Chapter 32 - California Highway 1
25 January 1999
1/4/99 Last night, sitting on the cliff at Pacifica, we finally had to decide where to go next, and when we looked at the map, it was obvious that we've both been working up our courage to tackle the rest of the infamous Route 1. We've already done the northern half - from the Oregon border down to San Francisco - against the advice of numerous RVers. We found it a very pleasant trip with wonderful scenery. Can the southern half of the route be any worse? We'll find out. Last week, we drove the rental car over the Devil's Slide portion, and found that it has been well repaired from the last rock slide, and is in good shape - so at least that area won't be a problem with the big trailer. The next challenge beyond that will be Big Sur. And after that, there's a section just north of San Simeon that was completely closed last April. We hope it's been re-opened.
This morning, we drove from Pacifica down to Marina Dunes RV Park - just north of Monterey. A strong east wind had been rocking the trailer all night, and continued this morning, making it a challenge to get the canoes onto the top of the truck without their blowing out of our grip and over the cliff. But within the first few miles of driving, the wind seemed to disappear. Initially, this was mostly because we were partially sheltered by the steep slopes and forest to the east of the road. Later, listening to the NOAA weather we found that the weather pattern changed quickly as we went south. By late afternoon, it was still blowing hard in San Francisco, but calm at Santa Cruz, only 50 air miles South. Strange!
It was a nice drive, through mostly familiar territory since we had driven to the San Gregorio beaches, south of Half Moon Bay, twice in the past few weeks, and had visited Monterey last spring. South of Monterey, things will be less familiar. The last time we drove through Big Sur was when we spent a few days in a personal development program at Esalon Institute, perched on the cliffs directly above the ocean at Big Sur, in 1973.
We spent most of the afternoon at Natural Bridges State Park. This is one of the major wintering locations for the Monarch Butterflies from the Western mountain slopes of California, Oregon, and Washington, some of them flying over 1000 miles to get here. They spend much of the winder in Eucalyptus trees in sheltered groves, huddling together in dense masses. On warm sunny days, some of them venture out to look for food (flower nectar). We were fortunate to have the first warm day in weeks - 69 degrees - and found ourselves surrounded by thousands of these big orange fluttering insects - one threatening to land on Helen's nose, but changing its mind at the last moment. We stood and marveled at zillions more - dark stationary blobs hanging high in the trees. The sea coast is also lovely here - interesting cliffs, a large inlet filled with clean sand, and Pacific swells crashing against the cliffs.
A cluster of rocks just off shore was literally covered with huge brown pelicans, with a few cormorants mixed into the crowd. Seals, sea lions and sea otters, are common in this general area, but we didn't see any today.
Marina Dunes RV Park, adjacent to the huge sand dunes a few miles North of Monterey, feels somewhat cramped, with small back-in sites, and narrow roads. But the office manager was pleasant, a desk with convenient phone and power outlets was available in the recreation room, and a path leads through the wide band of sand dunes to the beach. We had hoped not to unhook for this one-night stop, but the very few long sites were taken and we had to back-in and unhitch.
1/5/99 Driving slowly down CA route 1 through Big Sur was a delight. The road twists and turns along the coast - sometimes near the water, sometimes high up on the side of a cliff. Through this area, the road is kind of loosely tacked on the side of the cliffs, and falls off every few years. We found that most of the El Niño damage had been repaired, and the road open all the way. In a few places, there is still construction going on, and we experienced brief delays, where one-way traffic creeps slowly past the construction. The difficulties of this route for RV's are greatly exaggerated. We had no problems at all, and found it a delightful drive. The only nervous moments were short stretches in the construction areas, where I had to thread the trailer through a twisting corridor of concrete barriers, with barely a foot of clearance on each side. Otherwise, the road is excellent. There are indeed plenty of sharp turns, some with 15 mph speed limits. But the traffic lane is adequately wide, and never caused a problem for our 56-foot long rig. The scenic pullouts are frequent, and most are big enough to allow us to stop with the trailer. (But don't try this during peak tourist season). None of the grades were particularly steep. Traffic was light. We traveled at a slow, comfortable, pace, and rarely felt we were holding up traffic - and could usually pull off within a mile or two if traffic did pile up behind us. Our only advice to other RV travelers is to not be in a hurry. This road could be agonizing if it had to be driven against a deadline.
We used lots of film trying to catch the grandeur of the coastline. At one pullout, we saw several whales spouting, just beyond the kelp beds, and then a pair of whales diving vertically - tails high above the water for an instant. Each time we stopped, we scanned the kelp for seals, sea lions, and sea otters, but saw nothing. In mid-afternoon, we noticed campsites on the cliff edge and on the spur of the moment turned into Kirk Creek NFS campground. It has no utilities other than toilets and a few water spigots, but has lovely large campsites spread out along the cliff. Each end of the campground has a trail down a little canyon to the beach. This is an NFS campground, operated under contract by a private company. The $16 cost seemed outrageous - but I suppose beach-front property is expensive everywhere. The published 35-foot RV limit should be respected. Some of the campsites could take bigger rigs, but the interior roads are very narrow with tight turns (with curbs). We just barely made it around the corners with our rig.
