What a GREAT weekend

[wavery]

We just back back from a 3 day trip to San Simeon SP/Hearst Castle.

Friday was magic. Perfect 240 mile drive up our beautiful SoCal Coast. Friday night it started raining at about mid-night and just poured all night. Saturday. we got up to a cloudy day but had a terrific tour of Hearst Castle.

We then went and toured some vineyards and spent the rest of the day wine tasting and exploring the country side.

Saturday night was cloudless and cool. One of the most beautiful Sunsets imaginable while strolling on the beach, looking for that perfect piece of driftwood for the garden. Great campfire, steaks & wine that night.

Sunday morning walk on the beach preceded out 1 hour tear down and departure. The 6 hour drive home was free of traffic and the most pleasant drive imaginable. Our PU is such a dream to tow. We hardly even know it's back there. I set the cruise control on 58 when we left and hardly had to touch it.

We can hardly wait until we go to Refugio SP in 2 weeks. We sure love our PU. Just couldn't imagine camping any other way.

[PITPOP27]

How far was Hearst from you? I mean  how long did it take  you? Did I miss where you stayed? :eyecrazy: It's late, you gotta cut me some slack! :p

[wavery]

How far was Hearst from you? I mean  how long did it take  you? Did I miss where you stayed? :eyecrazy: It's late, you gotta cut me some slack! :p

240 miles. 6 hrs (including all of our stops). It is such a marvelous drive. We live 15 minutes from Santa Monica Beach and it is ocean view almost all the way up.

Go to bed, it's late :p

[PITPOP27]

still up   don't think I'll be getting my hubby to agree to that one anytime soon :mad:

[AustinBoston]

Our PU is such a dream to tow. We hardly even know it's back there. I set the cruise control on 58 when we left and hardly had to touch it.

We can hardly wait until we go to Refugio SP in 2 weeks. We sure love our PU. Just couldn't imagine camping any other way.

We felt that way about our pop-up, too.  Until we took it across some real mountains.  At 6% (up or down), we definitely knew she was there.  At 8%, she was proving she was the "Taj MaHaul" on the way up and the "Taj MaPush" on the way down, and that was with her brakes turned up.  :yikes:

Austin

[wavery]

I love hearing it rain while I sleep in the PU. The campgrounds has a resident owl as well. It was so cool laying there hearing the rain, surf and "Who-who". It was almost disappointing to fall asleep.

About 5 miles up the road is a place where Bull Seals and Walrus hang out on the beach. There were hundreds of them. It was so much fun watching them interact.

When we were looking for vineyards, we found a road that goes way back up in the rolling hills of that area. It is absolutely incredible how much open land there is up in that area. The road narrowed down to a 1 lane road. If you come across another car, someone would have to back to an area to pass. We went about 12 miles up that road and probably passed about 6-8 homes in that entire distance. We just couldn't stand to turn around. It was so compelling to see what was on the other side of the next hill.

[griffsmom]

Sounds like you had a lovely time, Wayne!  If you get a chance, be sure to write a review of the cg where you stayed in PUT's cg review section, in the West forum.  

[wavery]

How far was Hearst from you? I mean  how long did it take  you? Did I miss where you stayed? :eyecrazy: It's late, you gotta cut me some slack! :p

BTW...........San Simeon is a 4 1/2 hr drive from LA, if you go directly up H101. We like to take our time going up Pacific Coast Hwy and stopping at some favorite spots. This time, we picnicked at Refugio SP on the way up. We wanted to have a look at it because we have reservations for April 7-9 and wanted to see what it was like. I must say, from what we saw, it is one of the most beautiful CGs on the coast. I was VERY impressed. However, the train issue remains to be seen. I will report back on our experience there in a few weeks.

