Week 14: We’re Back, Baby! The Beautiful Cali Coast and Pinnacles

I am going to warn you now. This is going to be a long one. Now that you know what you are signed up for, let’s jump in!

Back on the Adventure

We had such a great time back at home spending time with our loved ones. A break from life in the van was much needed.

Now, feeling refreshed and ready for some more adventure, we made our way back out west. The journey began with an afternoon flight to Los Angeles. Then, after a short layover, we flew to Las Vegas where we were ecstatic to find Gus (our van) in great shape. He endured some heat in the brutal desert weather of Las Vegas, but no break-ins or causes for concern.

We jumped in and headed about 45 minutes west to a small town that I called “Little Vegas” due to its casinos, hotels, etc. that looked just like its big brother down the road. We found a free campground nestled behind the large casino where we stayed the night.

We initially thought we would spend Thursday here while we worked, but instead decided to get out of there ASAP because of the heat. We packed things up and headed further west to our next destination, with pitstops at the grocery store and our beloved Chipotle. This trip made us happy to have our hotspot back. We were able to bring a new one back with us from home because, as you may remember, the last one ended up in the sink. We worked as we drove the 6 hours to a free campground in the mountains near the Big Sur region in the central coast of California. We arrived to find a small campground that was already full. We refused to make the drive back down the mountain to find something else and instead found a nice spot tucked in the trees outside of the campground where we could spend the night.

We spent the following day working and planning for the weekend in Big Sur. We also checked to see if any of the sites had opened up in the campground, but sadly they had not. We were, however comfortable enough to stay where we were for another night.

The Gorgeous Big Sur Coast

Saturday morning, we got up bright and early to maximize our time exploring the coast. We had picked out several points of interest along the coast that we were hoping to see. Our plan of attack was to make a straight shot to the southern most point and then on our way back we would pull off and see everything that we had picked out and anything else that might have piqued our interest on the way down.

Our first stop was McWay Falls, a beautiful waterfall in Julie Pfeiffer State Park, where we had a great view from a nearby pull-off on the road.

Next we had a few overlooks that we stopped at to see some of the rugged coastline and the beautiful beaches.

In our research we found a beach that was very popular due to its purple sand, so we decided we would check it out. It was a little ways off the main road along a winding and narrow street. It was essentially a one-way street that they were using as a two way street. We were hesitant to do this in the van, but decided to give it a shot. As we were making the trek, a man coming the other way was waving his hand across his neck, seemingly telling us not to go all of the way. We were concerned, but not exactly sure what he was telling us, so decided to proceed. We made it to the the entrance, where the attendant asked us to pay the $15 fee to use the beach. We again were hesitant to pay that much since we weren’t planning to spend much time there. But we obliged since we had come this far. We parked at the lot and walked to the beach. This is when we realized the reason that the man tried to tell us to turn around. The wind was blowing intensely, blasting sand into our faces. We had to cover our face or walk backwards to make our way out to some of the rock formations. We climbed around for a bit, took a few pictures, and decided that was going to be good enough for us. It was about impossible to truly enjoy the place. I’m sure it is pretty on a normal day, but that day it was not even close to worth the time and trouble for us.

Our next stop was a very popular overlook that was very gorgeous, called the Bixby Bridge overlook.

Next, we hiked the short Bluffs Trail at Garrapata State Park that took us through some vegetation to an overlook of some of the rugged coast.

Finally, we stopped at Point Lobos State Preserve to do the Bird Island Trail, which is exactly what it sounds like, an island full of birds. We were interested in how the birds felt about their island being completely covered in their own poo.

We then picked up some pizza in Monterrey on our way to check out a nearby private campground situated next to a large racing complex. We couldn’t tell based on their website if there was any availability and they didn’t have someone answering the phone on the weekend, so we drove to check it out, knowing that we could make the drive back to our free campground if needed. We didn’t really expect to get anything on the weekend in the busy town, but thankfully, they had some sites available. Unfortunately, the cheapest option they had was $59/night for a dry camping spot. I believe that is a record high for us. But we thought it was worth the price not to have to make the long drive to our other campsite. We made it just in time to watch the big Columbus Crew game where we faced Pachuca, a Mexican club for the continental title. Sadly, the Crew lost… Finally, we made use of the included campground shower and then called it a night.

The next morning we woke up to the sounds of race cars driving on the track just outside of our campground. We made some pancakes before making the drive to our next stop, Pinnacles National Park.

Pinnacles National Park: The Nerdy Part

There were a few things about Pinnacles National Park that I found fascinating. Maybe some of my fellow nerds out there will enjoy learning about it as well.

The volcanic formations are on a fault line, with 2/3 of the mountain being Pinnacles National Park, and the other 1/3 being ~200 miles northwest, named the Neenach Volcano. Scientists believe that multiple volcanoes erupted to form these volcanic formations 23 million years ago and they have been moving with the plate tectonics ever since then (according to the National Park Service). By my rough math, that equates to a bit more than 1/2” per year.

Pinnacles National Park is also known for the California condors that live in the park. The California condor is the largest land birds in North America. Back in the 1980s, the condors were endangered and their population was down to 22. Thanks to captive breeding recovery efforts, the population has climbed to 488. We saw a number of these birds during our time at the park.

Pinnacles National Park: The Adventurous Part

We were excited to have a park campground booked for our entire stay and have access to water and a dump station. It’s the little conveniences that often make such a big difference in van life! 😊

Our first evening there, we did an 8 mile hike along the Old Pinnacles Trail to the Balconies Cave. It was very pretty hike with some unique spelunking opportunities! We got back exhausted, so we quickly made some dinner and watched a movie that I have been trying to get Kendra to watch with me called Everything Everywhere All at Once. It was far from Kendra’s favorite, but I enjoyed it.

