Death Valley & Alabama Hills Trip

Early last month, Meowmy and I took another trip down to Southern California, this time with the objective to see Death Valley and the Alabama Hills.  We started out driving South on Highway 101 while the sun was rising, ending up in San Simeon to check out Hearst Castle.  I chilled in the RV while Meowmy took the tour of the house, gardens, and pools.  I heard my human grumbling when she got back about Neptune Pool being under construction, but it sounded like the Roman Pool was gorgeous.  Meowmy was also bummed that she didn’t see any zebras roaming the hills since they are supposedly abundant on the castle lands. We had lunch by the ocean but sadly the fog rolled in and made it very misty.  We then headed to Paso Robles to visit our friend Heather and spent the night there.

The next day we headed to Ventura and Agoura Hills to meet up with Meowmy’s college friend Lisa.  After exploring the neighborhood a bit, my human took off to see some tribute band called Led ZepAgain at the Canyon Club.  Plus we spent Easter Sunday with Lisa at Sagebrush Cantina in Calabasas.

The following day we had a really windy drive through Mojave, but totally worth it to see Red Rock Canyon Park, where Meowmy took me for a beautiful hike.  Then we continued on to Death Valley National Park, making it just in time for dinner and sunset at our campground.  Meowmy told me it’s quite amazing that you go from 4,500 feet to sea level in such a short drive.  I enjoyed a lovely sunset walk and we met some cool camping neighbors in Stovepipe Wells.  The next morning we drove to Zabriskie Point to see the view of the badlands, then headed out with a quick stop at Father Crowley Viewpoint.

We spent the afternoon in Lone Pine at a nice park where we met a hippie couple named Diva and Bram who were quite friendly.  Then we headed into the Alabama Hills to check out Mobius Arch and the interesting landscape around there.  There’s even a rock that’s heart-shaped!  Meowmy drove down some bumpy dirt road until we found a spectacular overnight spot with a view of the Eastern Sierra mountain range and Mount Whitney, which is the highest summit in the contiguous United States!  Meowmy made friends with other boondockers named Younghee and Willie hanging around a campfire, while I chased little mice around.  Meowmy & I really loved it there and can’t wait to come back!

The next morning we took off for Bishop, where Meowmy had a delicious sandwich from Schat’s Bakery.  From there we headed to Bakersfield to meet up with another college friend named Mike, who took Meowmy to a nice basque dinner.  After a peaceful night’s rest, we drove passed the infamous James Dean Memorial Junction as we headed back to Paso Robles for another visit with Heather,  and then we headed home the next morning.

Another great trip for this adventure kitty!

SoCal Trip & San Diego Van Meetup

At the end of January, Meowmy and I took a lovely trip down to Southern California for a week.  We headed down Highway 101 towards Santa Barbara, stopping for the night at Arroyo Hondo Vista Point between Gaviota and Goleta.  It’s a perfect overnight spot on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, where we watched a beautiful sunset and met a local van dweller who stays there often.

After a nice stroll down to the beach, we continued South with quick stops in Santa Barbara and Emma Wood State Beach, just North of Ventura.  We saw a lot of beach front RV campgrounds between Carpinteria and Faria Beach too, something to note for future trips.  Then we headed to Aliso Creek Rest Area, a popular overnight stop a few miles after San Onofre State Beach and ten miles North of Oceanside.  Meowmy highly recommends getting there before 8pm because it’s fill up quickly, despite being a fairly large rest area with a lot of parking.  Meowmy took me for a long walk around the big park, I even climbed some trees and made some new human fans that took photos of me.  Due to it’s busy nature, this rest stop can be quite noisy at night with all the traffic coming through, especially the big rig trucks.

