#20 Another Christmas Special (a year later)

Hello friends!

Look how fancy we are with our next trip recap! After countless email bouncebacks because the images were too big, we've upgraded!

If you cast your minds back, we had just checked into a hotel in Bakersfield, California – an unexpected stop due to safety concerns around Lake Isabella.  The reason it’s taken so long to write the next instalment is probably because this whole week was full of unexpected challenges and changes to our plan. Nothing to do with planning a wedding, undergoing a house renovation, getting a dog...

There really isn’t much to say about Bakersfield – it seemed like quite a pointless city with zero reason to visit (speaking as a tourist). There were a lot of rivers, and plenty of fruit and veg farms on the outskirts – but lots of closed stores and homeless in the city centre.

We had originally planned to drive from Lake Isabella, through the Sequoia National Forrest and onto San Luis Obispo. The Sequoia National Forrest unfortunately was still closed for winter – despite being a week out from summer.

So we had a slow morning in Bakersfield and walked into the city for a healthy breakfast at a lovely café called Café Smitten. After almost a week in Vegas, and given it was a Monday morning - we’d put ourselves on a diet.

After walking back, we headed to our next destination – San Luis Obispo. The original plan was to enjoy a sunny week driving from San Luis Obispo up the coast of California along Highway 1 to Monterey. Unfortunately, there was a landslide a few weeks prior which had decimated a section of Highway 1.

San Luis Obispo is a celebrity hotspot, with expensive houses, vineyards and rolling hills overlooking the coast.  We walked around town, seeking out Gum Alley. A small alley that’s famous for being covered in brightly coloured bubble gum. The reality:

SLO, as the locals call it, is also home to a beautiful Spanish mission built in 1772 and some beautiful architecture.

We didn’t visit any wineries because of the diet, or beaches because it was cold and overcast.. so we found ourselves at the Museum of Art.. another hour of Adam telling Jess that it's so easy to become a sculptor and just wait Jess, I'll be so famous.

We drove towards the coast and into the hills in the hope of watching the sunset. The clouds and eventual rain made it a bit impossible but we did enjoy watching a group of local kids take 2000 graduation photos.

On the drive home, Adam saw a mountain lion. A real life mountain lion! Jess was too busy researching the next leg of the trip and missed the whole thing.

We took this photo in case it's like Where’s Wally.. she might be hiding in the bushes somewhere:

The following morning, we had a sensational coffee and some sort of healthy (rock-hard) scone at Scout Coffee and headed towards the ocean to start our big day.

We drove into a few touristy beach towns – Avila Beach and Pismo Beach. We had a look at the beach and a few shops, but the weather made everything pretty underwhelming.

We did walk along a beach that was covered in thousands of washed up jellyfish and had a chat to a few of the locals.

We then drove to the Avila Valley Barn – if the Crooked Carrot and the Bunbury Farmer’s Market had a baby, it would be this place. Petting zoo, fresh produce, florist etc. It was gorgeous.

Next stop was Morro Bay – a little seaside town famous for it’s big volcanic rock popping out of the ocean. The rock is called Morro Rock – shocker! There’s plenty of wildlife and water sports to do in the bay. The sun came out and we were lucky enough to watch a big group of otters playing around in the harbour.

After saying ‘they’re so cute’ 1634 times, we dragged ourselves back to the car and drove to Paso Robles, home to wineries, hot springs, and Sensorio - a seemingly permanent outdoor light installation - complete with it's own Bruce Munro Field of Light

It was just a quick stop for us in Paso Robles, and we narrowed down our winery selection to just one visit to Tooth and Nail. With the diet temporarily on hold, we had lunch and a couple of nice wines.

The new plan was to head up an inland highway, around the landslide, and then back down Highway 1 along the coast. We set off for Monterey, passing these great statues in a field. They've been suggested to Adam the sculptor as a project for Talbot Brook Estate.