Hot weather was expected later in the week, so we decided that if we were going to do the hiking that we wanted to do, we would have to do it Monday evening, so that’s what we did. We hiked the 5 and a half mile High Peaks trail. Somewhere along the way Kendra nearly walked right past a large tarantula spider. I quickly stopped her and she took a few steps back. I tried to get as close as I comfortably could to get some photos of the thing. I was excited to see one in person, Kendra not so much.

Tuesday was pretty uneventful. We hung out around a campfire in the evening, but that’s about it.

Wednesday was brutally hot. And I mean hot! 🥵 Our van’s thermometer read 111 degrees at one point. It was tough to stay concentrated on work or have the motivation to do much of anything really. In the afternoon during peak heat, we decided to make our way to the campground’s pool. It is pretty unusual for a park campground to have a pool, but we were extremely grateful for it! We relaxed in the water for a while before heading to the Peaks View day use area where we made dinner outside and ate at the picnic tables.

The heat didn’t let up much over the next couple of days. We took a couple breaks from the heat by getting in the cab of the van and running AC for a while to get some relief. We were grateful on Friday that the heat was a bit more bearable. In the late afternoon we did our final hikes, the Bear Gulch Loop Trail and the Condor Gulch Overlook Trail. We were happy that they were easier hikes since the heat was still getting to us and we were still recovering from the long hikes we did earlier in the week.

A Brief Note on Marriage and Heat

We came to find out that we are not our best selves when we are dealing with such intense temperatures. The heat has a way of sucking the life and energy out of a person. We found ourselves being short with each other, having less patience, and just lacking kindness. We had the weather to blame for the ways we didn’t show the kind of love that was deserved, but that’s no excuse really. It was a heightened challenge to show the love that usually comes more naturally, but it is in these moments that we learn the most about our marriage. We had some healthy discussions about where we were falling short and how we might move past any excuses to show each other love. This trip is full of unique challenges that we hope and believe will make us stronger as a couple.

Exploring San Francisco…Maybe

We had done a lot of research prior to our trip to San Francisco. We had all of the things we wanted to do and the places we wanted to see picked out. We also tried our best to do as much research about the city’s transportation and accommodations for vehicles like ours. San Francisco is a large city in a small area, so things are very compact. This does not lend itself to being very camper van friendly. But we thought with enough planning that we would be alright.

The plan was to drive through the city and cross the Golden Gate Bridge to the other side of the strait. We found a free “park & ride” parking lot with a bus stop next to it. We went ahead and purchased our day pass for the public transit on our drive there so that we would be ready to go as soon as we parked.

We came up on the Golden Gate Bridge and were amazed at the beauty of the half of the bridge that we could see through the fog. We couldn’t tell you what the top half looked like though… We crossed the bridge and found our parking lot. Kendra looked when the bus was supposed to arrive and realized we had about 10 minutes to quickly get a snack and get everything together or else we would have to wait another hour for the next bus to arrive. We rushed to get our things and got to the bus just in time. We walked in and tried to scan our mobile tickets, only for the bus driver to tell us that we had the wrong pass. We had purchased a pass for a transit system that doesn’t come to that side of the bridge…

We got back to the van and sat down to do some more research about what we should do next. We found a couple of small lots in the city that were paid lots near a bus stop and picked one out, with others as a backup. We plugged the address into Google Maps and… shucks… it was going to cost $9 to get back across the bridge.

We were already not feeling great about some of the expenses that we were going to have during our planned time in San Francisco, so this expense and inconvenience were the last straw for us. We decided to forgo the whole experience.

A Note About Seeing Cities in a Camper Van

Kendra isn’t a fan of spending time in the city. It is definitely more my thing. I was pretty excited about our plans for the day, but came to realize Kendra was trying really hard to get excited, but was finding it difficult. As soon as something didn’t go as planned, the little excitement that she had mustered up was gone. That is a pretty typical occurrence for her when it comes to time in cities.

In our time out here, we have tried a few times to spend some time in the city to varying success. We both had a great time in San Antonio, but both found LA to be difficult to enjoy most of the time. Sedona, while not a large city, was logistically very difficult, though very pretty! Most of the time we just find ourselves wishing we were in a smaller vehicle, staying in an Airbnb or Hotel, or getting around by foot.

I love the unique cultural experience that comes with each city. I enjoy learning about each city’s quirks, its well-known sites, and the things that draw the locals to the area. I am a bit of an urban planning nerd and find the design of the places we live to be fascinating as well. All of that to say, I do make an effort to see the cities that I am most interested in when we are out here. However, with each effort, I am becoming more disappointed with the experience. It is often very difficult to find appropriate parking where we want it. The camping options are limited and often more expensive for worse quality. Not to mention all of the expenses that come with seeing a city that do not come with seeing parks.

I have also come to the realization that what drew us out here in the first place was the experience of natural beauty, not cities. So from here on out we plan to focus on seeing and enjoying the nature. If we do end up enjoying the city a couple of times, that’s just an added bonus, but not something to count on going smoothly.

Napa is Cool Too

After a bit more research, we landed on the idea of spending our Saturday in the small city of Napa. We made the relatively short drive to the town, stopping at Chipotle for lunch, and parked in a lot beside a market. We walked around the nice market and picked up a cup of coffee for me and a cupcake for Kendra. We then spent our afternoon walking the streets of downtown and doing some shopping. Since it was our 5-year anniversary, we decided to eat at an upscale Mexican restaurant in the market for dinner. We both really enjoyed the town of Napa. It was a cute town surrounded by the beautiful wine countryside.

Conclusion

It was good to be back, to be seeing sights, and to have things go relatively smoothly for our first week and a half. We look forward to seeing so much more! Next up is some more California coastline in Shelter Cove.

Thanks for following along y’all!