Kings on the Road

Mild to Wild Animas River Rafting

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Kings On the Road

Great fun today rafting the Rio de las Animas Perdidos (River of Lost Souls) or Animas River with Mild to Wild Rafting Company in Durango Colorado. The trip took us from the North side of town clear through downtown along the River Trail.

What a blast! Guide Keaton kept us entertained while in the floaty parts then guided us skilfully though the class 3 Smelter Rapids. We got soaked in cold late Spring snowmelt river and loved every second. Can we go again?

If you’re in Durango, give Mild to Wild a call. They will put you on a fun river trip.

Posted in Durango | 1 Comment

Yosemite and Gold Country

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Kings On the Road

Yosemite National Park has to be one of the most beautiful places on this planet. Everywhere you turn in the valley there are gorgeous views of massive rock formations, waterfalls, forests and pastoral meadows. There are 3 groves of Giant Sequoia trees, the largest living things on earth. Yosemite is THE place where the whole worldwide concept of National Parks and perpetual preservation started. It was set aside years before Yellowstone largely due to the efforts of Muir and the first ranger, Galen Clark. If you’ve never been there, put it on your list.

Yosemite Falls

Bridalveil Fall

Vernal Fall

El Capitan

Half Dome

Campgrounds in the park are almost always full. Reservations are made many months in advance. We stayed in a small RV park near Coulterville about 30 miles from the park. Coulterville is an interesting foothills town on John Muir’s original trail to Yosemite Valley and the route of the first road to the park. It is largely undeveloped now as other routes have become more popular.

Most of the 49er Gold Rush history is located in the Sierra Nevada foothills. We visited the towns of Chinese Camp, Fish Camp, Mariposa, Angels Camp, Sonora, Columbia, Jamestown and Murphys. Each has a story to tell. Columbia is preserved as a California Historic State Park. Jamestown has a great steam train, roundhouse and turntable within Railtown 1897 State Historic Park. Fish Camp has the Yosemite Mountain and Sugar Pine RR. Its a fine train ride pulled by an historic Shay geared locomotive. We found good sized crowds at all these historic trains in California.

Click on the images for a larger version.

Lower Yosemite Fall

: Giant Sequoia

Sequoia “Grizzly Giant”

Posted in California, national parks, trains, Uncategorized | Tagged Columbia State Historic Park, giant sequoia trees, massive rock formations, railtown 1897, yosemite mountain rr, Yosemite national park | 3 Comments

Monterey California

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Kings On the Road

Monterey was our re-entry point from our time in the wild Big Sur country. Time for a minor re-stock. We found Monterey to be a lovely small city surrounded by more lovely towns and coast. It was the capital of Mexican Alta California. The oldest government buildings in California are here in this city of 29000. And then there is Cannery Row made famous by John Steinbeck. Next door is Pacific Grove, a quaint town built by Chautauqua campers beginning in 1879. The streets are full of beautiful Victorian homes. And then there are the little towns of Carmel and Pebble Beach.

Point Lobos State Park is the crown jewel of the California State Park system. Rugged, rocky shoreline interspersed with bluffs and beaches. Dramatic Monterey Pines and Cypress trees and of course wildlife. Sea birds. seals, deer are well protected and easy to see. Miles of mild hiking trails make this a fun day trip.

Harbor Seal

Point Lobos

The Roaring Camp and Big Trees Railway was a wonderful day trip. The train is pulled by a steam powered 3-truck Shay gear driven locomotive built in 1903. The first trip of the day was sold out. While we waited for the second trip we found ourselves next to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. What a treat! This park was created to preserve giant Coast Redwoods. Trees up to 270 feet tall, 17 feet in diameter and 2200 years old. These are virgin timber trees saved from the saw when everything in the area was cut to rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 Earthquake. Awesome! And then we enjoyed another full train climbing the steep grade up Big Bear Mountain.

