From Sand and Seas to Snow and Trees

Leaving our seaside digs at Rincon, we returned to Orange Grove RV Park, near Bakersfield on Friday, 3/11. Unfortunately, the crimp on the rear slide cable failed AGAIN. Sigh. Rog hit a hardware store and spent the afternoon working on the repair. Hopefully third time’s the charm!

We usually stay just one night at Orange Grove but we booked two so we could make a day trip along the Kern River to Indian Wells Brewery near Inyokern, CA. Indian Wells bottles some of the most amazing hard sodas. Their Orange Crème soda (add a scoop of vanilla ice cream for the best float ever!) and Lunatic Lemonade are two of our favorites. They also bottle a large variety of nonalcoholic sodas with amusing names like “Dog Drool” and several beers. It’s just a fun stop. We picked up a case of the orange soda to share with friends (Bob and Carol, we got you covered. 😊). They were out of the Lunatic Lemonade in bottles, so we got three 32oz crowlers (cans filled onsite). Considering that it’s 10% ABV, I’ll need a little help from my friends to finish one of those. Lol.  

Indian Wells is always a fun stop. 

 We took Hwy 178 across the Sierra mountains along the Kern River and past Lake Isabella. You could easily see the effects of the drought, with low water levels everywhere. It was a beautiful day though and Riley enjoyed the long car ride with occasional breaks for piddles and play.

Hwy 178 winds through green and gold hills. 

The Kern River.

Lake Isabella. Not much left of her. 😟

 

We saw lots of Joshua Trees along the way.

On the way back we stopped at Red Rock Canyon State Park along Hwy 14. It was gorgeous and we’ll be adding it to our list. There are 50 dry camping spots and, although the website says 30 ft max, we saw several sites large enough for our rig. I was hoping to do a short hike in the canyon, but sadly no puppers were allowed on the trails. We wouldn’t leave Riley in the car, so I guess we’ll just have to plan a return trip in the RV so he can nap on the couch while we enjoy the trails. Lol.

This definitely looks like a place we need to visit!

 After Orange Grove, our next stop was Sequoia RV Park in Dunlap, CA. It’s billed as the last campground before Kings Canyon National Park and that made it the perfect base for us to explore the park. We arrived Sunday, 3/13, and got set up. (So far, so good on the slide repair.) Riley liked the shade and grassy areas for play. However, I was not a fan of the resident geese. There was goose poop everywhere and the honking alarm clocks went off about 6am and continued pretty much all day long. 

The hills enroute were carpeted with wildflowers. 

Ball time!

Dang noisy poop machines. Not a fan. 

On Monday, Riley had a most excellent day. Actually, so did we. The drive into Kings Canyon National Park is absolutely stunning. As we climbed in elevation, we saw more and more snow. The Visitor’s Center was open, but many of the roads through the park were closed. 

First stop, the Visitor's Center.
Did I mention the snow? Lol.

Granite boulders, big trees and blue skies. Lovely. 

The drive into the park was stunning.

Snow capped peaks in the distance. 

The obligatory selfie. Smile.

We walked the short trail around the Grant Grove. I really, really, really love the big sequoias. We walked through the Fallen Monarch and just stood in awe of the giant trees. Some of these behemoths are over 3000 years old. Words fail me. Did I ever mention that we planted two sequoias behind our garage. Probably not our most brilliant move, but by the time they get anywhere near this big, we'll be long gone. Lol. 

A small grove of sequoias next to the parking lot.

Standing or fallen, these are some impressive trees.

Looking up.
Pictures just don't capture the scale.

Walking through the Fallen Monarch.

A huge stump that I'd really like to take home. Lol. 

The General Grant tree.
Second largest tree in the world, 270 ft tall and 107 feet around the base.

Some vertical panos. 
Had to get creative to get the whole tree in the shot. Lol. 

Then Riley got to play in the snow! There wasn’t anyone else in the snow play area so he got a little off-leash time and he went bonkers. He is certainly a snow dog. Then we drove down to Hume Lake and he got to go wading. First snow, then water and a fun car ride. What a lucky boy. But wait, that’s not all… (in my best infomercial voice) we decided to order pizza for supper so he had pizza crusts too. It was a very, very good day for Riley. Lol.

Crazy dog doing zoomies in the snow.

He looks so handsome when he's not being goofy. 

Gorgeous views from Lake Hume.

No Riley day would be complete without paws in the water.

The lakebed looked like liquid gold.
I'm guessing mica flecks in the sand. It sure was pretty!

