Category Archives: California

Crescent City and Battery Point Lighthouse

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Crescent City lies on the northern coastline of California just 20 miles south of the Oregon border. We drove north on Highway 101 from our campground in Klamath to Crescent City one afternoon to see the quaint little town and lighthouse.

Northern California coast

Along the way we saw large rock formations jutting up from the ocean near rocky beaches. The water was such a beautiful blue that day.

Rocky Northern California coastline

There is always plenty of driftwood on these beaches because the tree line comes to the edge of the ocean.

Driftwood art
Friendly Seagull

Birds of all kinds love the safety of the rocky ledges and rock formations out in the ocean where they make their homes. There’s always plenty to eat along the water’s edge. Sea lions also like the rocks for sunning themselves.

Crescent City, so named because of its crescent shaped shoreline, was partially destroyed in 1964 from tsunami waves from the Alaskan Earthquake. The city installed a breakwater in 1957 to protect against future tsunamis. However, in 2011, several boats and docks were damaged from tsunami waves from an earthquake in Sendai, Japan.

Battery Point Lighthouse

During the 1964 tsunami, the resident lighthouse keepers were stranded inside the Battery Point Lighthouse. Built in 1856, this lighthouse still stands strong. It is still active and serves as a private navigational aid.

Jetty near Battery Point Lighthouse

We walked out on the jetty to get a long-range view of the lighthouse. Signs warned us of sleeper waves that may crash over the jetty unexpectedly. We didn’t get wet, but a few waves splashed up on the jetty.

Low tide at Battery Point Lighthouse

We arrived at low tide, which is the only time the lighthouse is accessible by land. However, we were unable to go inside the lighthouse because it was was closed.

Spring flowers at Battery Point Lighthouse

The Battery Point Lighthouse was automated in 1953, but decommissioned from the Coast Guard in 1965. It was re-activated as a private aid to navigation in 1982.

Fishing, crabbing, tourism and timber are the major industries in Crescent City. A carving outside the lighthouse pays tribute to their seafaring people.

Tree carving near Battery Lighthouse

It was springtime at the lighthouse and the spreading phlox was brilliant with bloom. The Monterey Cypress trees are native to the California coast. They do well in the cool climate.

Gnarly Monterey Cypress Trees at Lighthouse

The color of the sea changes with the weather. On clear days, the water is a turquoise blue, and changes as the mist forms in the afternoon.

Crescent City from Battery Point Lighthouse

As we drove back to our campground in Klamath that afternoon, the sun came out. We stopped at this overlook to get one last shot at the beautiful California coastline.

“The sea is His, for it was He who made it,
And His hands formed the dry land.” Psalm 95:5

Arizona, Texas and California

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March, April and May 2021

While we were in the Cottonwood area, we visited a few other places nearby. Jerome, 9 miles away, is a ghost town that has come back to life. It is now a tourist trap. Jerome State Historic Park is worth visiting.

The “ghost town” of Jerome is coming alive once more.

We drove the windy road through Jerome to Prescott, Arizona, where I spent one summer of my life as a kitchen helper at Prescott Pines Campground. The campground is a few miles outside of town. In many ways it looked the same, just updated.

The chapel at Prescott Pines Campground where I worked as kitchen staff in 1972.

While we were in Cottonwood, we flew to Texas for a week-long stay with my dad while my sister was on vacation. We visited Round Rock, Texas, a pretty little town and the home of the beautiful historic Woodbine Mansion which is now a wedding venue.

Round Rock, Texas, main street.
Woodbine Mansion in Round Rock, Texas

Another day, we visited the Texas Military Museum in Austin. It was large, so we saw just a small portion of it. We plan to visit it again someday.

Texas Military Museum

When we got back to Cottonwood, it was time to head back to California for the birth of our 10th grandchild. We used our Harvest Host membership for the first time and stayed overnight in the parking lot of Peggy Sue’s 50’s Diner about 10 miles from Barstow, California.

Inside gift shop at Peggy Sue’s 50s Diner

We stayed at our Thousand Trails Encore park in Oceano until our grandchild was born, helping the family with meals and laundry and other such things. Getting to be around the grandkids is always fun, but we made sure we took time for a side trip to Morro Bay for a lunch near the water.

Morro Bay, CA, marina

With the new baby welcomed, we made one last visit to our storage unit before heading north for our summer travels. The campground where we like to stay is in Oakhurst, CA. There is a beautiful little waterfall and wildflowers just behind the campsites and plenty of shade.

Our waterfall at Oakhurst, CA.
Wildflowers at Oakhurst, CA.
Our campsite at Oakhurst, CA.

Santa Barbara, California

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January, 2021

During November and December, we enjoyed spending the holidays with our kids and grandkids. In January as we were headed out of California again to spend the rest of the winter months in Arizona, disaster struck.

California has bio-diesel at a much cheaper price than Diesel #2. We thought we were saving money. Now we know better. Apparently, our truck has a unique fuel pump that can’t handle bio-diesel. It failed and all the metal parts were distributed throughout its fuel system. Three weeks and thousands of dollars later, we were wiser but poorer. Thankfully, we were able to spend those three weeks in a nice campground near Santa Barbara while the truck was being repaired.

The hills outside Santa Barbara, California.

