Central Coast, California

When a friend calls up and suggests taking Poppy up the coast for a couple nights, you say Yes, please!

It was an easy couple hours' drive to Cambria/San Simeon, and Claudia acted as the perfect navigator and tour guide! 

She planned our campground and our activities! It was perfect!

Our home away from home was Hearst San Simeon State Park. The campground was pretty, wide open, and quiet. 

It was a very foggy couple of days, which surprised us. The weather apps had deceived us! Still, it is a beautiful area, with wide open, non-tar-marred beaches and lots of birds and other wildlife! 

We enjoyed a good, long beach walk after we arrived on Monday afternoon! Chatting with a good friend makes 6.5 miles go by in a flash! 

On Tuesday, we walked another six miles all told, along meadow-y beach bluffs, on another beach, along the bluffs at Piedras Blancas elephant seal rookery, and through the cute town of Cambria, where we tchotchke-shopped, bought some yummy sweet baked goods from Linn's (olallieberry pie, anyone?), and picked up a delicious Thai dinner. 

Wednesday we walked another beach, then drove to Morro Bay and watched some otters! So dang cute! 

Here are my photos, not in order at all!

Morro Rock, what you can see of it!

Poppy's comfy spot

So damp the trees were dripping

This trail at Fiscalini Ranch Preserve had many interesting benches

The early-morning view from Poppy's bedroom window

The area had a scarecrow event. This one is for Diver Son!

A trip to the area is not complete without a visit to the elephant seal breeding grounds, the Piedras Blancas Rookery. 

We were told that these animals are juvies. Their moms and dads are thousands of miles away, feeding. Dads are up in Alaska's Alutian Islands, due back in winter, and moms are at sea, up to 4000 miles out and a mile down. They will mosey back at about five miles per hour. The females will return shortly after the males to give birth and love their husbands. 

This is the fall haul-out, when thousands of juveniles hang out on the beach to rest and develop after their thousands-of-miles migration to Alaska and back.

You can see them in a live cam here. 

Here's a little video:

A bunch of quail at our campground! There were lots!

We had sunshine on our last day, and we spent some time poking around Morro Rock before heading home.

Otters in Morro Bay

Another sea otter. Crappy pic, but I gotta prove we saw otters!

Blue skies. What what?!

Da Rock

Again, a beautiful, supremely accessible spot, but one I haven't visited for a decade or more. Why? I have no idea! I want to go back!

Thank you, Claudia!!

Yosemite! Day Two

DAY TWO

I decided to get up early and jet from Crane Flat Campground to Yosemite Valley (half hour drive) to have a hike. I was there by about 8am, so I found parking easily.

It was another beauuuutiful Autumn day, just perfect. Jacket weather in the early morning, quickly giving way to shirt sleeves. Fall is the perfect time to go to Yosemite. Fewer crowds and stunning weather.

I parked across from the Yosemite Falls trailhead and pondered my options. The full 7+ miles and 2700 ft elevation gain? Or three miles there and back to the viewpoint for the falls and "only" 1000 ft gain?

Well duh. I'm plenty out of shape and wanted to also see the Merced grove of sequoias in the afternoon. I'll do a mile and a half up up up. 

It was enough to kick my behind for sure!

Come along!

It was all uphill to the mile mark, where Columbia Rock provided beautiful views and a nice rest.

Shitty pic of a Steller's Jay. Love them guys!

The final reward was half-mile past Columbia Rock. Yosemite Falls! 

It's amazing that water is all one thing but not at all. 

See that spire on the right of the falls? You can see its shadow hitting the cliff behind. It looks like a needle. It's called Lost Arrow Spire, and it's a climbers' haven. 

A fellow hiker pointed out that there was a climber that very minute. I grabbed my binocs, and sure enough!

Several other groups of hikers had stopped there for a rest and a snack, and I passed around my binoculars so they could all be in awe of the moment as well. 

The iPhone couldn't capture it, but there they are, on the left of the spire. Another climber or two are waiting at the top.

Almost to the top!

Made it!

My heart went into palpitations just watching. It takes a different breed of human being to perform such a feat.

It was a gorgeous hike, and though there were more people than I prefer, it wasn't too crowded. I heard a lot of European languages, specifically German; Australian accents; plus quite a few Asian languages. The one person I could've done without, whose pace was about the same as mine so we passed each other several times,  is the one with the music playing from a portable speaker. Why?

Here's a webcam of the falls. But you should go and enjoy the views in person!

After a bite of lunch, I headed back to the Crane Flats area to visit the Merced Grove of sequoias. 

I had just time to do the hike and then head back to camp to rest before dusk and dinner. 

I read the trail description, and it said that the trail was a mile and a half following a dirt road, gradually sloping down to the grove. 

I headed out and trucked along, saying howdy and "thanks" to the fellow sister resister who complemented me on my shirt, and wondered when it was going to slope down.

The road is not sloping down, says I to my brain. They must mean realllllly gradual!

When I reached a mile and a half and no sign of sequoias, I went a little further. Nope. Lots of big beautiful trees, but no massive giants. It was then that I decided to look at the NPS info I had downloaded, which has GPS maps – no cell signal needed – and saw that the trail to the sequoias was over yonder. 

Geez. 

I hoofed it back, but by the time I reached the turn-off I had missed, it was just too late to comfortably finish the hike before it would be getting cool and dusk-y. Risk averse to critters, cold, and dark, I decided to wait til morning.

It was my last planned day in Yosemite, so I got up early. I wanted to complete this hike and get on the road so I could be home before dinnertime. I pulled in to the trailhead parking area. Poppy was the only one there. Yes!

Deja vu. I started off down the road and this time, half-mile in, I didn't make a mistake.

Head left.

See the little sign?

Not right.

Here are a bunch more dumb, inadequate photos of amazing, massive 3000-year-old sequoia trees.

The next generation trying to make a stand

Pinedrops are reminiscent of childhood days in my mountain home

And just a short movie. The sounds of morning in the forest! Mother's song.

Sound up.

Final thoughts.

Yosemite is one of the most beautiful places on Earth, and as I passed so many foreigners who traveled halfway around the globe to be there, I realized how lucky I am to be a short six-hour drive from this marvel.

I was happy to be away and immersed with Mother Nature for a couple days, blissfully unconnected. As I walked the trails, I realized more and more that we are part of nature, not masters of her. We must work harder to be caretakers of our home. Yes, we've harnessed the power of iron, gold, and oil she holds, but we are simply visitors here. The trees suffer for the billions of dollars that they don't need.

Go. Climb.