Tuesday, we did our workout and hung around camp. We walked to a local coffee shop for homemade bagels and then over to the Sequoia National Forest Ranger Station to find out what was open. The roads to two of the attractions we wanted to see in the National Forest (the Chicago Stump and the Boole Tree) were still closed, but the Ranger said we could bike to them if we wanted. Sounded great to us!

Homemade bagels and scones. Riley is eager to assist. Lol.

Rog prepped the bikes and we took off on Wednesday for a fun adventure. Turns out, we got a little more adventure than we bargained for. We decided to ride to the Boole Tree (about 6 mi round trip) first. The Boole Tree is a giant sequoia in the Converse Basin grove in Sequoia National Forest. Converse Basin used to be a large grove but most of its giant sequoias were logged between 1892 and 1918.  Even though only about 60 large specimens remain of thousands, it is still the largest contiguous grove in the world.

We parked where the road was gated, unloaded the bikes and took off. It was a dirt Forest Service road and at first there was snow beside the road, then as we went a little further there were short patches that covered the road. Then the patches got bigger and the snow got deeper. We’d only gone about a half mile before we realized it just wasn’t going to work. We were hiking the bikes across snow fields and post-holing up to our knees in the snow. Add to that, some very fresh-looking cougar tracks and we opted to turn around. I wasn’t up for getting stuck and becoming a big cat’s frozen meals-on-wheels. 😊

More snow than trail...

...and we were sinking in to our knees.

Add in fresh cougar tracks, and...

...it was time to turn around.

Since our first attempt was a bust, Rog suggested we ride the 3 miles around Hume Lake. We’d been there with Riley already, so we were pretty confident the trail would be clear.  Success! The lake was originally a mill pond that was created by damming Tenmile creek in 1908. The dam’s multiple arch design by John Eastwood was revolutionary. It was built in only 114 days for $46,541. The lake was used to store logs and supplied the water for a 54-mile V-shaped wooden flume used to transport rough lumber from the Hume mill to Sanger, CA. A fire destroyed the mill in 1917 and the harvesting of the Giant Sequoias ended in 1929. In 1936 the land became part of the Sequoia National Forest.  

Yay, no snow on this trail! 

The unusual arch dam on Lake Hume.

Beautiful Hume Lake.

 After a pleasant ride around the lake, we parked at the road closure for the Chicago Stump. The Chicago Stump was originally known as the General Noble Tree.  In 1897, it was cut down in sections and reassembled at the Chicago World's Fair. The display was referred to as the "California Hoax," because of widespread skepticism that a species as big as the giant sequoia actually existed. Although the Ranger said we were able to bike the road, there was no opening near the gate. Hmmm. In fact, there was barbed wire fencing running from the locked gate along both sides as far as we could see. Rog was able to lift his bike over fairly easily, but my e-bike is a monster than weighs more than 80 pounds. We found a small tree that had fallen over the fence and managed to manhandle my bike along the trunk and over the fence. Geesh. What a job, but we did it! Off we went.

This ride was shorter, only a couple miles and the first part was in the sun and snow-free. Then we turned a corner and started to descend into a snow-filled valley. Again, a few patches and before you knew it, we were stymied by deep drifts again! At that point, I would have abandoned the bikes and just walked the rest of the way but seriously, the snow was so deep we couldn’t figure out where the road was! I’ll give the Ranger points for letting us try, but it was obvious she had no idea what the conditions were like. Lol. So back up the road we went, hauled my bike over the deadfall again and loaded everything back on the Acadia.

 

Uh oh. Starting to see more snow on the trail.

Which way?? 
Walking wasn't an option, since we couldn't find the trail. Lol.

By now it was midafternoon and thick clouds were rolling in. We drove a part of the General’s Highway to view the devastation left by the KNP Complex fire. Started by lightning strikes in September 2021, several smaller fires merged into the KNP Complex fire which raged through Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and the Sequoia National Forest until it was finally contained three months later. In some areas where the fire was hottest everything burned, blackened trunks stand or litter the ground. Nothing green grows there yet. In other areas the understory is gone, but many of the big trees survived, and then there are pockets with no damage at all. It will be a long time, if ever, before the forest fully recovers. All told, The KNP Complex burned 88,307 acres across the national parks and forest and about 20% of the world’s Giant Sequoias were lost. Thankfully many of the iconic trees were spared, in part due to the efforts of the Forest Service and wildland firefighters. They used fire-resistant structure protection wrap to cover the base of some of the biggest trees, including General Sherman the world’s largest tree by volume. It was scary how close we came to losing a true national treasure.

