On our way to Yuma, Arizona.

12^th October – Travel to Valencia, CA

We left Oceano and took the scenic route past Lake Cachuma and came over the mountains to the view of the town of Santa Barbara below us.  We continued along the coast towards Los Angeles but turned east on Route 126, as we were going to skirt around the northern edge of the city tomorrow.

As we have moved away from the coast the weather is warming up nicely.  California is a lovely spot to be in October and we are pleased the camp site has a nice swimming pool to relax in after our journey.

13^th October – Travel to Indio, CA

Today’s journey took us on the I-5 towards Los Angeles.  We then turned east and followed the I-250 along the edge of the Angeles National Forest.  We passed Pasadena and San Bernardino.  It was a scenic drive through the agricultural crops and citrus groves, with the hills on our left.

The I-10 took us through Palm Springs passing hundreds of wind turbines everywhere.  Joshua Tree National Park was only a few miles away but we had to by-pass it as it was still closed due to the Government shut-down.  At the camp site we were into the swimming pool to cool off.

14^th October – Travel to Yuma, AZ

This is Day Four of consecutive travelling for us and our route took us past The Salton Sea.  In 1900 irrigation channels diverted water into a dry lake bed and for a few years the area was fertile.  Of course water always takes the path of least resistance and in 1905 the Colorado River flooded and created a series of problems that eventually led to the accidental creation of this shallow Inland Sea; the largest lake in California.  A hundred years later it is now 226ft below sea level, saltier than the Pacific Ocean and has become a major resting stop for migrating birds.

 

 

We leave California and arrive in Yuma, Arizona to temperatures of around 30C – time for the pool again!

15^th October – Mexico

Our reason for coming to Yuma was for Alison to continue dental treatment in Los Algodones in Mexico.  So we were up and into Mexico for the 10am appointment.  The town was not as busy as our previous visit in April when there were still a lot of “snowbirds” coming across the border every day.  We were bombarded with people toting for business and trying to sell us something.

16^th October – Yuma

Our first camp site in Yuma was a little out of town so we moved to another site nearer to the amenities.  The town of Yuma has a permanent population of less than 100,000 but during the winter months Retirees (“snowbirds”) from the northern states and Canada swell the number upwards to nearly 250,000.  There are many RV, Trailer and Mobile home parks in the area but most are virtually empty waiting for the “snowbirds” to begin their migration to their winter quarters.

17^th - 27^th October – Yuma  

We spent the next 10 days preparing for our departure from USA as we now only have 4 weeks left in the country.  The RV needs sorting and ensuring everything is in good repair for it to be left for 6 months.  Inevitably this means something goes wrong and we had to call out the RV Repair Man to fix the electric water heater which has chosen this time to pack-up on us.

We had two more trips into Mexico for the remaining dental treatment which proved successful in the end.  On one of the day trips we were accompanied by Lynn and Dave, who we had spent the afternoons with by the pool.  Paul enjoyed bargaining with vendors for items and Alison got two pairs of glasses (for £40) as well as a hair-cut for £2.50!  Everything is so much cheaper here including the Tequila!

We have had fresh grapefruit for breakfast on a number of occasions as the RV park is full of fruit trees.

We heard that Yuma was hosting the Arizona Hog Motorbike Rally on 25/26 Oct so we took a trip into Downtown Yuma on the Saturday.  Somewhat disappointing as we only saw about a dozen motor bikes and the Vendors only took us about 15 minutes to walk around (not at all like Sturgis!).

 

We had a brief visit to the ‘Peanut Patch’.  Yuma has a lot of crops around it, such as peanuts, alfalfa fields and citrus groves.  We also saw two fields of sheep – the most sheep we have seen in the whole of our visit!  Lamb does not seem popular with the Americans.  It is rarely seen in the shops and hardly ever on restaurant menus.  (Guess what we’ll be having for our first Sunday roast back in UK!). Burger's! Don't think so.
 

Our camp site was used years ago to accommodate John Wayne and the filming crew when producing a film about the French Foreign Legion out in the Sand Dunes. The film was made in the 30s.

It is close to the Marine Corps Airbase in Yuma.  They flew their aircraft anytime between 7am and 10pm every day including Sunday.  We spent every afternoon by the pool watching the Chinooks, Ospreys, Harriers and other jets flying over.  The airbase has the longest runway (approx 2.6 ml) in USA.

 

We also get some good sunsets when there are some clouds during the day.
 

Highway 1

8^th October – Moss Landing, Monterey Bay

Leaving our campsite north of San Francisco we travelled through a continual concrete jungle for over 70 miles, along the east side of San Francisco Bay; towns such as San Quentin, Oakland, and San Jose.  Once we got to the coast we took the by-pass around Santa Cruz and continued south on Highway 1 along the coast line of Monterey Bay.

