Camping on the Colorado between Arizona and California

 Pirate Cove is a big, commercial RV campground right on the Colorado river. They have a marina and a restaurant and cater to the big summer party crowds.  When we were there in December, we were the ONLY campers onsite. It was magical.

  

Our spot was right on the river. We unloaded the motorcycle and the bikes and backed up Josey so her tail hung over the river. We saw amazing sunrises on the Arizona side of the river and gorgeous sunsets in California. There are hundreds of miles of trails that would be amazing for ATVs and side-by-sides, which they rent, of course.  

We took a bike ride and saw (but couldn’t really see) something called a geoglyph.  Geoglyphs are giant ancient rock art figures made of stones or other natural objects that can best be seen from an aerial view.  The geoglyph we saw was marked off by a cable fence to protect it, and the photo here is from Google.  

It shows two bodies with their heads close together and their bodies and legs spread. There is no signage, so when we found the cable fencing, we didn’t really know what we were looking at.  After we got back from our bike ride, we looked up the aerial view and were simply fascinated. That led to learning about other geoglyphs like the Fort Mojave twins near Needles and the Blythe Intaglios near Blythe. 

The experience of being with such a powerful natural force as the Colorado river, alongside mysterious historic art like the desert geoglyphs, was truly inspiring.

Twentynine Palms and Joshua Tree

 We didn’t want to leave the serenity of Mojave Narrows with its chirping and chattering waterfowl and the rustling of the cottonwood leaves. But our next adventure was waiting!

 

We chose to stay at an RV park in Twentynine Palms because of its proximity to Joshua Tree National Park. We are geeky about enjoying nature and learning about the different deserts and peoples and geology in an area. We planned on the trail at Barker Dam, which was built by cattle ranchers at the turn of the century.

 

The trail was a lovely and flat loop, about 1.5 miles long. We saw lots of the namesake Joshua Trees and even some petroglyphs on the trail. 

The dam only sees water in seasons with rain and winter wasn’t the rainy season, so we climbed it safely.

 

Twentynine Palms has a wonderful national park office and there was a great farmers market that weekend. Picking up fresh vegetables and homemade bread and tamales is such a treat!

Mojave Narrows Regional Park

 Sometimes you make plans, you pivot on those plans, and you just get lucky!  Dan and I skedaddled out of the free campground because we felt too claustrophobic with all the rigs packed in together. We found a regional park near Victorville, CA, in San Bernadino County, called Mojave Narrows.  The reviews we read sounded decent, and we reserved a spot where our back patio opened to Horseshoe Lake and crossed our fingers.

 

We were pleasantly surprised to roll in to a lush nature park with tons of cottonwoods and willows. We relaxed to the calls of so many different bird species, the website says there are over 1500 species of watchable wildlife!

 

We took a couple bike rides around the acreage and watched the train delivering who knows what to people who knows where.  

We had terrific weather and practically no neighbors except the ones who took flight just to settle back on a log in the water on one of the two lakes.

 

That’s the kind of experience that centers me - the calm of the cattails and the chatter of the birds.

Soledad Canyon - Thousand Trails

After we said goodbye to the ocean again, we headed into the California hills to stay at our second Thousand Trails campground, Soledad Canyon. Thousand Trails is a campground membership that allows free 21 day stays for its members, and the membership came free for a year with our RV purchase. Why not try a few campgrounds?

 

This campground had real promise. It is huge and has 2 pools and 2 clubhouses with laundry and pickleball courts and lots of trees and a creekbed and coyotes who howled to the dogs who howled back.

 

The RV spots were not great.  Although the map showed something like 300 spots, so many of them were out of order with no power at the towers.  We found some incredible sandy spots by the creek but when we got out to walk them, we picked up the most serious destructive goatheads I’ve ever seen.  We almost got Josey stuck in some deep sand at one spot - that was excitement I didn’t need!

 

The campground has a whole section that is being renovated where we walked around until we were asked to leave by the workers, and it will be really quite nice once complete.  Our hope is that the rest of the campground is under the same renovation plan and that’s why so many of the best sites were uninhabitable.

 

We finally found a decent spot (with power!) and settled in. The sunsets were amazing.  The pickleball was a lot of fun (Dan won, no surprise).  

Morro Bay

 We were excited to get back to the beautiful Pacific Ocean and stay at the seaside town of Morro Bay. This small town has a giant rock (Morro Rock!) which is a 576 foot high volcanic plug (similar to Devils Tower in WY) that you can drive to and walk around but no climbing. Peregrine falcons call that rock home.

The Navy built a base here in WWII and subsequently built out the breakwaters around Morro Rock to protect their base.  There’s a neat maritime museum which has ships and submersibles you can walk around and peer into, along with a movie to watch.

 

PG&E built a power plant here in the 1950s and its three stacks are quite the industrial landmark in town.  The plant closed in 2014 and there is talk of converting the building to a battery storage facility. Residents are divided.

 

Abalone, those beautiful irridescent shells seen in jewelry and knick knack shops, was a big industry here until they were overfished and declined dramatically. Now the town has an oyster aquaculture farm where we watched loads of oysters harvested at the Morro Bay Oyster Co.  We hung out and watched these otters and their otter babies float blissfully in the sun.

 

We loved the small town feel, the prime walkability, super mild climate and all of the kitschy stores selling t-shirts and souvenirs.  We had amazing clam chowder, calamari steak, fish & chips and fish tacos. Keeping this one on our list of places to return!

Pinnacles and San Lorenzo Park

 We had a campsite booked at Pinnacles National Park but the CalTrans website advised us that our motorhome would be too long to easily get into and out of the road leading into the park so we pivoted and stayed in King City. It was such a great campground, right on the Salinas River, and there was NOBODY there.  We love the feeling of freedom and serenity when we are camping.

 

Pinnacles actively monitors and tracks the California condor population, and we saw plenty. One of the coolest features within the park are the many talus caves you can hike through.  Talus caves are created when boulders slide down the mountain and become trapped in a crevasse. 

 

Pinnacles has an east entrance and a west entrance, but no road connecting the two sides. We explored the east side on a Sunday and the west side on a Monday. Caves are found on both sides and we were having much fun with our amateur spelunking!

So strong!

Biking at Coyote Hills

 Our bike ride around Coyote Hills was exciting and beautiful. The trails we rode were paved but that didn’t stop me from picking up a nasty goathead which flattened my tire.  If you’re keeping track, that’s four out of four tires that have gone flat on our new bikes.  Bleh.

 

We still enjoyed the scenery on our way back to camp to fix the tires.