Roaring Camp and Big Trees Railway

Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park

We will return to Monterey.

Posted in California, trains, Uncategorized | Tagged Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, Point Lobos State Park, Roaring Camp and Big Trees Railway | 7 Comments

California Central Coast

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Kings On the Road

They call the central coast of California “the original road trip”. We call it the nature coast. From Morro Bay to Monterey, this part of California offers spectacular rugged coast interspersed with beautiful beaches and mountains. We found state parks and National Forest camping for our RV from San Simeon to Big Sur.

We started our exploration of the area in San Luis Obispo, a medium sized city with a big college population. Downtown is interesting with an original Spanish Mission, a river walk area, and farmers markets almost every day of the week. The big market is Thursday evening with a turnout of 5000 to 7000 people. A bit large for us.

Pismo Beach has RV camping in county parks right next to the beach and its the only place we’ve seen vehicles allowed on the beach. The beach has beautiful dunes and a grove of eucalyptus trees that host thousands of Monarch butterflies on the annual migration. There are 5 small towns in this area with beautiful homes along bluffs above the ocean. Morro Bay is a beautiful little beach town. The Rock is an icon of the area.

Morro Rock

A major attraction is Hearst Castle. It may be the most awesome home in America. Started in 1926, it was never finished as Hearst was always renovating. Its more than an over-the-top monument to wealth. There are over 25000 works of art decorating the “ranch”. The State Park staff does a great job interpreting the site in a low key “as much as you like” style. Hearst had a zoo on the property and some of the zebras escaped and can now be seen running wild.

Hearst Castle

Neptune Pool

Wild Zebras

Elephant Seal Beach

Elephant Seal pup

The nature of the area is the main attraction though. Elephant seals are thriving on at least 4 beaches and fascinating to watch. They had been hunted to near extinction for their blubber but now have healthy populations. We saw many pups who had been born this year. Newborns are 35 to 60 pounds but grow to 350 pounds in about a month. Then mom leaves and they have to learn to swim and hunt. Fascinating. Gray whales migrate north near the beach easily viewed from the cliffs. Orcas congregate just offshore. Sea otters have to be the most playful animals on earth. All these creatures are viewed from wild rugged craggy bluffs.

Elephant Seal male

Big Sur offers spectacular views of the meeting of land and sea. It is still very wild country between the urban Bay Area and Greater LA.

Big Sur Coast

Iconic Bixby Bridge

Sea Otter

Moonstone Beach

Posted in California, RV | Tagged Big Sur, California, Hearst Castle, marine mammals, San Simeon | 2 Comments

Ventura Part 2

Posted on March 23, 2013 by Kings On the Road

Too much Ventura for one blog…

The surrounding area offers so much. Channel Islands National Park seeks to preserve California as it once was. The park consists of five islands just off the coast. The cattle and pigs which had been introduced to the islands have been totally removed and the native flora and fauna are being restored. Over 100 plants and animals are found nowhere else on earth. For this reason many call these islands the northern Galapagos. Endangered species are back at home here including elephant seals. The waters around the islands harbor a wealth of marine life including gigantic kelp forests. Island Packers is the ferry concessionaire for the park and they do a great job. On our trip back to Ventura after a full day on Santa Cruz island the captain took time to circle a group of Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins. Then we cruised with a pair of California Gray Whales (they surfaced right next to the boat) and saw a pair of Stellar Sea Lions (rare for this area and known as “the grizzly bears of the sea”).

Approaching Santa Cruz Island

Santa Cruz island

Potato HarborStellar Sea Lions

And then there are nearby towns of Ojai and Fillmore. Fillmore has a tourist train which has been a part of many Hollywood movies. These days it takes people on a scenic ride through an agricultural valley to Santa Paula, the birth place of the California oil industry. Ojai sits in the bottom of another beautiful valley. It has a great farmers market on Sundays and the largest outdoor bookstore in the US, Barts’ Books. There are also many olive orchards and fresh pressed olive oil is wonderful. We tried oils from Ojai and Regalo farms. And we tasted fresh olives right off the trees. Wow! That is a celebration in your mouth that goes on and on. Ojai is a very expensive town in a fabulous setting.