Clouds are rolling in...

The fire burned right down to the road, crossing it in several places.

No green left. It torched these trees completely. 

We left Sequoia RV Park on Thursday, 3/17. The next part of our trip will be more family time, visiting Rian in Sacramento and then Rog’s Mom in Redding. We haven’t decided on a route north yet, we’re still waiting to see what the weather will be like. But I’m sure we’ll find something interesting to do on the way home. 😃

A Salty Dog at Rincon and Channel Islands National Park

Camping at Rincon Parkway is definitely a different experience. The campground, and I use that term loosely, is really just a wide shoulder along Hwy 1, the Pacific Coast Highway, with 127 spaces marked off for RV parking. No amenities, except garbage dumpsters and a couple of porta-potties. We are shoehorned in nose to tail and for larger rigs, it is tight. We arrived around noon on Sunday, 3/6, and were fortunate that the space in front of us was unoccupied when we arrived. That made it easy to pull in and get parked, otherwise, you’d have to parallel park your RV. Our Acadia is parked perpendicular in front of the 33-foot short bus and we completely fill our space.

 

Parked nose to tail, but what a view!

The boys wasted no time getting down to the beach.

That said, it is really kinda cool here. We are parked at the top of a sandstone boulder sea wall with unobstructed views of the ocean. Of course, just a few feet on the other side of the rig is Hwy 1, but it’s not too busy and the sound of the surf drowns out most of the traffic noise. We have enjoyed sitting on the patio watching the seabirds and dolphins, with an occasional visit from a thirsty ground squirrel. 

Bird watching, dolphin spotting, and squirrel sipping. Lol. 

Riley is loving the beach time. Getting him up and down over the boulders was a bit challenging. There are no stairs or easy beach access, but some campsites have more manageable paths down. There’s no way Riley could navigate the boulders where we’re parked, but we found a couple places a few spots down that were better. Luckily, we’re here midweek and enough sites have stayed open that we’ve been able to get him to the beach every day. In the past, he hasn't been a fan of the waves. This time he plunged right in. In fact, he quickly learned the best way to play keep-away was to run out into the surf where Daddy wouldn't follow. Then he'd turn his back on the waves, either very brave or totally clueless. Guess which one I'm betting on. Lol. 

Riley has obviously overcome his fear of the surf. 

Catch the bouncy ball!

And our Salty Dog is off again!

While we’re loving the beach, the real reason we chose Rincon was for its proximity to Ventura. We’re here to visit Channel Islands National Park. This will be the 37th National Park we’ve visited since July 2016 when we started our year on the road and we’re excited to add a new one to the list. The only way to access Channel Islands is by boat and we have reservations for Tuesday morning with Island Packers, the park’s concessionaire. It looks like the weather will be perfect!

Island Explorer - our Tuesday morning ride to the islands. 

We’re big fans of the National Park visitor centers, so on Monday we stopped by the Channel Islands visitor’s center in Ventura Harbor. We saw lots of interesting exhibits and a great movie which highlighted the history of the islands and current conservation efforts. Fossil records show the islands have been populated for 13,000 years. Early inhabitants include the Chumash native tribes, Spanish explorers landed in 1542, and more recently the islands were used for sheep ranching.  While efforts to preserve the islands started in the 1930’s, Channel Islands wasn’t established as a national park until 1980. After perusing the visitor’s center, we walked along the beach, saw more dolphins and watched a couple of surfers ride the waves.

 

The main Visitor's Center for Channel Islands National Park is in Ventura.

You can see Santa Cruz Island from the observation tower.

Mad skills, but it still looks too cold for me. Lol. 

We boarded the Island Packers boat at 9am on Tuesday, 3/8, for the 1½ hour cruise to the islands. Along the way they detoured so we could get a closer look at the rare Pacific white-sided dolphin. We also followed a couple of gray whales that were spouting and breaching. I have always wanted to do a whale watching excursion, so it felt like we were getting extra bang for our buck. Lol.

Gray whale breaching. So cool!!

A rare Pacific white-sided dolphin.
The crew identified it, I sure can't tell the difference! Lol. 

I'm not the only paparazzi on board. Lol. 