The next morning we headed to Fiesta Island for the San Diego Vanlife Connections Meetup.  We were one of the first ones there so we got a nice spot with a view of Mission Bay.  Over 100 vans and RV’s showed up that day for a fun and successful meetup!  Meowmy made a lot of new friends and many people liked our turn-key solution rig.  There were a lot of great van builds to see and the night ended with a bon fire.  A bunch of vanners decided to overnight outside the Fiesta Island gates, but it was pretty busy that night, so we didn’t stay there.  We heard that you could overnight at Ocean Beach Park as it’s only closed from 2-4am but Meowmy thought it looked a bit shady, so we headed to the San Diego Zoo, where we heard you can overnight in the parking lot without any trouble.  What a peaceful place to spend the night!

Our fourth day consisted of driving back North to Westlake Village where Meowmy visited with her best friend from college.  Lisa took us on her pontoon on Westlake Lake and I enjoyed watching all the ducks and birds.  We spent the night in Agoura Hills, then took off to visit Kyna, the lead singer of the band The Go Ahead that Meowmy manages.  They went out bar hopping in the historic Montrose downtown area where some movies have been filmed while I lounged in the RV.

We took off for Grover Beach the next morning to visit JC and Carly who just had a baby, then headed to Paso Robles where Meowmy went cider tasting with her friend Heather and we spent the night watching the amazing Super Blue Moon.  The next morning we headed home.  What a great week!

Pacific Northwest Trip

Meowmy and I took a two week trip to the Pacific Northwest back in August and it was one amazing journey! We traveled north to Oregon and Washington along Highway 101 and then worked our way east to Seattle, then south to the Vancouver, WA, and Portland area, then into the Oregon wine country, the Columbia River Gorge, and finally home along the Interstate-5. I got to see so many wonderful places, met some amazing people, even “hung out” with two dogs, and watched the sun get eclipsed by the moon!! I also figured out how to get extremely comfy in Meowmy’s lap while she drove our home on wheels and never needed to grab on with my claws. As much as the trip was a lot of fun and I got to explore cool places, it’s good to be home and back in my neighborhood. I hope you enjoy all the beautiful photos of our journey, Meowmy really likes to capture all the wonderful moments and places we saw!

The road trip started with a few stops in Northern California along the coast. Meowmy heard about Glass Beach, Fort Bragg, but was disappointed that most of the glass is gone. You have to walk a mile or so north or south to find glass. Further north is Westhaven-Moonstone, which is a lovely community on the cliffs with spectacular views. We spent the night at the Trinidad Rest Area, a rest stop along the forest and far enough away from 101 to not hear the freeway traffic, making it a decent overnight spot with some exploring opportunities in the trees. False Klammath was our last stop in California, before crossing into Oregon.

The Oregon Coast is absolutely incredible with so many places to explore!  Due to our travel schedule, we couldn’t stay too long but saw quite a bit over our two day trek. First we hit the Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor, which is just breath-taking, full of great places and vista points to stop at such as Harris Beach State Park, Whaleshead Viewpoint, Natural Bridges Viewpoint, and Arch Rock Picnic Area. Then we worked our way up Highway 101, past many other state parks, quaint beach towns, historic lighthouses, and beautiful recreational sites, including stops at Myers Creek Beach, Sisters Rock State Park, Humbug Mountain State Park, Battle Rock Wayside Park, Cape Blanco State Park, and Bullards Beach State Park.

We spent a good amount of time in the Cape Perpetua Scenic Area near Yachats to see Thor’s Well, the Spouting Horn, and Cook’s Chasm, and even spent the night Neptune State Park despite the Day-Use Only sign, tucked away in the corner under some trees.

The next day we stopped at Devil’s Churn, Little Creek Cove Scenic Point & Seal Rock, Yaquina Head, Devils Punchbowl State Natural Area, Cape Kiwanda State Natural Area, and Manzanita. It was just breathtaking and both Meowmy and I fell in love with the state! Meowmy even found her dream house in the gorgeous little beach town of Manzanita, and we both wished we could have stayed longer.

