Sunset at Sunset

Over the July 4th holiday we went over to the coast to camp at Sunset State Beach . We have not had a hot July so far - but the weather at the beach was lovely. The campsite is on a bluff behind the beach and we had a 'birds-eye' view of pelicans flying.


The boys as usual enjoyed the typical camping activities! The site was large and there was lots of exploring/camp building/running about activity. They were also brave enough to swim without their wetsuits.

We were able to walk 100 yards to the overlook to watch the sun set over the beach.

I think Sunset SB might be my new favourite camp site - large sandy sites with the noise of the sea crashing on the beach as a gentle background noise lulling us to sleep at night.

Messing about in the river

To celebrate the end of term we went camping to Uvas Canyon County Park. There was water in the creek and the children spent most of the time down by the creek.



Some people managed to spend time *in* the water!


We had a great time. It remains one of my favourite spots to camp as it's so quiet...only 20 sites, and I think only 4 or 5 were actually occupied. For the first time it actually rained while we were camping - only a little, and didn't really disturb us much - but it's pretty surprising to have rain in June!

4th July

We spent the 4th July holiday at Portola State Park. I'm so glad that this park, which was under threat of closure due to state funding cuts, has managed to remain open. It's my absolutely favourite place to camp; the sites are not too crowded, and the park is not crowded. It's so peaceful to sit out under the redwoods, especially when the bay area is hot, the redwoods are cool, even cold at night.


There is a creek running through the park which provides plenty of opportunity for exploration. I have never seen Pescadero Creek so low - we saw only tiny fish - presumably the larger ones can't get up stream this far.

We did, however, observe the ancient American tradition of barbequeing...

...nice bottle of red, couple of steaks, and sausages for those who prefer them, followed, of course, by smores!

Camping in the redwoods

We went camping in Portola State Park this weekend. The trees there are coastal redwoods, this means they are tall rather than wide. It's very peaceful among all these tall trees, but also cold! We were rather caught by surprise by the cool temperature - it's hard to remember when it's so warm in the valley that you are going to need a fleece and a hat when camping.



There is a small creek running through the park which is a souce of much entertainment. The boys were thrilled to discover a dead fish in the water, which turned out to be a steelhead trout once they described it to a park ranger. The stream is currently running very low due to our dry winter, and consequently it's too low for the spawning trout.

We followed our usual routine: eating and drinking while the boys roam around exploring and discovering things...

...in this case a banana slug for which the Santa Cruz mountains are famed! These slugs are so irridescent that it's hard to imagine that they are well camoflagued, however in their habitat they look rather like the many yellow leaves that cover the forest floor.

Another lovely weekend.

Camping at Uvas

We went camping at Uvas Canyon this weekend. It's a small park with a very small campsite, there are only 20 or so sites, most of which are empty. The small size means that its an opportunity to let the boys play and explore with a minimum of supervision, which of course they love.


There are several trails, but the one we seem to do over and over is the waterfall loop which is short but steep. Its runs alongside the creek all the way with plenty of opportunity to mess about in the water looking for fish. Finlay took his magnifying glass, and Adam took his telescope to cover every eventuality of looking at things near and far.

The waterfalls are pretty small, but I was surprised to see that there was any water in them given our dry winter this year. We saw lots of lizards, and a Garter_Snake which really excited the boys. We also saw this fellow who I think is a California Newt. He was about 8" long and froze obligingly while I took a photo.

The boys took bikes and spent a lot of time racing around the campsite. Our friends came up for dinner with us bringing more wine, and turkish kebabs on swords (really - they bought them from a Turkish deli in Saratoga and had to leave a deposit for the swords). They children were all thrilled with the swords! Here are Alison and I testing the wine.

When we got home I asked Finlay what the best part of the trip was - he said "the eating"!