Malibu is less than an hour South of Ventura. We took a very nice drive along CA 1, the Pacific Coast Hwy. Malibu is in another beautiful setting along bluffs above the sea. We toured the Adamson property where it all began as a pottery factory town. Development started in the 1920s when Hollywood stars started leasing properties and took off from there. We continued down to Santa Monica and saw notices posted all over town about film shoots. Commercials, TV shows and movies all seem to use Santa Monica regularly. The Santa Monica Pier was something to see – it was the Western terminus of Route 66. We looped back to Ventura through the Santa Monica Mountains and Mulholland Hwy. It is amazing rugged country rather sparsely populated just a few miles from the super mega-city that is LA. Just another amazing day.

Santa Monica Pier

Surfrider Beach and Malibu Pier

Santa Monica Mountains

Fillmore and Western Railroad

Oranges at Ojai

Olives at Ojai

Mild temps, low humidity, a year round ag community, passenger train service and friendly people all make us put Ventura on our list of places to come back to.

Posted in California, national parks, trains | Tagged Ag tourism, Channel Islands NP, Fillmore and Western RR, Ojai CA, Ventura CA | 5 Comments

Ventura California

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Kings On the Road

Ah Ventura! The real California. Thats the slogan around here and it kinda sums up how we feel about this place. When we thought about spending some time in Cal. this was the kind of place we had in mind.

As soon as we entered Ventura County, we felt at home. We passed orchard after orchard filled with oranges, lemons, avocados and olives. The row crops consist of strawberries, kale, swiss chard, cabbage and endless hoop houses full of tomatoes. There were many farmstands that looked to be open everyday year round. And the farms rose up the slopes of beautiful mountains left and right. Many crops are certified organic. Agriculture is the main economic driver here and it looks like everyone is doing well.

Rincon Parkway

Amtrak at our backs

Rincon Beach

Sunset over the Pacific

Ventura County ag

Then we got to the sea and found that Ventura has endless beaches easily accessible and populated with surfers sun-up to sundown. We camped on Rincon Parkway – a county RV parking area right on the beach. Sure we were elbow to elbow on the weekend, but never crowded and never tired of the sound of waves crashing just 30 feet from our rig. We just hung out and soaked in the salt air. A bonus for us was the Amtrak line just 30 feet behind our RV. They ran by 10 to 15 times a day with an occasional UP freight. No horns, just close by silent running.

On Saturday we visited the farmers market downtown. We love to learn of a place visiting their market. We get to talk with locals and pickup the vibe. Ventura seems to be a very green town. Great interest in fresh, organic produce and vegan offerings are common. The downtown has many historic buildings and beautifully restored homes as well as an old Mission San Buenaventura. Its a short walk from the shops and restaurants of Main St to the beach and a large pier.

Posted in California, RV, trains | Tagged trains, Ventura CA | Comments Off

Joshua Tree

Posted on March 9, 2013 by Kings On the Road

Just a little north of Palm Springs CA is Joshua Tree National Park. It is a fascinating place where the Sonora and Mohave deserts meet. The high country (3ooo to 6000 feet) is Mohave and home to the fantastic Joshua Trees. These trees look like something from Dr. Suess. The wild prickly arms are not a cactus but a type of yucca. After each bloom there is a new branch. Some trees live 100 to 200 years and grow to 40 feet tall. The park protects and preserves these trees as well as the amazing granite rock formations which seem unique to this area.

