Butano

This one goes on the list of favorite campgrounds for sure! The park is only open from April to November and is geared toward tent camping. Several of the sites list a maximum vehicle length of 12′ and would not be suitable to an Alto. But there are a couple that are 24′ and level enough that small trailers can get in with no problem. This is a very beautiful campground and they take great pains to keep it that way. Some of the wildlife in the area is endangered, so it is a “crumb clean” park. That means you truly do need to be careful about not leaving any food out or around which would attract Jays, squirrels, or raccoons. Worth it, 100%.

It only took us about two hours to get there Friday and we got to enjoy beautiful views of the California coastline on the way. The weather was cooler this weekend, but, being on the coast and in a redwood forest, I think this would be the place to go when inland temps get up there in the summer. Saturday we went on a beautiful hike along the Six Bridges trail (There are. We counted.). Along the way, we met a group of volunteers who were working very hard to keep the trails nicely maintained. After all the recent rain, they have found it only takes about a month for the trail to go from cleared, to impassably overgrown. Then we climbed up the Ano Nuevo trail and got some views all the way to the ocean. From there, it was a magical, gentle downward stroll through the forest and back to the campground. We figure the loop was about 4 miles and about 700′ of climbing. That was one of my favorite hikes.

We played around with the rear view camera a bit on this trip. It had worked perfectly for about a year, then started giving us problems. It would work sporadically, then not at all. We sent it back in and got a replacement camera and were able to verify that it worked, but only with the roof up and the receiver antenna sticking out the window. So this weekend we tried a BFA (A=Antenna, you guess the rest) and that seemed to do the trick. It’s pretty darn big and I’m not sure where to keep it when not in use, but I truly prefer being able to see behind me when I’m backing into a site, so I’ll make it work. In other tech news, and for those who have been worried about us dying in our sleep, we got a standalone CO detector which has yet to terrify us awake. Richard gave it a stern warning that at the first sign of a false alarm, it will be toast. It seems to be behaving.

Sunday we knew we were going to have to stop at Half Moon Bay on our way home to dump our tanks (no dump at Butano), and given the fact that my last work day was Friday, we were itching to stay out a little longer. When we pulled in, we asked about sites and sure enough, for one night, there was a non hookup site available. There was plentiful solar and at this point, we both blew a happy fuse. Once we calmed the giddiness down, we went for a walk on the beach, gawked at a group flying around with huge surf sails, and biked into town to get takeout dinner. I highly recommend a place called Ark and their Chicken Tikka Masala. Sunset on the beach… yeah. Life is good.

Monday morning, Richard had to go to work. Luckily, his commute was pretty short. As long as he has good cell service, it really doesn’t matter where he parks his laptop. He was able to hop online and do his job equally well at the beach, sitting in Dory, and he’s pretty sure none of his coworkers even knew he had his back to the ocean rather than our dining room wall. The only limiting factor to this setup turns out the be his laptop battery, which does not (yet) have a 12v solution. So when he took his “lunch break,” we hitched up and drove home. He jumped back online without missing a beat as soon as we got home.

This weekend was definitely a 10.

Total miles: 86.1, 16.0 mpg, 2 hours 22 min. Site 13. Sporadic cell service for both, but Verizon got LTE most of the time. ATT got 4G sometimes, and nothing at other times. NO solar, no hookups, but water spigots nearby. Bathrooms fine. Big, spacious sites, but pretty unlevel. Other possible sites: 13, 9, 8, 6, 5, 16.