Tucson 2022

I'm writing this a year after our first visit to Tucson, and so I can say unreservedly - I love Tucson. In fact we're back in Tucson now; we arrived April 1, and I love it so much we're looking at a condo tomorrow night. Dorian's on board. We love a lot of places, but Tucson is really high up there.

On our below-pictured first trip to Tucson, we visited friends Ben and Louann in their beautiful home and LONG driveway (where we parked our rig!), and they showed us the sites including Mt. Lemmon, the Saguaro National Park (there's an east and west side of this park), and some neat local eats. 

More in our second trip to Tucson blog coming soonish...

The San Pedro River Valley can be imagined (seen, were it not so hazy) in the distance... a ribbon of green at the base of the mountains.... the most significant migratory flyway remaining in the SouthWest. 

View from the scenic drive to Mt. Lemmon

The rare crested or cristate saguaro - To date it's not known what causes this formation!

 

Whatever caused the cristate formation didn't affect the fellow saguaro on the right, both seen in the Saguaro National Park

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

 OPCNM (or, as the military call it: OrgPiCacNatMon) is one of our favorite parks in Arizona. Which is a pretty high bar since Arizona has such amazing geographical features.

From certain parts of the campground, you can see parts of Trump's wall. Also, when you hike out into the desert from the campground, particularly in the southerly direction, you start to see Border Patrol vehicles parked surreptitiously beneath junipers or any other bush that might possibly provide cover to an entire vehicle.

By the way, I doubt that the military call it OrgPiCacNatMon. I was attempting to mock the long and awkward name of Organ Pipe... Ah, it's too long to type again.

Looks like a painting, no? Every evening seems to be like that.

This particular hole in the rock isn't visible from the campground. Right across Highway 85 is a long, scenic drive with plenty of stopping points and side-hikes along the way. The hole in the rock is visible from that scenic drive and there's also a hike that gets you much closer. We've never done the hike.

Looking towards Mt. Ajo. Not sure if that's Mr. Ajo specifically, though

Stick cholla, I think

Organ Pipe Cactus

Barrel cactus or fishhook cactus

Prickly pear

Ocotillo

Arizona has so many amazing places that you might think we'll never get back to OPCNM but... if we ever go down to Rocky Point/Puerto Penasco in Mexico, we'll almost certainly stay a night or two at, at this place, the one with the long and awkward name. 

Honolulu

 We've taken a significant pause in blogging, as a careful observer might notice. Thanks if you still care!

We're lucky to have family and friends in Honolulu, giving us the opportunity to make this destination more than a once- or twice-in-a-lifetime thing. Dorian's sister Gwen and her family live there, as well as our friend Paul & his sweetheart Deb. We stayed at the Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel towards the end of the Waikiki waterfront - and were lucky to have the above view! Ramona snorkeled on the strip in front of the hotel and saw a lot of different fish - the area is protected by a seawall and while it certainly wasn't "outstanding" snorkeling by Hawaii standards, it was pretty cool to just walk out there & snorkel.

Diamond Head seen from Gwen's neighborhood


Paul turned us on to the Waioli Kitchen & Bake Shop, where you can eat great food AND feel like you're doing good at the same time (see the site). In addition, the environment is extremely zen, with garden seating and amazing flora and fauna.

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Orchids at the bakery

Heliconia Rostrata "Red Lobster Claw" at the Waioli Kitchen

View at the Kaiwi State Scenic Shoreline

Diamond Head from the Puu Ualakaa State Park

An AMAZING mother's day cake - baked with love by our amazing and very creative niece Lucia! It was every bit delicious as it was beautiful.

View from the Kuliouou Ridge Trail

Dorian on the Kuliouou Ridge Trail

Morro Bay, CA

 

Morro Bay with otters

We both really liked Morro Bay, a working fishing village with gorgeous scenery and just the right mix of tourist shops and restaurants. From childhood memory, Dorian had high expectations and was nevertheless still pleasantly surprised. The town is too small for us to consider living there, but much larger San Luis Obispo is nearby. A friend of ours claims that the San Luis Obispo landmass warms the cold ocean air to more reasonable temperatures, resulting in a year-round pleasant climate.  

We camped in the Morro Creek City Park, which is just a parking lot but is beachside and a short walk to the famous Morro Rock. Pictured was the view from our campsite... and we nevertheless had the place mostly to ourselves!

