2022 - CA National Parks

We started the day listening to the sea lions barking in the harbor.  They evidently went from empty dock to empty dock and has some arguing to do about who was where. The hotel was in a great location.  It was next to the harbor and a half mile from Ventura Harbor Village (with the restaurants and stores), another quarter mile to the ferry and another quarter mile to the Channel Island Visitor Center. We walked around the harbor.  It was huge.  Evidently a number of people lived on their boats (there was an Amazon lock box for delivery along the walk) and there were very secure gates to the docks.  Not to mention the parked minivans that had LAX to Ventura service...... We walked down to the visitor center and Virginia and Susie had to check out the beach. Then we had lunch at a Greek restaurant at Harbor Village.) We had dinner at the Aloha Steakhouse.  I saw an article where it was rated one of the best oceanfront restaurants in Southern California.  But, when we got there, it was H

We got up early and caught the ferry to Santa Cruz Island in Channel Islands National Park, the largest of the five islands in the park.  While we waited/registered we noticed a whiteboard with the counts of how many different species of fish/whales/dolphins had been seen over the last month.  Some of the numbers were hard to believe - I think they recorded 20,000 Common Dolphin sightings in one day.   The ferry left in the fog (the marine effect) so we didn't see too much until we got near the island when the captain announced that there was a very large pod of dolphins to the starboard side.  He slowed down and drove around and through the middle of the pod.  They were everywhere.  (We tried to get pictures but the only ones that show up are when the dolphin was completely out of the water.  You could see hundreds more just below the surface.) Then we made our first stop, at the Scorpion Anchorage.  This was the most popular stop with a campground, an old restored ranch and a fav

We left Ventura and headed on up the coast (back through Santa Barbara) up Highway 1.  It was very nice, but were surprised how empty it was once past Santa Barbara.  We were going in and out of the Marine Layer fog and eventually turned inland onto highway 101 (bypassing Vanderburg Air force Base) and eventually getting back on Highway 1 on the coast just past San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay. We were aiming for San Simeon so we could tour the Hearst Castle. Before we got there, we were driving around San Simeon (not much to it - just two streets) and saw a building named the Friends of the Elephant Seal.  We stopped in and found out that there is an Elephant Seal viewing area just off Highway 1 about 8 miles up the road.  They had a beach cam showing the area (you can find it at Elephantseal.org) that showed that there were seals on the beach. So, after lunch we headed there.  It was amazing.  Evidently, this group of seals were juveniles.  The adults show up in the winter months (Decem

We stopped at the Rookery again on our way north to Monterey. Then it was up Highway 1 to Monterey.  It was quite the drive, mostly cloudy, but definitely scenic.  There is not much development all the way to Big Sur, but there was a lot more traffic, especially from Big Sur north.  It was funny - all of us had been to Big Sur before, but we had very different memories of what it was.  Mary thought it was known for its surfing (most of it is pretty far from the ocean).  I remembered it as having a little more development than the rest of the coast, but not that much.  None of us remembered the redwood forest or the art galleries. And there didn't seem to be too much development (as one might expect over 40 years) - maybe it was off the road somewhere..... Anyway, we got near Monterey and took a little detour to Pacific Grove to check out a Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary (did you know that Pacific Grove is known as the Butterfly Town, USA??)  but, alas, the butterflies weren't ther

 Monterey The big thing on the agenda today was visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  First, Mary found a French bakery, the Paris Cafe, for breakfast within walking distance of the hotel.  Then we headed to the aquarium.   It definitely lived up to its hype.  It was by far the best aquarium I've seen.  And I think what I enjoyed most about it was that almost all exhibits were about the local flora and fauna. Starting with the Giant Kelp tank. And the Jellyfish tanks. And the Open Seas tank. It was great.  I did enjoy the sea otter tank - they are much larger than I thought - 3 to 4 feet long.. Then we went to In-N-Out Burgers for lunch.  The good news was the line was not too long  (we had seen lines winding around parking lots at some of the other locations).  The bad news is that it was not as good as we remembered. It was actually in Seaside, just southeast of Monterey.  As we drove there, we passed the Naval Postgraduate School.  I wonder if that is where Bill Brenner went when

Today was a long drive from Monterey up to Castroville (the Artichoke Capital of the World) and over to Pinnacles National Park (east entry) and then on to Kings Canyon National Park. Again, there was a lot of development from Monterey to Castroville and then a lot of farms most of the way to Pinnacles, but then mostly ranch land.   We had heard that the park was very crowded on weekends, so we decided to go on Monday.  But the rangers said we were in the low season and it really wasn't very busy any day of the week now.  And it certainly wasn't crowded when we were there. The park is interesting in that there is no road that runs through it (the mountains make it difficult) and it is about a 100 mile trip to get from one side to the other.  So, we chose the east side which is more developed and did a hike around Bear Gulch. We hoped to see the Pinnacles, but this was as close as we got.  The park is one of the release sites for the California Condor and they have about 25 in t