We are now two years into what we’d like to believe is our new holiday tradition: Christmas in the desert. We are also apparently unintentionally working on the tradition of booking Joshua Tree and not going. Last year it was a government shut down, this year it was several feet of snow. Obviously we’ll book next year, just to see what new thing it is that keeps us from going. Maybe start a betting pool.
Travel from Castaic Lake was not bad at all, but we did arrive just after sunset. We were prepared for backing stress, only to arrive at a pull through site. Sweet! It’s also sweet to have full hookups. In fact, this campground goes on my list of all time favorites. There is just enough civilization, cell service, nearby restaurants and markets, but also access to lots of trails and enough of a wilderness feel for this camper. The town of Borrego Springs is called an “intentionally dark sky” city, which I’m guessing means they limit the nighttime light sources and probably use special street lighting. If the weather hadn’t been so overcast while we were there, I’m betting the stars would be amazing. What glimpses we got were nice anyway.
Our first day there kept us indoory in Dory because of rain. That was fine though because Richard had to work and I had one last report to get done. I really have taken to heart all of the kind and sage advice regarding work stress. In particular, the commitment to self care in the form of mindful walking has become a priority and I’ve been doing it at night consistently. I only had to buy one more jacket and a Premium subscription to Spotify and now I’m good. On this trip, Richard has been doing night walking with me and it’s kind of an exciting new hobby. Especially when you’re in a place you’ve never been, and all you have to go by is your headlamps, it’s downright exhilarating. Then when you go back to walk those same trails in the daytime, it’s cool to see how different everything looks. As an example, the visitor center is really well designed and built to blend in with the landscape. They did such a good job, it was actually hard to tell it was there at all when we saw it at night.
We did some incredible daytime hikes, the most impressive being the Palm Canyon Trail. This one is a gentle valley climb up to an honest to goodness desert oasis. At the top, you find yourself looking at a dense grove of Fan Palm Trees situated along a little river, complete with mini waterfalls. We may have gotten a rare treat with all the water, but it’s clear that this spot gets the runoff from all the surrounding mountains and the grove is proof enough that there’s enough to sustain it. It’s a legit paradise spot and I highly recommend that trail.
On our way back down, I was just thinking how cool it would be to see a bighorn sheep, moments before I turned a corner and practically ran into a herd of four. We stood there gawking for a long time, watching them chill and graze on cacti. Papa sheep watched over his little herd, making sure the humans kept their distance and didn’t try any funny business. We tried to help by pointing and waving to approaching hikers so they’d know what was ahead.
That afternoon, we drove out to see the Slot Canyon. There’s a well groomed dirt road that leads to the trailhead. Once there, you descend quickly into a narrow passage that gets tighter as you go. It is like a mini Badlands experience. The walls of the canyon are smooth and worn away in beautiful swirling patterns, carved over the years by water and wind. The cool part is about a mile and a half. Ultimately, the canyon opens up and you can take a surface trail back. As it was windy and cold up above, we turned around and just went back up through the canyon back to the car. I also highly recommend that trail.
Richard did one of his crazy bike rides up and over a mountain range along Montezuma Valley Road to Ranchita, then on San Filipe Road to Highway 78, and finally up and over Yaqui Pass Road. I can attest that it’s a beautiful drive. The wind was wicked cold and blowing hard in his face up the first big climb. The nice thing about having your wife SAG you is that you can bail for a little while and then get back on the road. I think he only missed a couple miles of the last climb, and once we got over that, it was much less windy. His descent back into Borrego Springs was a race against rain clouds, but he won. Along the way in Yaqui Pass, we checked out the primitive campground. There was not much cell service out there, but nice bathrooms. The sites were also kind of small, but a 17′ Alto seemed like it would fit.
The other smaller hikes we did were up to a panoramic lookout and another called the “Little Surprise Canyon” trail. Both are short and scenic and give you a great taste of the beautiful geology in the area.
We got out for dinner one night at Los Jilbertos Taco Shop and that was fun. Otherwise, we were doing Blue Apron recreations. We shopped at the Center Market and found it to be both well stocked and sophisticated enough in its selections to carry baby Bok Choy. 
For Christmas Eve dinner, we were super fancy and cooked pre-made, frozen Chicken Cordon Bleu in the Omnia, paired with a store bought salad in a bag. We felt pretty darn swanky, I can tell you. And for Christmas morning, we treated ourselves to some Trader Joe’s chocolate Croissants. Mmmm.
At the end of our planned stay, we had some planning to do. The weather had turned from iffy to dangerous up north and our approach to Joshua Tree was not looking all that safe. In addition to snow and rain, they were reporting road closures due to flash flooding all along the roads we would have taken. At the end of the day, it did not seem worth it to risk travel and instead, we booked another night in the Anza Borrego campground. 