The other thing that I noticed about Refugio was that the day-use area is bigger than the CG and the access to the CG is unlimited. It will be interesting to see how that impacts our over-all camping experience there. I would think that if the day-use area is crowded, I would be a little nervous about leaving things out, like my generator. In most campgrounds, I don't even take it in at night. There is a certain honor among campers. General public access may offer some concern.
http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=603

[PITPOP27]

Wayne, I heard Refugio, from others, is great!  I definitely want to get that on the agenda.  I just wish I could get the hubby to agree to wing it on some weekends and just show up to see what's available, if all else fails we had a beautiful ride up the ventura freeway

You know what we do?  We bike chain everything You could bike chain your generator as well.  We ended up getting 15 ft cable - the same kind as bike cable (a couple of them) and some good combo masterlocks over in the lock section of walmart - not the bike section or the camping section, you'll save a good $20 to $30 overall, and just lock up everything.  Since the marine batteries are so dang much, I got my hubby locking those in as well.  Just a little tipper.

Someone said Carpenteria would be bad and we did bring some stuff in overnight, mostly or Macabee chairs that are a little pricey, the kids chairs we left outside, we didn't have anything touched, our friends even forgot to lock their bikes one night, still there.

As far as the trains, I nearly had a heartattack at Carpenteria the first night, why the trains neeed to lay on the horn at 2am ALL the way through the park is beyond me...it was crazy :eyecrazy: but it's california camping at the beach!

[wavery]

Wayne, I heard Refugio, from others, is great!  I definitely want to get that on the agenda.  I just wish I could get the hubby to agree to wing it on some weekends and just show up to see what's available, if all else fails we had a beautiful ride up the ventura freeway

We have recently learned to not make reservations unless it looks like the CG is going to book up. We go to Pt. Mugu quite often. If we book in advance, they charge us $29.50 for 2 days (incl $7.50 rip-off reservation fee). I check the website every day for availability. If it looks like it won't book up, we just drive up there and they charge us "Old folks" $18 .

I made the reservations for Refugio before I figured that stuff out.

[PITPOP27]

Do you think you can convince my husband of that?  Do you call beforehand to see?  Or just show up?

[wavery]

Do you think you can convince my husband of that?  Do you call beforehand to see?  Or just show up?

You can check here:
http://www.reserveamerica.com/client/client_ca.jsp
up to 2 days in advance. If it looks like 1/4 of the CG is not booked, we just drive up. We've done it 3 times this winter. I wouldn't recommend trying it from May-Sept.

For instance, if you check Pt. Mugu for this weekend, it currently shows 26 spaces available. If it stills shows 15 or so on Thursday, we would just go. If there were less than 10 spaces available and we want to camp, we would make a reservation. The other thing is, we get there at 2:PM on Friday, that makes a big difference. If you can't get there until the evening, I would book if it gets below 20.

There is also Sycamore Canyon right across the street and Leo Carrillo 5 miles South and McGrath 5 miles North. We drove up one weekend and stopped at Leo Carrillo on the way to Pt Mugu. Although the website said they were booked up, when we got there, there were vacancies.

[Recumbentman]

BTW...........San Simeon is a 4 1/2 hr drive from LA, if you go directly up H101. We like to take our time going up Pacific Coast Hwy and stopping at some favorite spots. This time, we picnicked at Refugio SP on the way up. We wanted to have a look at it because we have reservations for April 7-9 and wanted to see what it was like. I must say, from what we saw, it is one of the most beautiful CGs on the coast. I was VERY impressed. However, the train issue remains to be seen. I will report back on our experience there in a few weeks.

The other thing that I noticed about Refugio was that the day-use area is bigger than the CG and the access to the CG is unlimited. It will be interesting to see how that impacts our over-all camping experience there. I would think that if the day-use area is crowded, I would be a little nervous about leaving things out, like my generator. In most campgrounds, I don't even take it in at night. There is a certain honor among campers. General public access may offer some concern.
http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=603

Just wanted to add by 2 cents, Refugio is one great place to camp. go every year and I will be there on May 20th. Very popular CG so you need to make reservations 6 mos ahead of time. never had a problem with the day use crowd. there is a nice bike path that goes out to El Capitan (another nice CG to try) and back. also in the future you might want to check out Circle Bar-B Ranch
they have a great dinner/theater program there and its right at your backdoor. good food and entertainment