my travels in pixels

Site 41 Cathedral Palms RV Resort 35901 Cathedral Canyon Drive, Cathedral City CA Why we chose here? We were meeting up with friends in Palm Springs, Cathedral City and Palm Desert Location: In between Palm Springs and Desert Springs, CA Sites: 145 – 33 50 amp FHU, 14 E & W, all the rest are FHU 30amp Facilities: Pool, Recreational room, pickleball court, restrooms, free wifi Groceries: shops are a 7 minute drive away Reservations: Yes Cell Coverage / WiFi: Their Wifi was unusable at our site, it is strongest in the recreational room Price Paid: $43 + tax Date of visit: December 2015 Other: We were in site 41, wifi was terrible and we had noise from the equipment hire place next door using air compressors. Would we come here again? Not sure, we would look at alternatives first.

Lighthouse on Point Lomas San Diego is touted as having the best weather in America, so I looked forward to going there. It didn’t disappoint, the days were warm and sunny. I found a lovely county park in Bonita, near Chula Vista just south of San Diego which I booked thinking that it would be busy. It wasn’t, in fact there were many places vacant. Our first trip out was to Point Loma. Cabrillo National Monument is there as some explorer arrived back in the 1700’s, a lighthouse, in fact two because the first one was in the wrong spot, and a military base as this land was very vulnerable during WWII and was a way of protecting San Diego bay. I had wondered why some of the most sought after land was a park and not residential, now I know. There are some rock pools there also which you can access at low tide but of course we weren’t there at the correct time. What you do get though, is a fantastic view of San Diego from the water. Looking over San Diego Bay A number of people...

Site 31 Sweetwater County Park Campground 3218 Summit Meadow Road, Bonita CA Location: South East of San Diego, near Chula Vista Why we chose here? Near San Diego Sites: 150, The South loop has partial shade sites with gravel pads. Number of: 7 FHU, 41 W&E, 12 W&E Equestrian. Pull throughs on the inside of the loop, back-in on the outside. The North Loop has no shade but with concrete pads, nearly all pull throughs. Number of sites: 51 FHU Facilities: Dump, Community Center, Trailheads, Restrooms, Showers Groceries: Chula Vista Reservations: Yes $5 fee. It was less than half full when we were there, we did not need to register after all, but you never know. Even on the weekend, it was only half full. Cell Coverage / WiFi: Verizon works here, but there is a free wifi at the office near site 32 Price Paid: $33 FHU, $29 W&E Date of visit: Mid November 2015 Would we come here again? Yes. This is a lovely campground. Our site #31 FHU was huge ...

Rockhouse Trail  A campsite on the right hand side of the trail Why we chose here? We were on our way to San Diego Location: Rockhouse trail is off the SR22 in the Anza Borrego Desert CA. Two hours east of San Diego, west of Salton City, near the Salton Sea. There is a green street sign, so you shouldn’t miss it. More than likely there will be other RV's there as it's a well known boondocking area. Sites: Quit a few, look for the rock ringed fire pits Facilities: None, it’s primitive camping Groceries: 7 miles to Borrego Springs Reservations: No Cell Coverage / WiFi: Both Verizon and AT&T work here. The further you go from the SR22, the weaker the signal Price Paid: $0 Date of visit: Mid November 2015 It's just a big open space Other: This is a low desert so has the same temperature as say Palm Springs. There can be high winds as this is a desert. Fuel and food are available in Borrego Springs 7 miles away The road at...

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California 6am outside our Trailer After spending some time in Yucca Valley catching up with friends and getting a few maintenance issues done such as brakes and wheel bearings on the trailer, brakes, tyre balancing and front end alignment on the truck. It was time to find somewhere warmer. Winter had come early and being in the high desert it was starting to get cold. Day light saving ended and it was getting dark around five. We had five days before we were due at the state park near San Diego in mid November, so we didn’t want to go too far afield. Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is a low desert east of San Diego and west of the Salton Sea. There is a difference of 10°F between the low and high desert, and the difference between 60° and 70° can mean that you are a bit cold or nice and warm. Low desert sounded good. We are boondocking here in ABDSP, one of the few State Parks that allows primitive camping for free. Our neighbours are a few ...

Even though it was summer, the weather in Sequoia was really pleasant. The only time we felt hot was when we walked down to the General Sherman tree which has a paved pathway in the sun, and when you go down, inevitably you have to come up! Sequoia is just over 6,000ft in altitude. While most people come here for the trees and we did too, but bears were also on our agenda.  black bear and cub The first morning out we took the bus shuttle up to Crescent Meadow. After about 15 minutes Lindsay heard some rustling up on the hill above the trail we were on. There were a sow and her cub eating the seeds from the big pine cones. We stood there for quite a while taking photos, she wasn't worried about us at all. Like Yosemite, this was the only sighting we had. We went out on trails a few more times, walking in Sequoia is lovely, there are lots of trails and most of them are in the shade. We camped at Lodgepole campground which was definitely the right one to be in. I had book...

San Francisco, CA Camping wasn't an option really for San Francisco, and we didn't want to stay in a hotel, so I organised a room through Airbnb. We stayed in Bernal Heights in a lovely house on a street that is a staircase! Public transport wasn't very far away so we were able to take the bus into the city everyday to anywhere we wanted to go. We visited all the main tourist spots - Alcatraz, Chinatown, Little Italy, the Wharf, the painted ladies, the Golden Gate bridge and rode the cable car of course. Often we would change into shorts and a t-shirt as it would be quite warm at our house, but in the city it would be freezing because of a cold wind. Just when we thought we had worked out the bus system, it would throw us another curly, such as the inbound and outbound would go on different routes because of one way streets. We certainly did a lot of walking up a lot of hills, you wouldn't need a gym membership in this city! Golden Gate Bridge the Painted Lad...

Heading up the 101 which runs a bit inland from the coast we came across the "Avenue of the Giants" drive where you drive through the spectacular redwood trees. We got the last spot at the Humboldt Redwoods State Park which was surrounded by ferns and tall trees. It was beautiful.  view in front of our campsite, there is a road there but you can only tell when a car drives past Our aim was to get to the Redwoods National Park which is further up the road and we had rung and they said they had plenty of sites. I think we were given the wrong number as the Elk Prairie campground was reservation only and booked out.  There were sites at Mill Creek State Park and we got a lovely secluded site but the park is not really amongst the redwoods. Still in pursuit of better redwoods we headed north, they had three sites left at the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. I’m not quite sure what happened to the National Park, it seems to be melded in with the various State P...

Los Angeles is quite foggy in June/July and the weather is quite cool compared to the interior of the state, so it's a welcomed relief. In the mornings we walk along the beach where lots of other people are surfing, walking, running or riding their bikes. During the weekends people play beach volleyball. The houses on the hill at the southern end of the beach look like Positano in Italy. On one of our drives we went along Mulholland Drive/Hollywood to check out Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, and the Hollywood sign. When most people think of Hollywood, they are actually thinking of Beverly Hills. Rodeo Drive is in Beverly Hills, with lots of exclusive brand name shops. The traffic on the freeways is horrible, six lanes of fast moving mayhem. Getty Museum The Getty Museum is a private collection of pieces from all over the world. The museum is free but parking is $15. From Pacific Palisades we headed to Malibu to catch up with a Klaus, our photography friend...