carlsbad.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is great for birding, hiking, and desert flora and fauna. Photo courtesy of Roger Smith.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is great for birding, hiking, and desert flora and fauna. Photo courtesy of Roger Smith.

 

We wanted to get back to Arizona for birding and see the kids in San Diego so that formed the backbone of our first half. Then we need to ride out Texas school spring break which ties up their parks and hopefully visit our Ohio gang on the way home. The trip is pretty much planned (Mapquest routes, spreadsheets, some reservations) leaving in early January and returning in mid-April but very well may change. It’s nice to have a game plan and to have locked in those crucial California dates. Stay tuned.

My Cousin Vinny – Why Do We Keep Thinking Of It?

We changed plans and moved a little east to the Salton Sea Recreation Area where we had better chances of sites with hookup, and where there are thousands of birds. It was an easy drive through the high desert and as we approached the lake, there were hundreds of big RVs parked on the desert, each with its covey of off-road jeeps. The dust, noise, and generally low-class nature (I guess my nordic skiing/paddling bias shows) was quite depressing. Fortunately, we were heading toward the other side of the lake.

The RV section of the park is just a line of parking places, but there is shade and electric and water. We have some nice Canadian neighbors (curling pals from way back) and it is a good setup. We are hanging out with the big rigs – our Airstream is to the far left in this photo.

The first birds I saw here were Black-necked Stilts, a species I have seen before, but not on this trip. They are neat, with their bubble-gum legs and constant movement.

If you never saw the movie, My Cousin Vinny, the blog post title won’t mean much. However, right after we unhitched and set up, the first train went by. Followed by another, which sounded the horn for a crossing up ahead. No one who recommended this park mentioned the trains. These are not short Vermont trains – they are long with four or five engines, and sometimes a pusher. Why do I feel that they are filled with Chinese-built stuff shipping from LA to the WalMarts of America?

Before supper, Mary and I walked down to the lake to watch the sun set. We can take a little train noise – here comes one now – to be in such a pretty spot. All aboard.

Riding Out The Storm

We had set aside two nights at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park before heading further eastward. The trip from San Diego was longer than expected because of the steep winding roads crossing the mountains. The truck did fine but the brakes got warm on the 6-8 % descents inspite of my using the engine for slowing. We arrived at the village of Borrego Springs with its greenery, golf courses, and "we want to be like a mini-Palm Springs" look and prices. (Gas is $4.09). The park is massive and we got the last of the 52 hook-up sites. Here’s our setup.

  • With over 600,000 acres, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is the largest state park in the contiguous United States. 500 miles of dirt roads, 12 wilderness areas and miles of hiking trails provide visitors with an unparalleled opportunity to experience the wonders of the Colorado Desert. The park is named after Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza and the Spanish name borrego, or bighorn sheep. The park features washes, wildflowers, palm groves, cacti and sweeping vistas. Visitors may also have the chance to see roadrunner, golden eagles, kit foxes, mule deer and bighorn sheep as well as iguanas, chuckwallas and the red diamond rattlesnake. *

Before we got here, we knew about a weather warning for this weekend with high winds, lots of rain, and snow in high elevations. We had an option to try to outrun it but looking at Arizona forecasts, it looked like it will be to extensive – and the last thing we need is to run into high winds and rain on the road. so we have decided to stay here – even though it is full. I’m betting that the forecast will cause some weekend cancellations and while we may have switch sites, or even go into the "no hookup" areas (we have a generator if needed), we are going to sit tight here until Monday.

We have good 4G reception, showers are a short walk away, and town is only a few miles away. Meanwhile, I can sort through my California bird photos . Here are two Cactus Wrens, probably my favorite desert bird, that I saw on my dog walk this morning.

Looking at the positive side of things, the Airstream needs a washing badly after a week of salt spray and sand – so it looks like we’ve got one on the way. I look forward to seeing the desert after this much-needed rain. Bring it on!

California, here we come

Our son Robb and his family recently moved to Del Mar, California. While it is still a long ways from Texas, I have been hoping that we could bird in Arizona this year so .. Why not? So yesterday, I booked the last shore side camping site available for school vacation next February at South Carlsbad State Park. It overlooks the Pacific and is not too far away from our gang. I’m already reading about birding hotspots – never having birded in the west, there’s a lot of potential life birds.

Another part of the preparation was to add a cap to the truck and two days ago, the one I had ordered arrived and was installed. This one, unlike our last one, has side windows that swing up so that you can access things in the front of the truck bed. I’ll miss hauling everything out to get at a toolbox. It is a custom Leer cap and looks great, as you can see below.

Lots of planning to do as we prepare for a late December launch. I got the shower working today and fixed a few loose items. Of course, the closer you look the more you see and I’m ordering small parts weekly. Also ordered a couple of California bird books. Westward ho – we hope.