Looking back, I’m really not sure how there was any daylight left, but when we arrived in Monterey, we went straight out for a walk along the water. We were treated to a symphony of sea lions on the first jetty we walked along.

Monterey is a very cool spot – with plenty of old wharfs covered in restaurants, street art, a long history of canning, sea life and apparently world-class golf courses. Definitely worth a visit. We managed to walk most of the town before returning to the hotel, exhausted.

Of course, there was no rest for the wicked with an early start for a sunrise at Lover’s Point Park. No sun was seen, it was freezing, but a nice view regardless.

We were finally able to get onto Highway 1 and start our ‘Sunny Southern Californian Beach adventure’ – complete with puffer jackets and beanies. First stop – breakfast by the beach in Carmel.

Next stop – Point Lobos State Natural Reserve. Not even the bad weather could spoil this magical place. We saw wildflowers, amazing rocky cliffs, petrified forests and so many animals including seals in labour. There were loads of wildlife volunteers floating around, lending us their binoculars to see baby otters and other fun things.

Back on Highway 1, we stopped to take photos at what we thought was the world famous Bixby Bridge, and then kept driving South to discover the real Bixby Bridge – far more impressive. So we stopped for more photos.

We drove as far south as the road allowed, and then pulled into Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park in Big Sur. We had some lunch inside the van as it was raining. With a trail of blueberries as a trap, we were joined inside briefly by a nice squirrel.

JPB State Park is home to McWay Falls – there’s something about the fact the waterfall flows directly onto beach sand – I think it’s one of a kind – the hike down was closed so we walked as far along the viewpoint path as we were able to. We still got a pretty good view.

By this point we were desperate for a proper hike (all our planned trails were closed) so we set off on a rather sketchy trail – complete with a dicey tunnel to get past the rocks and out to the water.

After making it back to the car in one piece, we drove to our campsite for the night.

The Big Sur Campground would be up there with our favourite campsites of the trip. There were giant Redwood trees everywhere, lots of rivers, birds landing on our chairs and a cute primary school art project along the river to help our new favourite fish – the Steelheads, which get stuck if people stack rocks on the riverbed when swimming.. We have been saying ‘save the steelheads’ ever since.

Unsurprisingly, the next morning we left super early... to get back up to Monterey for a kayaking/otter sightseeing tour that I booked about 18 months before we left Perth. I didn’t anticipate seeing so many otters in the wild.

We climbed into freezing cold kayaks and ventured out into Elkhourn Slough, an estuary recognized as a wetland of international importance. It’s full of otters, seals and apparently leopard sharks.  

We learnt that otters love to pick a favourite rock and store it in their armpit – you now know where that wedding trivia question came from.

You have to keep well away from the otters so as not to interrupt their process of warming themselves up.. From a website smarter than us:

In addition to their thick fur, sea otters rely on an insulating layer of air to stay warm. You have probably seen the Aquarium’s sea otters roll at the surface of the water. They are busy trapping a layer of air inside their fur. This air layer keeps the water from touching the otter’s skin. Sea otters spend four to six hours a day maintaining the protective layer of air and keeping the coat spotless. It is vital that an otter keep its fur clean so that the undercoat stays dry. If the undercoat gets wet, it might cause fatal hypothermia. https://www.aquariumofpacific.org/exhibits/otters/southern_sea_otter

After the tour, we went straight to the nearest (decent) café for a hot coffee. Kerri - you would have loved all the plants!

 Sufficiently caffeinated, we said goodbye to the not-so-sunny coast and started the 5 hour drive to Yosemite.

On the drive, we drove past more John Deere’s than Andrew could poke a stick at, a huge reservoir that should get a mention on the map, got a big chip in our windscreen and stopped for lunch at a park in Merced – another fairly pointless Californian city.

We arrived into Yosemite late afternoon. Can you believe we left Bakersfield on Monday, and we’re only at Thursday? Unfortunately, Yosemite had flooded the week before and was still covered in a fair bit of snow. All our planned hikes for the upper rim of the valley were still closed for the winter. Regardless, we were awestruck.