So we spent the day watching the rain from inside. In the morning, the mountain tops all around us were dusted with snow, just like powdered sugar on a giant bundt cake. We probably would have been fine in Joshua Tree, but we have no regrets pulling the plug and shifting gears. And once it was safe to travel, we simply headed out a day early to get to our next destination: Buckskin Mountain and an Altoistes Altogather.
Richard rode out of the campground and we played leap frog all the way to the end of the park. I noticed a gazillion boondocking RVs spread around and most of them had some kind of off road vehicle or ATV with them. That seems to be the thing to do out there. In my next post, I’ll discuss the wisdom, or lack thereof, of trying to pull a trailer into a gas station when fifty thousand ATVing RV people are also there. Fun times.
We did love this campground a lot and are planning to come back this way on our return trip. It clearly gets crazy when the super bloom happens, but this was a fantastic time to explore the park. Thumbs way up!
Total miles from Castaic Lake: 237.8, 16.8 mpg, 5 hours 4 min. Site 33, full hookups, great cell service and solar. Pull throughs in the hookup loop. Good dump. Nice visitor center and super friendly volunteers.
This was also an unreserved stopover to break the travel miles. You can’t get more convenient in terms of Interstate 5 access and there’s a lake to boot. Online reviews of the place were mixed, but we decided to risk it. I will say, whoever said the place was unsafe, was either nuts, or his negative review caused a security overhaul. It’s about the safest place I’ve ever stayed. There were sheriffs doing regular drive through patrols, brightly lit paths and parking areas, and a gated entry.
We arrived again after the early winter sunset and I really had to trust to the backup camera and Richard’s oversight of my backing. I was pretty much blind until I’d made most of the 90 degree turn. After almost six hours of driving, I was happy to be in a site.
One fun surprise came when we were chatting with the owner of a cute trailer next to us. When you have a small trailer, you kind of get familiar with the other ones out there. I know them well enough that I was surprised to see the logo “Happier Camper” on the side because it looked different. Well lo and behold, the guy camping in it was Derek May, owner and CEO of Happier Camper and he was trying out a new prototype! We took a peek inside and it was pretty cute. They’re adding in a fixed shower and kitchen area, as well as increased head room. It’s a double wall fiberglass body, meaning it is a four season trailer. He and Richard swapped all kinds of technical information on batteries and heaters and stuff. It’s a nice trailer and Derek is a super nice guy who stands behind his product. If we didn’t love Dory so much… but don’t freak out. We do.
Minor discovery: if you put a dish drying rack between the bench seats and lay your towel over it while the heater is running, they will dry completely in about ten minutes. This really helps in the winter when it’s a challenge to get everything dry.
This was a delightful little find, not too far from home and somewhere we might go for a weekend. Our aim was to get a head start on southward travel Friday so we didn’t have to cover as much ground later. This place clocks in at 112 miles from home and was completely empty on a Friday night. It was cold, mind you, so understandable that the lakeside sites might not have appealed to the masses.
This campground is a part of the San Luis Recreation Area and is a short detour off Interstate 5. There are no services and the bathrooms are porta potties. We think it is a first come, first serve campground, but we could be wrong there. On arrival around 4, we got the pick of sites and the guy at the kiosk recommended #1. It’s the only one right on the water and it was quite nice, with its own ramada (I learned what a ramada is too, thanks Google).
Richard joined me for a night walk and we got to put our OLights to use. I also got to wear my sleeping bag jacket and that baby will keep away any chills. We could see I5 and the lights of Los Banos, as well as lots of stars. Fun!
It turns out very little can stand in the way of us going out camping. Take Friday. It was raining, I got home later than usual, and Richard had not had a chance to get anything ready because his work day was jam packed. We were both grouchy and getting off to a late start. We also noticed that some of the wiring conduit that runs under Dory, held onto the frame by adhesive backed plastic holders and zip ties, had come loose. Right at that moment, I was thinking of bailing. However, our daughter had an end of term celebration weekend planned, in the form of a reservation at an inn in Pt. Reyes Station. Our plan was to pick her up, drive over, and drop her at the inn before heading to the campground. So we were committed, but probably would have persevered anyway. Knowing we didn’t have time to do the wiring harness job properly, we just stuck new double sided sticky tape onto the plastic holders and smooshed them back onto the frame. As it turned out, that fix held up all weekend. Go figure.
