Leaving Joshua Tree, we continued our journey out to the West Coast. It had been a while since we had seen the Pacific Ocean and we were excited to dip our toes back in it – especially since the last time we’d done that was back on Vancouver Island last summer and even then it was pretty chilly. Hopefully the Southern California Pacific would be a mite warmer.
But before the coast, we had a few stops to make. On this trip we had a bunch of places that were on our “must see” list, such as the Painted Desert and Joshua Tree. However, along the way, as we planned our daily mileage, we were always on the lookout for interesting places to stop and check out that hadn’t been on our radar before. Antelope Valley was one such place. Who knew there was a park devoted to the growing of California Poppies? Well, we didn’t, but when we checked it out and found that we would be there during their bloom, we made the decision to add this stop to the tour. What a glorious place! Even though the poppies were not in full bloom quite yet, we found the giant patches of bright orange so inspiring – oh, to be a painter out here! We spend a couple of hours just roaming the hills, taking too many pictures and thoroughly enjoying ourselves. What a lovely place!
We left Antelope Valley and stopped in at the town of Lancaster for the night. Here, we encountered our first of many Walmart fails in California. Apparently Walmart of California has decided that they no longer want van-lifers in their parking lots and we were shooed away from two stores. However, the security person we spoke with at the second store told us that Lowe’s allowed over night parking and since Lowe’s was right next to Walmart, we drove several parking rows over and spent our night there. Really, Walmart? After all the money we spent shopping at Walmarts on this trip, it was a bit of a rude finish to our relationship. But, thank you Lowe’s for picking up the slack!
The following day we made the drive out to the coast, stopping at Pismo Beach for the night. Here we found a cozy little motel for a nice break. It was a rainy day and we were happy to have a place to hang out nice and dry for the night. Even better, there was a great little pub just down the street where we enjoyed some beer and dinner. In case you are counting, we hadn’t stopped at a restaurant for dinner since our stop in Tuscon!
The following day we drove up to San Luis Obispo, stopping along the way to drive through the famous Pebble Beach golf course. We actually had to pay for the privilege of driving through the little community (Well, La Ti Da, as my grandmother Maggie would have said), but it was fun to see the beach here and check out the swanky golf course.
We arrived in SLO, as the locals call it, in the rain – not the most optimal time for checking out a town, but we made the best of it. We toured the Mission San Luis, enjoying some of the displays and gardens outside before heading over to find Bubblegum Alley – yum!
We left SLO with the weather looking a little brighter. We were hoping to enjoy some warm Southern California sun out here but it was looking pretty dicey. We stopped at Morrow Bay to finally dip our toes in the Pacific. It wasn’t quite as cold as up in BC, but still not optimal swimming temperature for us!
Driving up this part of the coast was on our list of “must dos”. We had missed out on the opportunity to cycle along the Big Sur a few years back due to mudslides that had closed this area for several months. We were excited to see the big views and wonder about what it would be like riding it. We did come upon a cyclist at one stop and had a good chat with him about the challenges involved in this part of the trip. I guess we shall see whether cycling here makes it to the top of our cycling bucket list – who knows?
We managed to get a camping spot in Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park (at $50!!!!), the only option in the area – oh well. It was a nice spot, but the rain came again and kept us from exploring very much other than to find the bathroom! The following day we stopped in to check out the beach near Monterey where we found a huge colony of sea lions lazing about and enjoying the now sunny day. I had wanted to check out the Monterey Aquarium, but their admission prices are pretty high, so we put that one on the back burner for another trip. Always good to have an excuse to revisit an area!
We had discussed the weather while stopped in SLO. It appeared that if we stayed out on the coast we were going to run into more rain and cold, which we were really trying to avoid until we hit the Pacific Northwest. So, from Monterey, we headed back inland. Our destination was Yosemite National Park, but since that is just such an enormous wondrous place, it get’s its own blog post! Stay tuned!
