San Clemente/Onofre/Dana Point!

Today's post will probably be written too soon after our trip to give appropriate consideration but not all of our camping excursions are as joyous as others. Almost all of our trips involve some last minute/no planning and we have yet to reserve anything so this one tested our previous luck. We have always been successful in finding ideal camping spots during our weekday weekends so were hopeful this trend continued. Leaving on a Sunday evening we made our way to San Clemente State Park and met up with some great park rangers that congratulated us on getting one of the last few spots available.

Our friendly rangers informed us to check in at the office early in the morning to see what sites would be available for us the next day. At this point it was the highlight of our trip and our luck went successively downhill. After waking early, we headed over to the office only to find a different and unfriendly host tell us that "nothing is available and you have to book 6 months in advance".

We decided to hang around for another hour or so to check out the beach which was nice.

Then we drove off to San Onofre State beach which is only 15 minutes away. None of the available sites were particularly attractive so we decided to try South Carlsbad State beach. We had no luck there as well as San Elijo State Park with completely full campgrounds. After this we tried 2 other campsites that were somewhat nearby with even further bad luck. I also found out that regular civilians are not allowed to camp at any military campgrounds even though I mentioned that we had been driving almost 4 hours with a cranky 1 year old. At this point we decided to either head back to San Onofre or back home and call it a weekend. Luckily there were some sites left so we set up things and made the best of it.

I read some negative reviews on San Onofre and now understand why. Our site (along with most others) had no ocean view, it was actually quite the journey to get to the ocean. It took us 3 of these "Sheep Cliff" signs to finally realize they had been defaced from Sheer in warning us that we shouldn't proceed (but of course we did).

and when we eventually made it, here was our beach.

Although scenic, it was all rocks and I ended up smashing my ankle when the waves threw some boulders my way.

The reviews also mentioned the noise levels of this campsite. The sounds from nearby I-5 were noisy but consistent and not so much of an issue as the hourly passenger and freight trains that were literally 20ft away from us. These trains were obnoxiously loud and impossible to ignore during the night even with a pillow over my head. Despite this, Brooke somehow managed to have a nice sleep.

Having reached the low point of our trip we decided to make the most of our camping pass by hitting the day use section that was much more accessible and enjoyed our spot right on the beach.

California still holds true as an incredibly beautiful, vast and diverse state. Our final beach location at Dana Point certainly made up for the hardships encountered with plenty of sand, water, and waves. Here's my wife doing what she loves.

Although this was far from a relaxing camping trip, we believe we made the best of things and were able to enjoy some beautiful sights. Brooke took everything in stride and slept soundly on the way back home.



Crystal Lake

It feels like we are missing out on life when we don't go exploring and with a three week break in our camping excursions we had to head out during our 2 days off. We originally planned on doing a short trip to Coldbrook Campground but found out on our drive up that it was closed for the next 2 weeks. This wasn't too big an issue because Crystal Lake campground was only another 8 miles up the road. Although that 8 miles is at a considerably higher elevation and most of was in 2nd gear at around 25 miles per hour.

At over 5,600' it is one of the higher altitude campsites we have visited and also one of the most beautiful.

Here is a shot with our side awning and portable solar all ready to go.

For all those interested in solar fun times, here is my new MPPT charge controller. The number in the upper left shows it pulling in 8amps from the 2 panels. It was peaking at 10 but the sun went behind a bit of cloud by the time I took this picture. Very happy with the 180Watts combined power for all the electrical needs.

The scenery was beautiful, the mountains impressive, and the trees were majestic.

In the late 1800's a Pasadenan visited the pristine little lake and said "The water is clear as crystal and the visitors found it good to drink". The lake soon became known as Crystal Lake. At about a mile away from the campground, we were on our way.

I found an old picture of the Lake from the 60's to compare with the one we took. It looks like it was quite a destination back then with a waterfront store and boat rental service.

Back at our campsite, it was time for my awesome wife to do one of her favorite things. Swinging in the hammock under the trees.

Followed by some coloring time with Brooke

With our day complete it was time to say goodnight and be thankful we could experience yet another great camping experience.