On Friday we cruised up to Pismo Beach which took us about 7 hours from San Diego. This beach is one of the few in California where you can drive on the beach and camp on the sand. When we arrived at 1230 AM I was surprised to see a crowd of RV's, dune buggy's, atv's, trucks, and every other type of recreation vehicle gearing up to charge the beach. Everyone was taking out air of there tires, so since there was no one checking in people to the beach we assumed we should do the same and follow the fires and the $100,000 RV's once we got on the beach. We cruised down the beach and it was a party the whole way down, fires and people drinking all over. We got a reservation to camp ($17) but apparently you don't need one if you go at night. There was no campground, just an open beach to through a tent down wherever you find a spot. A few people got stuck in the sand, but the jeep worked out fine. I recommend you have a jeep or 4-wheel drive vehicle.
We sent up our tent and passed out to the sound of the surf, which was only a stones throw away. The next day we woke up to the sound of engines roaring on the quads, it just so happened we setup right next to the atv rental place (because we couldn't see the sign the night before). We adventured to the sand dunes down the beach a little bit, which is the main attraction for the off roading. We didn't go off roading on the dunes but we took the skimboard for a ride. Abby jumped right in, both standing and sitting as she skimmed down the dune sand. It was a little hectic as dirt bikes and quads were jumped around right near us.
We then got back on the road and went to San Luis Obispo just north of Pismo Beach, about an hour away. The town was really nice and the college looked like a cool one. Then we went to San Simeon and went to the Hearst Castle visitor center. All the tours were booked to the castle so we watched the imax movie about the history. Unfortunately, they do not let you just drive by the actual castle.
About 5-10 miles north of San Simeon there was a lookout spot for the elephant seals. The beach was lined with these seals, it was amazing. 
We kept heading north after these stops and headed towards Big Sur. The beach road turned into steep cliffs with switchbacks for miles and miles. It was a beautiful ride. Now we needed to find a place to bunker down for the night, and we didn't have a reservation so it wasn't easy. The first few campgrounds were full so were hoping for anything. We ended up finding a great campground off highway 1, deep in the redwood trees, it was called Fernwood Campground. They had one tent cabin available right on a small river. We really lucked out getting this place.
We hung out by the fire and went to the bar at the top of the campground, the bar had a restaurant and a general store attached. We got a good nights sleep and the following day went for a hike at Andrew Molero State Park. We had to hike across a small stream to get to the beach area. But we encountered a seal protecting the beach, he was blocking the path. I had never seen anything like it. 2 people were too afraid to get by, but we just high tailed it by him. Check out the videos!
We kept heading north after these stops and headed towards Big Sur. The beach road turned into steep cliffs with switchbacks for miles and miles. It was a beautiful ride. Now we needed to find a place to bunker down for the night, and we didn't have a reservation so it wasn't easy. The first few campgrounds were full so were hoping for anything. We ended up finding a great campground off highway 1, deep in the redwood trees, it was called Fernwood Campground. They had one tent cabin available right on a small river. We really lucked out getting this place.
We hung out by the fire and went to the bar at the top of the campground, the bar had a restaurant and a general store attached. We got a good nights sleep and the following day went for a hike at Andrew Molero State Park. We had to hike across a small stream to get to the beach area. But we encountered a seal protecting the beach, he was blocking the path. I had never seen anything like it. 2 people were too afraid to get by, but we just high tailed it by him. Check out the videos!
Once we got to the beach there were these rad building structures made from drift wood. It was neat to check out, but they didn't look too sturdy.
So after our hike we headed toward our final destination, somewhere I wanted to go since a kid: Santa Cruz, a mecca for skateboarding and surfing. Before we got there we checked out a few campgrounds to reserve a spot early, luckily our second spot we checked had a tent spot open. It was called New Brighton State Park, it was on a bluff overlooking the ocean, an awesome camping ground with over 100 camps. Once we checked in we headed about 5 miles north to Santa Cruz's main beach. We got there during the day so it was still warm enough to go to the beach. There wasn't any waves the whole trip, but there was an ankle size wave breaking at the north end of the main beach, unfortunately there was about 100 people on it. So I just skimmed a little bit, the ocean was about 55F, about 10 degrees colder than San Diego. After we beached it for a while Abby and I hit the arcade and rides on the boardwalk. The roller coaster was fun and the arcade was one of the best I have ever seen, every old game was there. We then got a great dinner on the pier. That was nice as we ate cereal and pb and j sandwiches up until then.
We camped out at our campground that night, hung out with some college kids next to us, drank some beers and hung by the fire. The next day we hung at the beach at the edge of the campground. An old ship was parked at the edge of the pier to the south, pretty neat. This was our final day, so we had to drive an hour to San Jose and fly back to San Diego. The flight worked out fine, $70 one way on southwest. Camping was so fun. Abby and I had a wonderful time together, she's just great! I'll miss her a ton on my trip.
1 comment:
Fun trip this was!
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