We were surrounded by mountains, and the hills were beautiful in the evening light.

The campground was a working ranch with horses a plenty. I took the opportunity to get acquainted with some of the equine one afternoon.

Rancho Osa outside Santa Barbara, California, is a working ranch.

Our main concern was not being able to shop for groceries. Although there was a country store on the campground, the selection was very limited, especially when it came to fresh food and meat. After a couple of weeks, our supplies were very low. Our daughter, Ann, rescued us by driving there and taking us grocery shopping one afternoon in Santa Barbara. We were very grateful.

Because of the pandemic, auto parts were delayed in coming. We had a great mechanic, and the park rangers were very helpful in extending our stay. The hardest part of being stuck there for three weeks, was the lack of communication. The campground was in a canyon. We had to walk to another part of the campground to get enough phone signal to make a phone call.

One way to spend time while we were waiting for our truck to be repaired was to take walks in the afternoon or evening discovering the beauty around us.

Prickly pear cactus
Bloom where you’re planted!

We were so grateful to have our truck back, and in the future, we would love to explore this area more.

On the way to California

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June 16, 2020

We were stuck in Tucson, AZ, for the pandemic lock down of 2020. As the heat started spiking into triple digits, we sought a cooler place to spend our time while waiting to get into California to visit family and take care of our annual dental, vision and doctor appointments.

Show Low, AZ, at an elevation of 6,300 feet was where we took our maiden voyage in our first little RV.  We knew it would be much cooler there, so we called up our favorite RV park and found out they were just opening for the summer. The drive from Tucson to Show Low was absolutely beautiful, with red rock canyons and twisty-armed saguaros.

On the way to Show Low from Tucson on Hwy 77

Our campsite in Show Low, AZ

We stayed in Show Low for 2 weeks at Waltner’s RV Resort. We loved the quiet and convenience of the location. While we were there, we took a few drives to look around the area. One evening we went to see Show Low Lake that was only a couple of miles from our campsite. The sunset was magical.

Show Low Lake

Show Low Lake

We had seriously considered Show Low as a permanent location when we settle down someday, but we changed our minds after spending two weeks there in spring. In short: cedar trees! Ray has a serious allergy to the pollen from the cedar trees and Show Low has plenty of them. He had a very severe reaction to the cedar trees in Texas when we were there in the winter. Show Low wasn’t as bad, but he was glad to leave the area to get back to feeling normal.

From Show Low, we drove west and stayed a couple of nights in Flagstaff, AZ, Bullhead City, AZ, and then in Tehachapi, CA, before finally arriving at our Thousand Trails campground in San Benito, California. Here are some scenes along the way.

Driving into Flagstaff,  Humphreys Peak looms in the distance

Tehachapi, California

Mountain Valley RV Park in Tehachapi is a nice campground next to an airport for glider flights. The above photo is looking across the landing strip at the hills in the background. Tehachapi is an elevation of nearly 4,000 feet. So it is generally cool and windy. In fact, you will see many wind generators on the hills around Tehachapi.

Our next campground was a Thousand Trails Campground near Hollister, CA. It’s a few miles outside the tiny town of Paicines. Situated on a natural preserve, we observed many different kinds of wildlife, including ground and tree squirrels, wild pigs, deer and rabbits.

Our view at San Benito Campground, Paicines, CA

San Benito Campground

We moved to Oakhurst for a week to be closer to all our doctor appointments. We had reservations at an Escapees park, but they closed their office by noon. We weren’t aware of this, since most RV parks are open until at least 4 p.m.  We had to quickly find another spot which turned out to be in a better location. It was right along the Fresno River in the middle of Oakhurst. In all the years we lived in that area, I never knew there was a river right through the middle of Oakhurst. We even had our own waterfall. The river was right behind our campsite at High Sierra RV Park.

Our campsite by the Fresno River

Waterfall near our campsite, Oakhurst, CA

The Thousand Trails campground in Oceano, CA, was not accepting anyone into the park outside their county (San Luis Obispo). We had arranged to stay in Paso Robles for a few days because it’s located near our kids and grandkids. It happens to also be in San Luis Obispos county, so we were in luck. When we made our reservations with Pacific Dunes RV Ranch in Oceano, we were able to say that we were coming from within the county!

Oceano is right along the beach. However, it is called Pacific Dunes for a reason. I was looking forward to spending long walks on the beach and being in the cool ocean breeze. On my first attempt to walk to the beach, I hiked up the first hill of dunes and this is what I saw.

I didn’t walk on the beach, but I decided to make the best of it. I remember having a great time with our kids years ago when we went to White Sands New Mexico. So I invited some of my grandkids to explore the dunes with me. They found out that sliding down the dunes is not easy. But they were innovative and did somersaults, tumbled and ran down the steep dunes. The cardboard that we brought to slide on soon formed into a tent fort.

Zoey in her cardboard tent fort.

Noah tumbles down the dune

And I finally got a glimpse of the ocean from the top of a dune that day. It seemed like miles away.

The beach is far away across an ocean of dunes!

There is something beautiful about the dunes at sunset.

The shrubbery is also quite beautiful.

Sometimes it’s better to go barefoot

A beautiful view of Oceano and surrounding area

Though my expectations were far different from what I found, the beauty of the area was an unexpected surprise.