Joshua Tree landscape

Di and Yucca brevifolia

R and Joshua

Josh and rock

Skull rock

We’ve enjoyed good hiking here. One of our favorites is 49 Palms Canyon which leads to a beautiful palm oasis and the only site in the park with year round water. The California Fan Palms tower over the landscape and provide a refuge for all kinds of wildlife as well as people. We saw a desert tortoise, coyote and hummingbird during our brief picnic at the palms. We also saw a beautiful kit fox on an earlier hike to some of the fantastic rocks. Joshua Tree has great picnic areas and campgrounds. It is also very popular with rock climbers.

49 Palms Oasis

Posted in California, Desert, national parks, Uncategorized | Tagged Flora, Joshua Tree National Park, Nature | 6 Comments

San Diego

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Kings On the Road

San Diego will keep you busy. We found a great place to stay at the Elks Lodge in Chula Vista. Full hookup site at a good price close to many touristy things to do. You just don’t want to venture into the traffic during rush hours. Southern California is famous for its traffic and we got a good dose of it. There are certainly lots of freeways (no tolls) but no HOV lanes and the freeways on and off ramps tend to backup even when the freeways are moving. And of course, the drivers are aggressive, frenetic city folk….

Downtown San Diego

Electric Trolley

Having said all that, we do like San Diego. The beaches are everywhere and accessible. There are quaint beach towns up and down the coast. The town of Coronado with its iconic Hotel del Coronado is a beautiful walkers paradise. The Del is the largest all wood construction hotel left in the US. Spectacular architecture! Old Town San Diego is a State Historic Site preserving the oldest town in California. Cabrillo National Monument on Point Loma overlooks the city and its harbor and commemorates the first European landing in California in 1542. Did you know the name California was taken from a then popular Spanish book of fiction and the original settlers were called Californios? Another great venue in San Diego is Balboa Park. It is a huge park with over a dozen major museums including the largest model railroad museum in the United States. The architecture and gardens are wonderful to see having been first built for the California-Panama Exposition in 1915 celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal.

Hotel del Coronado

Balboa Park

California coast

San Diego is also a fascinating botanical place. We saw many plants we are familiar with from Florida. Palms, hibiscus, bougainvillea and oleander are common but we also saw gigantic jade plants (which we are used to in dish gardens), dracaena draco, bird of paradise and citrus which seems to thrive everywhere. Especially lemons. The trees were loaded. The aforementioned freeways even have lush landscaping. Irrigation is the key to most of it since this is a semi-arid Mediterranean climate. Average rainfall is 12 inches. Southern Cal is a thirsty place sucking billions of gallons daily from the Colorado River as well as Northern California.

While staying in San Diego we took advantage of the great Amtrak service to Los Angeles via the Pacific Surfliner. We went for the day. It was a great smooth quiet ride with no traffic headaches. We used the beautiful LA subway to reach Hollywood and ride the hop on hop off bus tour. Walking around Hollywood we found a huge farmers market. The day was goofy and fun and we saw many famous sites before racing to the train back to San Diego. We have to say that Southern Cal has terrific mass transit. Trains, trolleys, commuter rail, subways keep at least some cars off the freeways. Between San Diego and LA there is an official population of around 18 million and some say there may be an additional 2-3 million undocumented residents. So it is a very busy place.

View from Amtrak Surfliner

Crazy Busy Hollywood

Stars on Sunset Blvd

After 10 days, we had enough. We said good-bye to the ocean and headed back to the desert. To the peace and quiet and dark nights and nature.

Point Loma sunset

Posted in California, RV | Tagged california history, san diego | 4 Comments

Borrego Springs

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Kings On the Road

Who ever heard of Borrego Springs California. We hadn’t until our RV blogging friends at Wheeling It told us it was a great place to boondock. Its just East over the mountains from San Diego in a desert bowl. The town is surrounded by Anza-Borrego State Park, the largest state park in California. The park is loaded with hiking trails, surprising palm oases, relics of experimental living in the 30s and lots of cactus. And a rather large and very friendly snowbird population. Seems that Borrego Springs is to the Pacific Northwest, BC and Alberta as Florida is to the Northeast and Midwest. Very seasonal place. It can be 12o degrees in the Summer here so we are sure it is pretty deserted by then. But in February its a hopping place. There is a great farmers market and quite a few nurseries. Citrus and Dates grow very well here and there are some vegie farms too.