Knowing that time was limited and we had to reach our overnight spot south of Forks, WA, we didn’t have a chance to stop at more places in Northern Oregon, including the famous Cannon Beach.  Instead, we drove over the Astoria-Megler Bridge into Washington, stopped real quick at the Dismal Nitch Rest Area, then heading north past the Quinault Reservation.  Along Highway 101, there’s this cool spot Meowmy found last year with a beautiful cliff view of the Pacific Ocean, so we raced against the sun and made it there just before it got dark.  There were two other vehicles in this awesome overnight spot, which led to us making friends with Matt & Pat from Seattle and Lennon & Dillon from Arizona.  Together we enjoyed the most magical views of stars and the Milky Way you can image (no light pollution), and even witnessed the end of the Perseid Meteor Shower! The next day we stopped at Kalaloch & Ruby Beach, Forks (made famous by Twilight movies, and Lake Crescent, with a quick stop at La Poel day use area, though no RV’s per sign). Meowmy wished we had gone to La Push, but missed out on this trip due to time.

After passing through Port Angeles, we worked my way over to Kitsap County via the Hood Canal Bridge to meet up with a cat owning van dweller named J.P. we met through the United West Coast Vandwellers Facebook Group. He told us about Kitsap Memorial State Park, which is a beautiful park along the water with nice showers and campsites. After Meowmy enjoyed a nice early bird dinner at The Point Casino & Hotel, J.P. showed up a fabulous overnight spot with a secluded beach overlooking the Hood Canal between Port Gamble and Hansville. We watched the most spectacular sunset I’ve ever seen!

The next day, we headed to Point No Point Lighthouse in Hansville, where we met a cool lady named Mimi and her dog. Then I got to take my first ferry boat ride over the Puget Sound from Southworth to Fauntleroy! We headed to Alki Beach, which is very boondocking friendly, where we enjoyed another beautiful sunset. From Alki Beach we headed to Seattle, where we met up with Meowmy’s high school friend Lou who lives on Queen Anne Hill.  We parked at Kerry Park, which is known for it’s amazing view of the Seattle skyline.

Saying good-bye to Seattle and the Puget Sound wasn’t easy, but we needed to head South to Vancouver / Portland area, where Meowmy met up with some good friends who moved here a few years back, ate some delicious food at Tidbit Food Farm and Garden, went cider and ginger beer tasting at Portland Cider House and Rachel’s Ginger Beer, and enjoyed a local Vancouver farmer’s market.

From there we headed through Oregon wine country to McMinnville where we watched something called a total eclipse, which was really eerie and amazing at the same time!  The air got cooler, everything went quiet and dark, there were even these things called shadow snakes that happened right before and after the corona.  What a spectacular experience, plus I played with a dog.

Our next stop was the Columbia River Gorge where we stopped at Bridal Veil Falls Overlook, Wahkeena Falls, Multnomah Falls, and Horsetail Falls, then headed into Cascade Locks to an overnight spot we found on Freecampsites.net.

The next morning we dumped our tanks for free at Hood River Waste Water Plant, then headed to Maryhill, WA, where there’s a full-scale replica of Stonehenge built as a WWI Memorial. We continued down the Lewis and Clark Memorial Highway with great views of the Columbia River and stopped at Horsethief Butte, Coyote Wall, and Beacon Rock.  We passed the famous Bridge of the Gods and Bonneville Dam along the way, as well as the overnight spot Meowmy boondocked at last year near the railroad tracks.

Satisfied with our Columbia River Gorge exploration, we headed South on Interstate 5 through Portland, Salem, Eugene, and Grants Pass, and ended up at Valley of the Rogue State Park outside Medford, which turned out to be a great overnight spot, though it was a bit smoky from the fires burning in the Cascade Mountains.  Meowmy let me roam around a lot of the park before we headed off the sleep on our last night of this incredible PNW journey. Waking up to even smokier air from the Oregon fires, we headed home over Mount Ashland, through Weed by Mount Shasta, and finally passed Shasta Lake after a quick stop at Castle Crags State Park (which doesn’t allow RV’s to scenic vista point or camping area).  It was a long day of driving, but we finally made it home to the San Francisco Bay Area and I was happy to see all my neighborhood friends.

For a fun end to this long post, I wanted to share all my crazy poses in the RV and Meowmy’s lap.  Thanks for reading and following along on our #rvlife adventures!