He had dinner waiting in Dory when I got back and the rest of the evening went like our normal Dory times. Pretty soon, we were both glad we’d hung in there. Saturday was slow and relaxing. It didn’t rain and we took a little hike through the park, down to the river. In the afternoon, I wrote a report and Richard went into town to get paper towels. Somehow those got left off the shopping list and you really can’t do without paper towels.
Sunday we picked up the daughter, who reported that the place was nice, the town was cute, and it was a good weekend. Score. All worth it. Plus we got our camping time in.
Next week we head out for winter break and my boat seat project should be ready. We got our custom cutting board delivered and it fits perfectly. All that remains is to drill some holes to attach the chair. I can try it with the swivel mount, and if that sits too high, it can just mount directly on its base. The seat sits higher than the cushion, so a footrest is definitely required for this project, unless you are very tall. I’m pretty excited to have comfortable seating with lumbar support.
Ahhhhh, just what was needed: a three day weekend with a good friend at my favorite place on the planet. It didn’t even matter that it poured rain a lot of the time. Or that it seemed possible we might get washed away into a sand dune. The ocean views from those premium sites can heal all the ills of the world. And my new jacket totally rocks.
We got very little traffic on our way out, possibly because most people bailed on the idea of going to the coast during a downpour. Much of the campground was also empty, even some of the premium sites, but those people are obviously not badass campers like we are. Or they have tents, in which case, we would totally have bailed too. Site 9 has an amazing view, but is a bit of a squeeze for a trailer. We planned to use the Caravan Mover to position in the site, but found that there was so much wet sand, the jockey wheels were just being pushed along into a deepening rut. So we spun her to the side, about as far at the edge of the site as we thought would be tolerated by the campground host. Bruce just barely fit beside her and we counted on that AWD to be able to get back out.
Our Altoistes friend, Annie, came over for drinks after we got set up and we got caught up while I cooked. She did me a HUGE favor by getting me replacement wine cups from Casini Ranch when she was there. Turns out these things are not dishwasher safe, and mine came out looking more like a shot glass than a wine glass. Not ok. Glad to have replacements.
Overnight it rained quite a bit, but the view through the windows in the morning, combined with a nice boost from the heater, made everything cozy and awesome. Since I’ve again accepted the necessity of daily walking, I got yet another jacket in order to combat the whining. This one is a Patagonia hard shell rain jacket and I can wear it over the top of my puffy. We practiced rain walking a couple times over the weekend and I’m happy to say the upper body situation is working out nicely. All the rain just beaded up like tiny diamonds, with no dampness whatsoever inside. Lower body however…. did you know that once jeans get wet they actually don’t ever dry out for the rest of your life? Of course you did. That comes as a surprise to no one. Still, I wore them on the first day and went “oh yeah.” and had to hang them over the heater vent all weekend. Then I tried fuzzy lined snow pants things I bought after I got cold last winter, and those worked pretty well. I also have over the top rain pants, but those seem like wearing garbage bags, so I’m not sold.
The hikes were really beautiful though, and we even got periods of blue skies and pseudo-sun. The Sonoma coast never disappoints and the views were spectacular, as always.
Then the curiosity overwhelmed me and I went outside, in the rain, in the sand pools, and began digging. This was more of a childlike curiosity endeavor than anything practical, but I ended up with a rather impressive French drain installation, if I do say so. The water flowed perfectly into my little river trenches, until it exited in a waterfall and joined up with all the other runoff streams. It was cool to see the slow formation, and later disappearance, of a lagoon between the campground and the surf. Wrights Beach is basically a big sand pit for grown ups, which is probably why I find it so therapeutic.
We had a lovely time, hiking on the Kortum trail, having happy hours together with Annie, and going out to dinner at our Mexican place. Sunday, we took our requisite selfie, said our “see you soon”s to Annie, but then met up again at the dump station at Bodega Dunes. The daily walking and Yoga have definitely been helping and this felt like a much needed mental reset. It was a great weekend.
Neighbor: Did you really come back for one day and then set off again?! Me: Two nights. To be accurate.
I have found that long stints of typing, even with a butt cushion thingy, can lead to a sore back. I did lots of thinking and web searching, and ended up ordering a boat seat that is supposedly good for backs. To try it out properly, we needed to remove the seat cushion/bench and put in a plank of wood for the thing to sit on. First round of testing seems very promising. The next step is to order a custom piece of polyurethane, like a huge cutting board cut to fit. Then we can bolt the seat onto that. Or bolt on a swivel mount. We can try each and see what’s better. I shall report back with “after” photos. It requires the abandonment of being able to use that area as a single bed, but we don’t seem to have that many overnight guests, so I think we’re good.