The Channel Islands were never connected to the mainland and, as a result of that isolation, has nearly 150 endemic species found nowhere else on earth. It has been called the Galapagos Islands of North America. We’ll be visiting Santa Cruz Island, the largest of the five islands (Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, Santa Barbara, and San Miguel) that make up the National Park. Each of the islands has something unique to offer - sea caves, plants and animals found nowhere else, sea bird rookeries, or breeding grounds for the huge Northern Elephant Seals, sea lions and harbor seals. I really want to visit them all! But with just one day we had to make some difficult decisions. Which island? Which anchorage? Kayak or hike? We chose Scorpion anchorage on the east side of Santa Cruz. We thought hard about scheduling a kayaking tour, but we really wanted to hike and didn’t think the five hours we had on the island would be time to do both. Maybe next visit… 😊

 

Santa Cruz, the largest of the Channel Islands.

Anchorage at Scorpion Bay. 

Lots of sea caves and cool rock formation for the kayakers to explore.

A passage through an imposing rock wall. 

Ranching on Santa Cruz lasted from the 1850’s to 1984 and dramatically affected the ecosystem and native habitat. It wasn't until 1997 that the National Park system acquired the last interest from the ranchers on Santa Cruz. The Nature Conservancy currently owns about 75% of the island. Many non-native plants and animals were introduced during the ranching era and with habitat loss nearly wiped out several of the endemic species, including the absolutely adorable Island Fox. They are one of the smallest canids, about 4-5 lbs, 12 inches tall, and 19 inches long. Each of the islands has a distinct subspecies of fox, which are about the size of a small house cat. While many of the historical ranch buildings remain, all the sheep and feral pigs have been removed from the island. Bald eagles were reintroduced and the Island Fox population rebounded from fewer than a 100 to over 2000 on Santa Cruz Island alone.

Historic buildings and equipment remain at Scorpion Ranch.

 

Evidence of ranching is found across the island. 

A raven surveys his domain from a perch on antique farm equipment.

The adorable (and no longer endangered) Island Fox.

We hiked the Cavern Point Loop trail, continuing along the North Bluff Trail to Potato Harbor (named for its shape, no actual potatoes were involved). It was about 6 miles roundtrip, and the views were absolutely stunning. We had perfect weather and the wildflowers were blooming everywhere. We saw foxes multiple times and they had no fear at all. Unlike most species, these little guys are active during the day. Well, if you call napping in the sun active. Lol.

The hillsides were covered with yellow flowers.

 

More wildflowers.
It was a gorgeous time to hike the island. 

The old fence line ran right up to the cliff edge.

I want to explore the sea caves!!

Happy Campers. 😉

Potato Harbor.

More sightings of the (not so) elusive Island Fox. Lol.

This little dude was totally asleep on the job. Lol.

The Island Fence Lizard, another species endemic to the island.

A view of Anacapa Island in the distance.

The waters around the island have forests of giant kelp. It’s a great spot for diving or snorkeling. We loved watching the sea birds too. Graceful V’s of pelicans skimming just above the waves. Although the most entertaining birds were the ravens. We were warned that they are accomplished camp robbers who have learned to unzipper a backpack to steal food or shiny baubles. We watched them in action on the beach and talked to one camper who almost lost his car keys when they unzipped two pouches on this pack!

 

Extremely accomplished thieves, with attitude. Lol.

Giant kelp forests provide habitat and food for an amazing array of marine life.

Seabirds fly along the shore.

Pelicans are graceful in flight... 

...they swoop in formation just inches above the waves. 

We were sad to end our day on Santa Cruz Island, but we were back on the boat for our return voyage by 3:30pm. The trip back wasn’t without some excitement though. We were treated to a huge, and I do mean HUGE pod of dolphins. There must have been an all-you-can-eat buffet, because there were at least a hundred of them. So many dolphins leaping and cavorting that it was hard to get a picture showing the size of the group. They stayed along the boat for several minutes and it was a spectacular show.

 

Dolphins!

More Dolphins!

Lots and lots more dolphins! Lol.

We had a few more days at Rincon after our visit to Channel Islands and we made daily pilgrimages to the beach. The sunsets were dramatic and just sitting and watching the waves was mesmerizing. We’d have liked to go back for a second visit to Channel Islands, either to kayak or visit a different island, but didn’t feel it was fair to leave Riley alone for another long day. We definitely wouldn’t mind a return trip, there is lots more to see and do here!

 

When you can't pick just one. Lol.

The sun sinks beneath the waves at Rincon.

We left Rincon on Friday, 3/11. Our plan is to stop at Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield again and then we have a new stop and another new (to us) national park to visit. Should be fun!