We stopped at Moss Landing for lunch and were delighted at the wildlife there.  Sea Otters were floating in the harbour in-let.  Seals and Sea Lions were dozing in the sun by the harbour, and  Pelicans gliding by.


There were a couple of Researchers from the Monterey Bay Research Institute who were monitoring the sea otters.  Some of them had been tagged so it was known that this group of more than 30 were all male, either fairly young or old. 

Those in their prime were elsewhere with the females.  It was really delightful to watch them cleaning themselves and playing, swirling about in the water.

 

Just off the coast there is a Deep Water Canyon that is up to 2 miles deep and hence the Marine Research Institute’s presence at this location.  We decided to stay in the vicinity and found a camp site near the harbour.  Later in the afternoon we went down to the beach and watched the sea otters fishing, along with a couple of seals and dolphins.  The Sea lions on the dock made a continuous noise and some kept clambering over those that were trying to sleep.

9^th October – Big Sur

We carried on down Highway 1 to Big Sur stopping once or twice to enjoy the sea views from the hill side.  Big Sur is a name given to; the river, the lighthouse, the village and this coastline stretching 94 miles.  The road hugs the cliffs around 500ft above the sea crashing below.  The few sandy beaches are not easily accessible but there were many lay-bys to enjoy the views.

We parked the RV in the camp site in the Redwoods next to the Big Sur River.  After lunch we took the car down to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park where we enjoyed views of McWay Falls which tumble onto the shore.  Prior to 1989 the falls fell directly into the sea but a landslide further up the coast line meant sandy soil was carried by the tide building up the shoreline into a beach.
 

We stopped at the Coast Gallery for a cup of tea on the way home.  Established in 1958 the Gallery has been created inside dis-used Redwood Water Tanks overlooking the sea.

10^th October – Monterey Bay Aquarium

We drove back up the coast to Monterey passing through Carmel Highlands – where Clint Eastwood was Mayor for a time.

We spent over 4 hours in the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  There were some enormous tanks with a variety of local sea life including Giant Bass and huge Tuna.  There were lots of hands-on exhibits for the kids (both large and small). 

The Jellyfish Sections were the best and included florescent Jellies glowing in the dark.  The  

Aquarium is home to a number of rescued animals including coastal birds that would not survive in the wild.

We sat in on a couple of presentations; one about inventions inspired from aquatic animals and the other about Sea Otters.  The story was told of a rescued pup that was fostered by an adult female sea otter at the Aquarium, who taught the pup survival skills which enabled it to be released later.  There are only about 2900 Sea Otters off the California coast so the ‘raft’ (collective word for sea otters) we saw the other day of over 30, accounted for 1% of the population..  The populace of Sea Otters have proved beneficial for the survival of the forests of Sea Kelp off the coast, as they eat the Sea Urchins that would otherwise eat the Kelp.  Unfortunately the Sea Otter exhibit was closed undergoing repairs as the animals can be a little destructive at times.

On the way home we stopped at the Monarch Butterfly Grove Sanctuary.  The Monarch butterflies east of the Rockies migrate to Mexico for the winter, but those on the west side of the Rockies stop off here in California.  Unfortunately it was a cool breeze today and only one was spotted in flight. 

11^th October – Hearst Castle

Our journey, continuing south on Highway1, took us past Piedras Blancas Beach upon which was an Elephant Seal Rookery. There were hundreds of juvenile Elephant Seals lying around on the beach basking in the sun, flicking sand over themselves and play-fighting in the sea.

It was terrific to see them so relaxed with the tourists taking photos from behind the fence line.

We stopped at Hearst Castle high up on the mountains at San Simeon.  It was built over a 28 year period during the 1920/40s for newspaper and movie tycoon, William Hearst, who entertained celebrities of the day such as Charlie Chaplain, Clark Gable and Howard Hughes etc.  It was built in a Mediterranean design and we enjoyed a guided tour of the Grand Rooms on the ground floor. 
We wandered around the gardens, patios and pools and imagined what it must have been like spending a weekend as a guest in such lavish surroundings.




W Hearst also had a personal zoo on his land and although most of the animals are long gone there was still a small heard of zebra to be seen from the highway.

We then continued on Highway 1 to Oceano.  We had lost the rugged cliff tops and were now down at sea level.  Our campsite at Oceano was right next to the Sand Dunes so we had an exploratory hike down to the sea – which took nearly 30 minutes. 

There were many people with their RVs and dune buggies gathering on the beach for the weekend.  On the way back over the dunes we met a family who let Alison use one of their boards to slide down the dunes.