Right on the coast, the cold never ceased to surprise us. We'd headed to the west coast in search of relief from the Arizona heat but had no idea just how successful we'd be. As we followed the coast up from Morro Bay, the daytime high never exceeded the low seventies.

While visiting them in Los Angeles, Ramona's cousins Kathy and Rick steered us to the very beautiful El Moro Elfin Forest in nearby Los Osos, pictured below. 

Rick steered us away from the kitschy Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, but our friend Art, a lover of bizarre Americana, had encouraged us to check it out. We had a nice lunch, delicious cake, and ... YES .... we made the requisite tour of the famously odd bathrooms. You just have to go and see this place for yourself!

In our short visit here, we just scratched the surface of all the beautiful and fun things to do in this area. 

View from Lampton Cliffs County Park in nearby Cambria

Tapo Canyon/Los Angeles area CA

We stayed in Tapo Canyon State Park, which is right above Simi Valley. Once mostly agricultural, Simi Valley has become a city in its own right now. 

We climbed a fairly steep and dusty trail to get this picture looking down at the Tapo Canyon area.

Along the road to the state park, there was evidence of movie-making either in progress or planned. It seemed to be a popular place for that.

We have a trail camera which we place outside our trailer at night anytime there's any likelihood of catching something interesting. Here, we got our first picture ever of a bobcat.

Not a great picture, but bobcats are wily. He probably knew we were trying to steal his soul so he hurried by. Incidentally, the camera was mounted on the rear bumper of the trailer, so he was quite close.

Check out the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum in downtown LA for an interesting, if sad, view of LA many, many years ago. Ramona learned that Dire Wolves are (were) really a thing - not just made up for Game of Thrones. 

This tableau shows 404 skulls of the more than 1600 Dire Wolf remains found in the tar pits. It's thought that the wolves themselves became mired while attempting to feed on animals trapped in the asphalt. Harsh all around.

Big Bear, CA

Traveling from Lake Havasu up into the California mountainside was an experience. Route 18 on the west side of Big Bear is fine for trailers but going in from the east side was pretty narrow (still not as bad as parts of Route 1 in California, writing from our future perspective.) There was one section where we went up a 10% grade with this right hand turn that made me feel like we we were going to roll off the road.

We'd selected a waterfront site at Holloway RV resort in Big Bear Lake, but the water level in the reservoir has dropped so low that some previously lake-front houses on the north side are now nowhere near the water, and are instead overlooking a huge, grassy field. Our camp site would have been right on the water under normal conditions. Instead, the site overlooked a slightly damp "cove" of mud. The mud emitted a rich smell of...well, mud.

We hiked the interesting Woodland Trail in the San Bernardino National Forest, where we viewed this pocked pine that had become an acorn storage unit for apparently every woodpecker for miles around! Other trees had a few holes but this one, for no discernible reason, was the woodpeckers' favorite. 

              

Interpretive signage also showed us this pack rats' nest - so now we really appreciate the source of the insult when somebody is labeled a pat rack.  

Other fun activities included clambering over the rocks in Boulder Bay Park (Pippi and Dorian pictured) and, of course, sampling local brews. We chose the Bone Yard Grill for a touristy experience in the bustling Village area, but really enjoyed the Big Bear Mountain Brewery for a laid-back drink on their patio (dogs welcome!) and open-mic entertainment.

           

 

Lake Havasu, AZ

Dorian has been eyeing the Lake Havasu area for its combination of two of our favorite features - desert, and water. And water was in abundance at Lake Havasu when we arrived, due to the recent monsoon rains in Arizona (yes, there is mid-summer rain here .... ominous clouds, sky-splitting lightning and thunder, and deluges almost every afternoon, scattered here and there). 

The ranger at Lake Havasu State Park's entrance told us to proceed slowly through the storm runoff, without which advice we would certainly have turned back at several roads covered by rushing waters, one nearly 1-foot deep. A half-hour later all that was left were piles of mud and debris already being cleared out with front-end loaders. Clearly this is a routine occurrence here! (Going through the foot-high water was on the advice of the ranger but, in retrospect, one questions whether the ranger really knew how high the water had gotten.)

Our campsite was lakeside. We were just here for one night so we didn't have time for kayaking or exploring the area before heading off to our next stop. But before leaving town, we checked out the London Bridge as we breakfasted al fresco.