Palm Canyon Oasis

Bighorn sheep

We absolutely love the hiking here. Good guided hikes are offered free from the state park. That will get you ready to try more hikes on your own. The Palm Canyon hike is not to be missed. To find a tight, tall palm grove and a spring with little waterfalls in the middle of an incredibly dry desert canyon was just awesome. While hiking we saw lots of Peninsular Bighorn Sheep including at least 6 lambs. The sheep came amazing close to the trail. A ranger told us the sheep may be more comfortable around people since they tend to keep the mountain lions away. Later we ran into RV friends David and Nancy who we’d met at amazon.com and enjoyed a fabulous Painted Canyon hike near Mecca CA. It was a 5-6 mile loop which included wide washes, ladders up dry falls, ridge trails with views of the Salton Sea and the most spectacular slot canyon we’d ever seen.

Painted Canyon hike

The boondocking here is very good and very popular also. We had just enough neighbors to not feel alone but not so many that we crowded each other at all. Every where we look there are great mountain views. Sunshine found its a good place to explore as long as we are close by. This is coyote country. And did we mention that we’ve stayed a week for FREE. Sure no hookups, no water, no dump station but loads of great scenery and peace and quiet. Its our (the taxpayers) BLM land and there is so much of it here in The West.

Boondocking view

Yaquitepec homesite

Ghost Mountain view

Slot Canyon hike

Posted in California, Desert, RV | Tagged anza borrego state park, boondocking, borrego springs california, desert | 3 Comments

Boondocking near Yuma or 3:10 Get me out of Yuma

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Kings On the Road

Boondocking or dispersed camping is the practice of setting up your RV in unmarked sites and unimproved areas usually BLM land. BLM is the largest landowner in the West and much of this federal land is desert. When boondocking there are a few RV neighbors usually at least 100 yards away. There are no hookups of any kind. It is a very quiet peaceful lifestyle for those of us who find places like Yuma in January to be far too crowded and frantic. And did we mention that it is absolutely FREE!

We stayed off Ogilby Rd North of I-8, 15 miles west of Yuma AZ. The site we picked was a short drive down Sidewinder Rd where we could park and watch trains on the Sunset Route of the Union Pacific RR. There was a grade crossing about a mile away so we were serenaded by train horns day and night. Not too loud, just comforting. A short drive from our site was the ghost town of Hedges or Tumco. It was a briefly succesfull town around the beginning of the 20th century. Today the remains of the town are protected by the BLM and a great place to hike.

A surprising aspect of staying near Yuma was the popularity of dentists and opticians in the border town of Algodones. For months we had heard of friends planning to take care of teeth cleaning and repairs at bargain prices in Mexico. Top quality work at Mexican economy prices. We thought, why not check it out! We were able to get our teeth cleaned for $25 each. While it was a quick cleaning and not of periodontal quality, it was good. Equivalent to a $75+ Florida cleaning. We then shopped sunglasses and bought a pair of transition aviator style glasses for $190. We also ran into friends we had worked with at amazon.com at a good inexpensive restaurant.

Yuma also offered a winter vegetable bonanza. Lettuces, kale, cabbage, peppers and tomatoes were abundant at the local farmers market in January. We also discovered Pappardelle Pasta which is awesome and available at many markets. We had a quesadilla and a date shake at a farm stand which reminded us so much of Homestead Florida.

After the initial shock of our arrival in Yuma, we adapted and had a very good experience.

Boondocking near Yuma

UP Sunset Route

Westbound UP

Mexican Dentist office

Hedges/Tumco Ghost town

Winter vegies

Posted in RV, trains | 3 Comments