 

San Francisco

5^th October 

The 113 miles to San Francisco took nearly 4 hours.  Our route took us over the mountains using some very, very twisty roads with numerous switch-backs and hair-pin corners.  We passed near the Napa Valley and several vine-yards, which looked very inviting.  We finally arrived at an RV park claiming to be the ‘closest to San Francisco’.  The temperature was 30C and not a cloud to be seen in the sky.

6^th October – San Francisco

We took the ferry across the San Francisco Bay.  We passed San Quentin prison and then Alcatraz Island with the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.  We were not able to visit Alcatraz as it is part of the National Park Service and hence currently closed.

We spent the morning wandering along Fisherman’s Warf enjoying the morning sun and people watching.  The whole place was really busy and there was quite a buzz going on.  We had lunch of clam chowder served in sour dough bread bowl, sitting in the sun listening to the street entertainment. 

The queue for the cable trolley bus up the hill was too long so we walked up to the next Stop and got on the trolley which took us up to the top of the “Crookedest Street” – Lombard Street.  This street
winds its way down the very steep hill and there were police at the top directing traffic that wanted to drive down the tight switch-backs.

We then got back on the cable trolley bus and carried on to China Town, going up and down some of the 47 hills of San Francisco.  Unfortunately we missed the street parade that afternoon.  On the next trolley we carried on through
Union Square which had some terrific looking shops to the end-of-the-line where we watched them turning the trolley on the turntable.

Our next trolley bus took us to the Street Fair in the Castro district (GLBT community area).  After a short time wandering around we decided to continue our travels around the city so we sought out the nearest metro station and journeyed on to Golden Gate Park for the Bluegrass Festival. 

Golden Gate Park was a lovely spot and we sat amongst the crowds on the grass in the sun listening to some bands playing at one of several stages that had been set up for this free event.  There were thousands of people here and most seemed to have travelled by bicycle as there were thousands of bikes parked up everywhere we looked.

We finally left the park just after 5pm and it took us at least half an hour to walk half the length of the Park.  It is a very large park and we could easily have spent a full day here exploring the various places such as the Japanese Tea Rooms and the Conservatory of Flowers.

We caught a bus back to the ferry port and managed to catch the last but one ferry back to our destination at Larkspur.  As we travelled back across the bay we were treated to a most colourful
sunset as a back-drop to the Golden Gate Bridge. We chatted to a couple of ladies on the ferry and they recommended some local eateries.

7^th October – The Golden Gate Bridge

We spent the morning chatting with a family from Australia that we had met on the ferry yesterday morning. They just happened to be in the same RV park as we were and directly opposite us. Their
five children kept us entertained for quite a time.
Later we went down to Sausalito for lunch at a place recommended by the ladies on the ferry yesterday evening. 
We then took the car along the road leading into the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.  Some of the roads were shut but we were able to get to some spots with great views over the Golden Gate Bridge.

Pacific Ocean and Redwoods

30^th September – West Coast at Last!

We said our farewells to Duane and Tami but in the knowledge that we will meet up in a month’s time as they are also heading back to Tucson for the winter.

The drive down the Umpqua Scenic Corridor was interspersed with rain and drizzle.  With both the weather and the scenery you could have been anywhere in UK.  At one point we came across an Elk Viewing point where we stopped for a break.

When we hit the coast at Reedsport we headed south.  This the first time we have seen the sea since January.  As we left one of the towns we noted the sign advising that we had left the Tsunami Warning Zone!

We spent the night at Cape Blanco State Park campground which was 240' above the sea (well out of reach of the average Tsunami).  A trail took us down to the beach where the waves were crashing against the rocks. We could hear the sea roaring below us all night.

1st October 2013 – California!

Due to the impasse between the two political parties governing the USA, and the vote not to pass the budget, we read that many government departments are temporarily suspended – including the national park service.  We had concerns this would impact on our visit to the Redwood NP.  However the Redwoods stretch along the coast of California for over 40 miles and are managed by both national and state parks.  Fortunately for us the state parks are still open.

We crossed the state line from Oregon into California expecting to encounter one of the Inspection Stations we had been warned about, as California does not like foreign fruits and vegetables being brought into the state. This is to protect against the transfer of any diseases (it also ensures you re-stock with produce purchased in California).  (They do however export all off there fruit) However the Inspection point was closed; possibly due to the suspension of government services?
 

Jedediah Smith Redwood state park unfortunately could not accommodate our size of RV so we continued south and ended up at the town of Klamath with a nice camping spot next to the River. The journey down Route 101 followed the coast line and we had several stops to enjoy the seascape views.

 

2nd October – Prairie Creek Redwoods

 

We drove the Redwood scenic parkway through Prairie Creek state park.  The Coastal Redwood trees are the tallest in the world growing to over 300ft and only grow on the west coast of USA.  They attracted severe ‘logging’ in the 1800s and only about 5% of old-growth exists today.  To grow so tall the trees need a lot of water and the coastal fog provides up to a third of their needs. 