 I finally laid eyes on the majestic Dawn Wall. If you haven’t watched the documentary, please do. Then you can give Adam the credit he would like for ‘climbing the wall’

We drove around and stopped at every waterfall or viewpoint that had a carpark available. Regardless of how strong the spray was from the waterfalls, we were straight out to see it and soaked within minutes.

We checked into our campsite that night and spent the night around the fire with a man who was travelling solo on his motorbike – for someone who really didn’t seem to like us very much, he hung around chatting for hours. It's amazing how well you can cook dinner in a van kitchen when you're avoiding talking to the neighbours!

We got up early for a bucket list item – watching the sunrise over the Dawn Wall. Incredible.

Before returning to our campsite for pancakes. Also incredible.

Yosemite has a shuttle bus that takes people around the park, as there’s next to no parking at each trail/viewpoint. We nabbed a parking spot early and got on the bus. We took our chance, getting dropped off at one of the closed trails to see if we could sneak in. The $1000+ fine that was on the signpost saw us get straight back on the bus.

We set our sights on another hike towards the North Face (yes, the same one from the logo) and then ticked off all the touristy viewpoints. We were lucky enough to see climbers on the dawn wall, with their tents set up to sleep on the wall. I think some of you might be surprised by just how obsessed I am with this rock face. Much like earlier in the week, there were some friendly volunteers with telescopes out for us to see the climbers in action.

We watched the sunset over the North Face and then accepted it was time to deal with our little problem.. For those unaware, the process of securing a campsite inside Yosemite is harder than getting a ticket to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.  You have to be registered in their system and then frantically try and find a site when the booking window opens (circa 6 months ahead of the date).

Within 2 minutes, they were gone for the season. I had managed to get a spot in the best campsite (Upper Pines) for our first night, and a spot in a slightly-less appealing campsite 25 minutes away for our second night. Fortunately, these campsites were both open when we arrived as many still had too much water on the ground to open.

25 minutes would be fine – except that road was snowed over and that hadn’t opened for the season.  The only other option was a detour that would take us 3 hours each way.

We had lofty plans for a sunrise the following morning, pretty ordinary headlights on Franks&Beans (the van), and no real desire to pay for 6 hours of extra petrol.

We had two options. The only site available anywhere in the park was at the equestrian campsite. Horses mandatory. I offered to drive in and when they asked where my horse was, Adam was going to neigh. I would feed him a carrot and say “it’s ok Sparkles.” The Americans are so scared of litigation, I thought I could get away with saying that he identifies as a horse.

The other option – hide in the van in a carpark overnight. So we took our time showering (we found a way to sneak into the bathrooms at a lodge nearby), had dinner at a restaurant and then climbed into the van. We watched as brave campers set up their caravans nearby. Only to have their doors near on beaten down by rangers and asked to move on.

Adam sat awake on watch for most of the night while I tried to sleep on the couch in the back. At 5am, we swapped, and he slept while I drove us to watch the sunrise.  It was cold and uncomfortable, and by far the best decision.

We then set out on another hike – up the side of a waterfall. You can see the trail if you look closely in this picture

We were somewhat soaked by the time we reached the top, saved only by our decision to wear rubbish bags. It was a beautiful hike but it was HARD, and my knees struggled to climb up some of the rocks. Thankfully it was a loop trail and the way down was a forest path.

Or so we thought… we started the path down and then were told by some hikers that the path was closed.. the only way down was back the way we came.

By now its 11:30am, the day before Memorial Day weekend and all the lazy tourists were awake and on the trail. It was a shit show trying to get down.

When we returned to the car, we snuck in another shower, took a few photos and left the park to the Memorial Day weekenders.

On the drive out, we saw cars facing about a 6 hour wait to get into the park. They probably all thought they were getting there early before the Friday evening traffic.

That's all for now - a little 5 day recap to get back into the swing of these updates! At this rate, we'll finish this project by 2029.