In late afternoon, we hiked down the north trail to the beach, picked our way along the sand and around a rocky headland (fortunately at low tide), and then hiked back up the south trail - up a canyon alongside a pretty and noisy little creek. The beach had almost no shells, but the tide pools among the rocks had anemones, several types of limpets, snails and barnacles, and colonies of small mussels. A loon was swimming just off shore, frequently diving down into the kelp beds, then appearing a minute or two later 100 feet from where it disappeared. A long stretch of this coastline is designated as a National Wildlife Refuge for Sea Otters, and there are over 2000 Sea Otters living along the central California coast. But the only one we've seen in the wild was last spring - in Monterey Bay directly offshore from the Aquarium - probably a semi-tame animal used to people.
We built a campfire just at dark, roasted bratwurst and kielbasa, and sat in the dark looking at the stars and listening to the surf, below. Unfortunately, we also listened for the first hour or so to the distant rumble of a generator running in a motorhome further down the campground.
1/6 This place is too nice to leave. We stayed over another day. I (Dave) took a long hike on a trail which led up the mountain range, just inland from the campground. I never did get to the top - but later found out that the ridge top is in the vicinity of 3000 feet above sea level. Since I was starting from sea level, I didn't feel too bad about not getting there. Most of the trail was in the open, through rocky grasslands looking out over the ocean. Occasionally, the trail would cut inland and down through a sheltered little wooded canyon. One of these was full of huge old-growth redwood. Others were primarily live oak or laurel. These shady, damp, cool spots were a welcome relief from the blazing sun out on the open slopes. Surprisingly, there was a wide variety of flowers already blooming at the higher elevations - most of which I couldn't identify, although I did see one small patch of premature showy California Poppies.
Later, we took a long drive on the twisty, narrow Nasciemento-Fergussen Road up through the coastal range and partway down the other side. In the foothills on the eastern slopes, we found Ponderosa Campgroung, a pleasant little NFS campground which would accommodate big RV's. I wouldn't try to get an RV in there from the coast. But coming west from US 101, the terrain is relatively flat and I suspect that the road is quite reasonable for big rigs (although we only drove a small piece of it and can't be certain.)
1/7 We drove another 50 miles down the coast to San Simeon State Park, settling early into the Washburn campground, separated from the rest of the park, inland half a mile or so on top of a little hill. We've got a view out over the ocean to the west (and we can still hear the surf, way up here). We've also got a view over rolling grasslands which extend several miles east to a range of hills. The park lists a 35 foot RV length limit, although the access road is good and some of the sites would hold a 40-footer. The Washburn campground is "primitive" - meaning no hookups, no showers, only chemical toilets. The sites are large and pleasant - not many trees, but the view makes up for it. A hiking trails leads from the campground down through a valley filled with large Monterey Pines. We're paying $7/night (off-season) - one of the few bargains left in California. San Simeon Creek Campground is down close to the highway (but not on the ocean side), has paved pads in the campsites, no hookups, and has flush toilets and (coin-operated) hot showers, for $14/night. Since we don't use the campground toilets and showers anyway, being up on the hill away from the highway for half the price is a big win.
Helen went to the Hearst Castle, and returned disappointed, both with the castle itself and with the quality of the tour guide. I stayed at the trailer, took a nap, and started a small but long-delayed upgrade project on the trailer. (I remembered being decidedly unimpressed by the Hearst Castle when we toured it 25 years ago - it's a hodgepodge of mismatched undistinguished architecture, filled with an equally undistinguished collection of artworks - moldy medieval mixed with modern reproductions of classic Greek. There ought to be a law forbidding anyone to get rich unless they have good taste!
As I was watching the sunset from our campsite, a Great Blue Heron flapped lazily overhead, heading down toward the beach.
1/8 A day to putter around the trailer. I spent several hours designing and testing a swivel bracket to allow tilting the solar panels to the side of the trailer. In the past, we've only been able to tilt them front-to-back, so that the tilt capability was useful only when the trailer was facing approximately north or south.
A network of hiking trails surrounds the campground. I wandered over several of them in the afternoon. On a rocky knob just north of the campground, I discovered a small grove of ancient live oaks - one is several feet in diameter, and incredibly twisted and gnarled. Perhaps I'll go back with the camera tomorrow.
At sunset, a pair of owls began a duet, somewhere in the fringe of pines just southwest of our campsite. They are pitched a major third apart, harmonizing nicely - perhaps one is not quite full grown?
1/9 There's a small flock of Oregon Juncos picking through the grass around our campsite. I don't remember seeing this species before. They look like someone dipped their heads and necks into jet-black paint, then touched up the beaks with white - the contrast is distinctive.
1/10 Continuing on down the coast, we stopped early in Santa Barbara so Helen could tour the Art Museum and the Mission. There seems to be only one small RV Park in Santa Barbara (not counting a State Park 13 miles to the south.) This is Santa Barbara Sunrise RV Park, where we pulled in without reservations at about 2 p.m. The 33 sites are nearly all filled with long-term rentals. The office is closed Sunday afternoon and all day Monday, but information was posted on the door about the six sites that were available - only one of them large enough for our 35' trailer, and this one cost $40/night!