From there we drove down to the beach for lunch and then took the Bald Hills Road into the national park.  These trails were closed; the pit toilets were locked and the trash bins nailed down too!

On the return through Prairie Creek we stopped at Big Tree and Corkscrew Tree.  We hiked part of the Cathedral Trees Trail and Ah-Pah Trail.  It is difficult to fully appreciate the height of these trees from their base and after a while our necks start to ache looking up all the time.  There are also other trees here including firs, spruces, oaks and rhododendrons. 

Roosevelt Elk roam free in the park and just as Paul was getting ready to photograph a bull elk, he sat down amongst the ferns and all we could see was his head and antlers.

3^rd October – Travelling South

Every morning it is that little bit cooler than the day before so we decide to continue heading south.  Being camped by the river Paul could not resist getting the fishing rod out first – especially when he saw someone with a 37” salmon caught the night before.  No luck; however we did see a couple of seals diving in the river trying to chase the fish.

We set off down Highway 101 and shortly after Eureka we turned off onto the Avenue of the Giants.  The scenic road parallels the 101 for over 30 miles.  Paul negotiated the RV along the twisty road, despite it being a little narrow between the Redwood Trees in places.  However after less than 10 miles and two road closures due to road works (which entailed doing a U-turn, not easy when you are 54’ long and can’t reverse) we got back onto 101 and continued down to Clear Lake.

 

4^th October – Lake Port

After watching wild turkeys and a couple of deer wandering around our campground in the morning, we took a trip into Lake Port on the side of Clear Lake.  We continued along the shore-line to Nice  and Lucerne.  A little disappointing as most of the lake-side was built-up with private houses.

 

Still Going West – Crater Lake

27^th September – Two Nat Parks in one day!

Up early as we set off to travel south to Crater Lake.  However on the way we stopped at the Newberry Volcanic National Monument as this had been closed earlier in the week.  We drove the RV up to the Big Obsidian Flow by Paulina Lake.

 

This volcanic explosion was only 1300 years ago and The Flow comprised of black pumice, white pumice and black obsidian (the difference between pumice and obsidian is basically the amount of bubbles in the silicon).  It was fascinating to see the obsidian sparkling in the sunlight.

This trip took us up an increased elevation of 2000ft, ie, to snow.  Paulina Peak at nearly 8000ft looked very picturesque with a sprinkling of snow.  Apparently it has never snowed this early in the season before.

 

Then we headed down to Crater Lake National Park about 50 miles further south.  We found a nice camp site in the Umpqua National Forest, right by Diamond Lake, looking up at the snow covered Mt Bailey.

 After lunch we drove into Crater Lake NP which, at 7000ft and above, was covered in snow.  In fact there was so much snow we were unable to access half of the park as the roads were closed.  What we did see looked beautiful in the sunshine.

Crater lake has filled up over thousands of years after the volcano erupted and then collapsed to form the crater.  The water has little sediment in it as it comes from rain and snowmelt, so it is crystal clear.  This area can get up to 43ft of snow each winter.  There is no outlet for the water and the deepest point is 1943ft. 

Wizard Island is a cinder cone erupting after the lake was formed. 

After a couple of hours in the park we headed home as the weather was starting to close in and dark clouds blocked the sun.

28^th September – Oregon Scenic Byway

It had rained most of the night and when we woke we could barely see the lake due to the mist.  Setting off in the morning was hindered by the retractable steps up into the RV not retracting!  Paul’s skills with the hammer came in handy once again!  (Keeping his hand in for the next Hammerslagen!).

We drove west along the Oregon Scenic Byway following the N Umpqua River (that’s a fun word).  The 70 mile route west, took us downhill, dropping over 4000ft, through the forest.  There were many waterfalls along this route.  We stopped at Watson Falls which is the highest at over 290ft.  Unfortunately the wet weather and warm temperature created so much mist that the falls were shrouded from view. The other waterfalls along the route did not have adequate parking for the RV. 

We stopped at the town of Glide for lunch.  Two rivers collide head-on at this point and when the rivers are in full flood it is quite an impressive sight.  However at this time of year these rivers just
create a swirling pool.

From Glide we left the forested scenery and continued to follow the Umpqua River via a rural road through pastoral country onto the campground at Sutherlin.  Here we met up with our friends, Duane and Tami, who we had befriended in Tucson back in March. 

29^th September – Sutherlin

We had planned to continue our journey west, to the coast, but the weather forecast predicted the remains of a Tropical Storm bringing torrential rain and high winds to the Oregon coast.  So we decided to chill out at the campground.  It rained most of the day!