The Weynand Blog

Big Sur

We woke up on day seven and headed north. Our destination: Big Sur, one of the most remote and naturally beautiful areas in California. We had to drive a round-about route because part of Highway 1 was closed due to a landslide. We ended up going north of our destination and coming at it from Highway 1 going south. California State Route 1, which runs along the coast, has some amazing views and historic bridges that we were lucky enough to experience. We arrived at the Big Sur Cabins and Campground at about 9:00pm after a long day of driving. We were out of cell phone range so we had no contact with the outside.

Big Sur is located on a rocky coast line, about an hour or so south of San Francisco. It’s a small community made up of a few rustic restaurants, inns and campgrounds. Our campground was a very well-kept plot of land among the redwood trees along the Big Sur river. We settled in and immediately knew we would like this place, so we added two more nights onto our reservation.

On day eight of our trip, we just hung around our campground. We skipped rocks in the river and let the kids play on the playground. We also caught up on some laundry at the local laundromat.

On day nine, we finally had a chance to do some hiking. We went south along Highway 1 to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. There we found a short hiking trail to a magnificent waterfall. Water came pouring out of the rock onto an almost untouched beach below. After our walk, we ate lunch in the RV and waited for a rain storm to pass (we got a little unlucky with the weather in this location as well). After lunch we walked the Canyon Trail as far as we could go until we came to an impassable place along the river. After our day of hiking, we headed back to our campground and took it easy the rest of the evening.

On day 10, we headed to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, where we did some more hiking. On one of the trails we discovered an old abandoned house, built by the original owner of the land. It was in this very small cabin that John Pfeiffer raised eight children, one of them Julia. We also hiked to Pfeiffer falls, a 60-foot waterfall way up in the hills that we had to huff-it to get to. It was worth the hike though.

After wearing ourselves (and the kids) out from hiking, we headed out and stopped at the Redwood Grill for burgers and fries. Then we came back to the RV and all took a nap. The rest of the evening was spent just hanging around our campsite, listening to the rain.

On day 11, we decided that we would take the kids to the Monterey Bay Aquarium on our way out of town. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is supposedly one of the best in the world. We weren’t all that impressed with the wildlife that they had on display, but the aquarium did have many good exhibits and play areas for the kids. They both had a blast. After the aquarium, it was time to start making our way back to Texas. We hit the road for about 6 hours to a camp site just east of LA.

The San Diego Zoo

Our plan for today was to spend it at the San Diego Zoo. We arrived around 9:15am and spent the entire day exploring. Eisley’s favorite animal was an orangutan that she sat inches away from as they peered at each other through the glass. We also saw polar bears, gorillas, a cheetah, and the giant pandas that San Diego Zoo is famous for.

A few of the creatures we saw:

On the road to San Diego

Day five of our trip was pretty uneventful. We got up in the morning and walked down to the little beach area where we were staying. We let the kids play in the sand for a while before heading back. Then we packed up and left. Our destination was Santee, California, just outside of San Diego.

On our way, we visited the famous In-N-Out Burger. Neither Courtney nor I had ever tried it so we thought we’d give it a shot. In-N-Out earned two thumbs up form us, and the kids liked it too.

We arrived at the “Santee Lakes Recreation Area” where we would be spending two nights. The area has an interesting story. It contains seven small lakes that are filled with recycled water from the nearby water treatment plant. It sounds gross, but the water is completely clean and home to fish and water fowl. People use the lakes for swimming, paddle boating and fishing. Overall the recreation area is a very nice setting with playgrounds and well manicured landscaping. Our spot was right on one of the lakes. After unloading and hooking up the RV, we piled the kids in the wagon and went walking. We found a playground and let them run around for a while.

After exploring our surroundings, we came back to the RV and barbequed chicken for dinner. After putting the kids down, we played a round of Trivial Pursuit before putting ourselves to bed.

« Day 3: The Grand Canyon in Some Not-So-Grand Weather | Day 5 »

The Watchtower and the Palms

Day four started out with the kids waking up at about 6:00am. They were clearly still on Texas time. It did give us an early start to our day though.

We ate breakfast and then headed east along East Rim Drive, which traveled along the canyon and offered up some great views every so often. The weather seemed much better today than yesterday. More on that later. Our destination was the historic Desert View Watchtower at the east end of the park. We got there and ascended the stairs up several levels. At the top, we were able to enjoy a 360° view of the canyon and its surroundings.

On our walk back to the RV, the weather took a turn for the worse (again). It started snowing and the temperature dropped. We hurried inside and hit the road. On the way out of the park, we hit some major snowstorms and the ground looked like the dead of winter. It was time to get out of there. We loved the Grand Canyon, but we pointed our RV toward a warmer climate and hit the gas.

We were headed toward San Diego, where we planned to do a few family activities before we had our reservation at Big Sur. Since we didn’t want to drive all day, we chose a stop about 4 hours west along I-40. The Palms River Resort is a small RV park and community, with some permanent residents, along the Colorado River in Needles, California. We made our reservation along the way and arrived around 4:30pm. We quickly hooked up the RV, then headed for the pool. They had a main pool, a kids pool and two heated jacuzzi pools. We hung out there for a while with the kids. It was very relaxing and the kids had a great time. We laughed when we thought about spending the morning in a snow storm and the afternoon in a swimming pool.

After swimming, we went back to the RV and grilled hot dogs for dinner. Then we put the kids to bed and sat outside the RV, enjoying the amazing weather southern California is known for.

« Day 3: The Grand Canyon in Some Not-So-Grand Weather | Day 5 »

« Day 2: To the Big Crack | Day 4: The Watchtower and the Palms »

The Grand Canyon in Some Not-So-Grand Weather

Last night we kept waking up to rain and hail pelting the roof of our RV. The miserable weather continued into day three of our trip. We sat in the RV most of the morning watching hail fall and snow flurries. Finally we decided that we weren’t going to sit around anymore and packed up to go see the canyon.

We took a shuttle bus to a lookout point, called Mather Point, along the south rim trail. We were greeted with some breathtaking views, the ones that make the long drive in a cramped RV all worth it. There were even a few breaks in the clouds and the rock formations were even more beautiful with sunbeams dancing off of them. From Mather Point, we hiked west along the south rim toward Yavapai Point. This destination gave us more spectacular views and a small geology museum, where we took refuge for about 30 minutes.

After resting up we decided to keep hiking west toward a bus stop along the trail. However, about half-way into the last leg of our hike, we were greeted by severe hail and snow flurries. The temperature also seemed to drop about 20 degrees. At this point we had two choices: turn back toward the museum or press on. We decided to press on, which was probably a mistake. The kids were cold and getting colder. Everett was screaming his lungs out and we were getting strange looks from the few hikers also braving the elements (“why do you have your kids out in this mess?” we could hear them thinking).

We survived the cold and finally made it to a shuttle stop. From there, we headed to a nearby restaurant and warmed up with some central heat and hot chocolate. After getting our body temperatures back up, we headed back to the RV to drop a few things off, then caught another shuttle to the visitor’s center. It was there that we saw a short educational film about the canyon.

After the movie, we headed back to our campsite and called it a night. We can only hope for better weather on the rest of our journey.

« Day 2: To the Big Crack | Day 4: The Watchtower and the Palms »