Coastal-ish Vagrants
After leaving the mighty Redwoods, we knew a stop in wine country was in order. If you've missed the news recently, chunks of Santa Rosa, Napa, and Sonoma Valleys have burned in the last few weeks. We quickly became overwhelmed by the options in Napa and Sonoma Counties (400+ wineries to choose between) and opted for the path less visited. We found a camping spot on the banks of Lake Mendocino and stumbled into a winery that we could have biked to. Had a very pleasant afternoon tasting (I mean drinking) the Barra and Garisole labels. A nice bonus was that our wine-tasting hostess (enabler) recommended a great restaurant that served up some absurdly good Italian food. And that's not just the wine talking.
Kayaking an estero at Point Reyes
Our next destination was Point Reyes National Seashore. After our positive experience at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan’s upper Peninsula (why the heck isn't that place a capital P Park?!), we weren't going to pass it up. It’s a fun place to visit - we saw coyotes, hiked a peak and walked on an ocean beach in the same afternoon. We got in a very fun kayak the next morning in a tidal estuary - our first up-close adventure with sea otters and / or seals. It was cool to see them pop up next to the boats. Crazy number and assortment of birds as well.
Tide pools in the Monterey area
Birds on old pilings in Elkhorn Slough
One of the “must see” places was the Monterey peninsula - Dean had been stationed there twice (including his first duty station at Fort Ord as a 2nd Lieutenant) and had fond memories of the beautiful shoreline and coziness of the community. We lucked into a campsite near the Navy golf course (Go Army) which was central to everything. While not a NP, Monterey is gorgeous and we made the most of our visit. We ran along the beach, biked the gorgeous 17-Mile Drive (location of the Pebble Beach Golf Club), checked out a few bakeries, and ate some excellent German and Mexican food. We also had the opportunity to catch up with Dawn’s classmate Michelle and her husband Steve. They were super gracious hosts (Steve grilled excellent burgers with fresh homemade fries, and you don't pass up his margheritas!) and Michelle was an excellent Monterey Aquarium playmate. The Aquarium alone is worth a visit to Monterey! Because we had to do ALL the things (it's like Dean's motto now) we put the boats in the water at Moss Landing and paddled a little ways into the Elkhorn Slough. Unlike most of our kayaking where we know where we want to go (loop around the lake, paddle out a bit and then be back at a time, etc), this one was just different. Everywhere we looked there were birds, seals, otters, jellyfish, or something else to catch your eye. We're not really Audubon-qualified bird spotters (yet) but we saw pelicans, sea gulls, brown birds, little peeper birds (ok, that's not technically their name; if you haven't noticed, sometimes we make this shit up), herons, egrets, long beaked shore birds, orange hooked-beak birds, Brandt's cormorants (saw a sign on them!), a red tailed hawk, and much more. We saw probably 50 or so otters playing in the water and perhaps half as many seals. A couple of otters were playing peekaboo with Dean’s boat and shadowing him. The swimming mammals kept doing this pop up and down thing - think prairie-dogging but out of the water. We saw an otter eating some pink tube thing. We saw another otter bashing something (a shell?) on its belly to get to the food inside.
Tide pool fun
Even more important than the myriad marine mammals, we caught up with Dean’s niece Adina and her friend Trevor for dinner in Santa Cruz. The next day Adina drove down to Monterey for a DOFO (day of fucking off). The three of us scampered around tide pools at Point Lobos, hiked up Buzzards’ Roost Trail in Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, stood at the Brown homestead overlooking McKay Falls, and just had a super day. Before we left town, we went looking for Dean and Bobbie’s first Army quarters - while a number of the duplexes and single houses are still standing (yea gawds), theirs was not. Not that they had anything to do with causing that decision, I’m sure! From Monterey, we headed back onto the National Park circuit and headed toward Pinnacles, the newest NP in the system.
The view north from the Browns' homestead
Pinnacles NP turned out to be another underrated and undervisited park (our favorite kind). They have a new RV section of the campground that, while not landscaped per se, delivers easy access and service. Turns out that the road (CA-146) that approaches from both west and east doesn't go thru the park, so our visit centered on the eastern side (the side that basically sits on the San Andreas fault!). There's some super fun volcanic geology at work here - hence the crazy pinnacles and numerous rock climbing opportunities. The park is also the site of a California Condor release and they actively manage a population as they partner with other conservancy groups to bring the birds back from near extinction. In the late 80s there were only 22 California Condors remaining in the wild; there are now over 275 with another chunk in the captive breeding program.
Pinnacles does not lack for views! And there are condors out there.
Steep and Narrow indeed
The first afternoon in the park, we hiked the High Peaks - Steep and Narrow (yes, that's the name of a section of the trail) - Condor Gulch Loop. Only 5.3 miles, this isn't a super long trail, but it is fun. Fun as in: in the 30s the CCC notched footholds out of the steep rock so that you could walk up high among the spires. And we were lucky enough to see Condor at fairly close range fly by us at an overlook! Yay! Next morning we hiked to North Chalone Peak - no condors there (that we saw), but we talked to a volunteer who was using an antenna to radio track any birds within range (they are all tagged). These magnificent birds have 9+ foot wingspans and can make it over to Big Sur (on the coast) in about an hour. For us the drive would be over three hours, but even given the “how the Condor flies” distance of 40-ish miles...an hour is badass. We enjoyed the Ranger program the night before so we timed our hike so that we could attend the Condor program. As if on cue, another Condor flew over our heads during the program! We also saw deer, turkey, California quail, red tailed hawks, peregrine falcon, and the acorn woodpecker (plus more birds). Acorn woodpecker is a funny little bird - they peck out cavities in a tree, shove in acorns, and then return later to “harvest” the bugs that feast and multiply off the excellent acorn food! They also chase off other birds and squirrels who might try to capitalize on their efforts! Oh yeah, we also saw a snake swimming in the Bear Gulch Reservoir. Given a choice between a snake in a lake and the terrors of the ocean...yeah, sticking to the tub thank you very much.
Bear Gulch Reservoir - CCC built for fire suppression and then the snakes moved in
And with that, we're off to southern Cali to explore LA, the Channel Islands, and Joshua Tree!