In other news, nightly Yoga is back as a non negotiable and it turns out I can do the whole routine, minus one move, in the back of Dory while Richard takes a shower. My Yoga mat is now adorably small. And I can even close the Sad Room curtains and do Sad Yoga, as needed.
While this will be a post about a fun new place we found for camping, it is first going to be a post about work stress. The past couple of weeks have been genuinely rough, which is not that unusual, especially for November. But what struck me on this vacation was how much tension I’ve been carrying around without really noticing. It wasn’t until day 3 that I was able to let go of some of it, and that followed a couple weeks of night waking. The mind goes to places at 3am like: is this a heart attack? Sleep apnea? Cancer? A premonition of Bad Things? Then later, while casually having a sandwich, I just started crying, realizing it was really that string of awful meetings I never had the chance to process.
But in the meantime, I’m extremely grateful for a week off and a new place to explore. I’m also grateful for our Alto buddy, Linda, and her camper dogs. We love you, dudes! They were all set up by the time we got to Pismo. Even with an earlyish departure, we were doing several hours of darkness driving to arrive around 8. It’s about a 5 hour drive and we didn’t hit that much traffic on the way down. This area, along with Morro Bay, is great for longer breaks, but not realistic for a weekend destination.
I liked this campground a lot. Even though our site was chosen for its proximity to the dump, there was plenty of room between us and other campers. The sites along the outside of the loop, near the dunes, would be the best ones. There is a sandy ridge between the campground and the beach, which gives some shelter from the wind. There is also a lovely lagoon that separates the area from the rest of the beach goers. One thing I learned about Pismo: there are a lot of beach goers. There are also a lot of Pelicans, and they are pretty entertaining to watch, especially when one of them decides it’s time to take off and all the rest agree.
The other thing I learned about Pismo: there are a whole lot of RVs. Right next to the state park campground, there is a private place, with 400 sites for big rigs, and it was packed. And there was another place down the street. Plus many, many others in the area. I honestly have never seen that many RVs. It looked like the storage facility across the street was busy towing huge trailers over to the park and dropping them off and setting them up in sites. I guess that’s a thing you can do. Here we were in our tiny camper, all excited to have a shower. Meanwhile next to us were rigs bigger than our house. Very different vibe than Morro Bay.
Situated at the edge of the state park campground, there is a 
At sunset, we did our traditional, craned neck selfie shot at the beach while a kind person offered to take a better picture for us. “No thanks, this is kind of our thing.” For dinner, we headed into town to a place called 
The next day, Richard biked out to the 
We saw RV camping all along the waterfront, but these are big rig parking slots. There are one or two reservable sites that would provide a sideways view of the bay, but really, this kind of camping is not our speed. Clearly, it was popular with multitudes of other RVers though, and they seemed to be enjoying themselves. The most entertaining part of the pier was watching the Sea Lions lounging on their own private floor, just under the boardwalk. I still don’t get how they got up there. There are kayak tours, both in groups, and individual, that can be rented. It was a bit too cold and adventurous sounding for me, but perhaps another time. Apparently, you can go out around the peninsula and check out some cool sea caves.
Sunday sunset found us at the beach by 
Weather was bearing down on the California coast, but we got in one last sunny day before the rain. We headed out to a place called 
We hung out until sunset, joined by several groups of selfie takers, plus a drone photographer. I’m sincerely glad none of them fell off the cliff. Drones look like fun, but very expensive, toys and we were impressed at the operator’s trust in the stated range. He flew it way out over the ocean, acknowledging that if the drone goes too far and loses the signal, it will just drop out of the sky. Pretty sure he got some amazing shots of Pelicans at sunset.
Our last day we opted to stay put, rather than try to make tracks north and avoid a long day of driving in the rain. All weather reports seemed to indicate that the storm got worse as you headed north. So instead, we checked out the 
The rain found us around 9pm and continued strong all night. We hitched up early and were rolling by 10. We got periods of intense downpour, but mostly long stretches of nothing. Still we got hit with holiday traffic about 50 miles from home and that added about an extra hour to the return trip. No surprises traveling the day before Thanksgiving and all in all, it was worth it.
We’ll be looking to this area again for long stays. We used the Barker once after our third night, and pulled out the generator just to top off Richard’s laptop. The service was excellent and strong enough for him to work from Dory without anyone being the wiser. It’s all paved and we could tow the Barker if need be. There was good solar, but also it is a very generator friendly place. There were big rigs and tenters at this place, but it’s a short walk to the beach, so you can feel a bit removed from the NASCAR vibe present in a lot of the rest of the area. I don’t think we’ll ever be taking Dory on the beach. But I guess never say never. It sure did look like the beach riders were enjoying themselves.
