🏡 Slash X Ranch Café — Barstow, CA
We spent one night between Death Valley National Park and getting to Paicines, CA at a Harvest Host location. It was a great open spot, had a playground for the kids to get some energy out after being cooped up in the truck, and some old equipment that was pretty awesome for True.
🏡 Paicines, CA
In Paicines our campground was surrounded by rolling vineyards — It was beautiful!
📍17 Mile Drive / Costal CA-1 Drive
We spent a day driving along the California cost on the CA-1 and the scenic 17-mile drive in Pebble Beach, winding through the Del Monte Forest. We drove south, stopping to soak in the views, and went all the way to Pffifer Big Sur State Park, where we couldn’t go any further due to closure on the 1. On the way back we stopped to play beachside at Garrapata State Park.
📍Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park
We meandered the Old Growth Loop at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. It was breathtaking to see firsthand the oldest, largest, and most iconic trees in the park — The towering redwoods.
Coast redwoods are the tallest trees in the world. In their stretch to the sun, they can reach up to heights of over 375’ and live 2,000+ years.
📍Pinnacles National Park
We spent two days hiking, where approximately 23 million years ago, multiple volcanoes erupted, flowed, and slid to form what is now Pinnacles National Park.
We enjoyed the unique landscape of woodlands, canyon bottoms, rare talus caves, uphill climbs, and towering rocky spires. While there we encountered a rattlesnake, a California red-legged frog (which is listed as a threatened species), and many stellar’s jay birds.
On our hikes, we enjoyed the colorful assault of green to our vision with a mossy, lush, and ferny landscape and impressive boulders decorating the trails. A favorite was the Bear Gulch Cave — a narrow section of the canyon covered by collapsed boulders. We walked through standing water, ears filled with rushing waterfalls, wielded flashlights, and a headlamp, as the cave is mostly pitch black, except for a few spots where a thin stream of light leaks through cracks in the boulder ceiling.
📍And finally, a little bit from just our everyday lives while in Paicines.