After asking a neighbor to move his truck, and with Helen on the CB and two neighbors watching the corners of the rig and waving their hands, we slowly backed and filled our way off the narrow driveway into the narrow site, easing forward a few inches, cranking the wheel, then back a few inches, over and over. We'll have to go through nearly the same process all over again, when we leave tomorrow. In retrospect, is wasn't worth it - we could have driven on down to the State Park in less time, paid less, and had a quieter spot (we're parked right next to US101 and a railroad track.)
Helen enjoyed the Art Museum, and spent all afternoon there, not getting to the Mission at all. Maybe tomorrow morning. I spent half an hour on the phone listening to the "your call will be answered by the next available agent, in the order received" message at De Anza Harbor Resort in San Diego, where we hoped to make reservations for tomorrow night. Never did get through.
1/11 I got on the phone this morning just as soon as I thought the campground offices might be open. De Anza could accommodate us for four days, but was full for the coming weekend. Campland on the Bay did have a site available for the full two weeks that we expected to stay. We chose to go there rather than having to move during our stay. Unlike most of the Sunbelt RV Parks, these coastal parks have their busy season in the summer, and are usually somewhat less crowded in the winter.
We got underway as quickly as possible, not looking forward to the hours of dense freeway traffic through Los Angeles and San Diego Counties. But surprisingly, the freeways were working well, and we rarely had to slow below our preferred cruising speed. We had been worried about arriving before dark, but actually checked into the campground in mid-afternoon.
Our goal of towing the RV the entire length of Highway 1 will remain unfulfilled. We branched off Route 1 just South of Ventura, taking 101 instead, choosing not to travel the last, densely urban, section along the coast through Malibu and Santa Monica. We've done this section in the car, and the occasional views just aren't worth the hassle of dense slow traffic.
We had walked through Campland during our last stay in San Diego, deciding that we liked De Anza better. Both have some RV sites directly on Mission Bay. De Anza is quiet, largely populated by retirees, and has few of the "resort" amenities (although residents are allowed to go over to Campland to use the pool and other facilities). Getting from one park to the other is a very short swim or boat ride across Rose Inlet, but a long walk or a 10 minute drive via the Grand Avenue bridge). De Anza is a place to live, not a vacation destination. Campland, owned by the same company and with similar management policies, is bigger and more elaborate, and is a destination resort. It has a pool, a huge electronic game arcade, rentals of bikes, quadricycles, several kinds of power and sail boats, an on-site restaurant and well-stocked store, a variety of scheduled group activities, and a noisy rock band on Saturday nights, playing in a huge party tent.
This place nearly fills up on winter weekends, with an influx of relatively local families, and empties out somewhat during the week. It's noisy, with lots of boisterous kids in roving gangs on skateboards and bicycles, lots of noisy ill-behaved dogs, music blaring from the party tent during rhythmic exercise classes, etc. De Anza fits our lifestyle much better, and we probably won't be back to Campland. But it was very convenient at Campland to carry my little canoe the 100 feet from our campsite to the sandy swimming beach when I wanted to go out and paddle around for a while. With the solo canoe, I explored Rose Creek, along the east edge of the campground, and a wildlife preserve, just west of the campground (belatedly discovering that boats were prohibited from the refuge area. The geese and other wildlife didn't seem to object, however).
1/25 Two peaceful weeks have drifted quickly past. We enjoyed several visits with our son Dan, who lives and works only a few miles from the campground, in La Jolla. We've decided, after several visits, that BJ's Chicago Style Pizza and BrewPub in La Jolla has the best pizza west of the Mississippi (which isn't saying much - we haven't found any really good pizza in the west. (They make good beer too!). "California style" pizza is interesting, but nothing like the real thing).
Dave occupied himself with small maintenance and upgrade projects on truck and trailer, and with year-end accounting and preparation for tax time. He was able to play table tennis several evenings at the San Diego club, and also pigged out on Internet time at Dan's apartment, sometimes having the laptop on line via the phone line while simultaneously doing some very high speed net-surfing using Dan's big computer and super-fast cable modem. What a joy to download megabytes of software in a few minutes! Helen had doctor's appointments (annual checkups), and visited a few museums and the San Diego Mission - nothing new or especially memorable to report. We both spent several hours in both the La Jolla and Pacific Beach libraries, catching up on magazine reading, doing a little research, and picking through their used book sales.
The beach communities in this area - La Jolla in particular - seem to be very nice places to live. We've been browsing through the real estate sections of the local newspapers, thinking casually about a place to eventually settle down and buy a house. We've quickly discovered that it probably won't be in La Jolla, or even in Pacific Beach. The term "million dollar view" takes on a literal meaning here. A small and very undistinguished house, on a tiny lot, sells for over a million dollars if it has a hint of an ocean view. Direct ocean access from the property adds about another million. Even in crowded developments nowhere near the beach, a nice house is at least double the price of what it would be further inland.
We'll be leaving here tomorrow - drifting eastward, aiming at Florida without a fixed schedule.