Morro Bay has the ability
to change one’s outlook on California http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=594 . Consistent with Pismo Beach, a mere 30 miles away,
the central California coast is much less populated and the rural scenery is
truly beautiful. But the effects of the drought prevail and dying eucalyptus
continues the sad story. The attitude at the campground was also much more
accommodating and we were even allowed to proceed to our camp site without
coughing up $20 for early registration; something which was rigorously enforced
and had us hang back on previous occasions at State Campgrounds in California!
The 18-hole golf course in the park is fairly unique, compared to state parks
throughout the nation. A further distinction is The Museum of Natural
History, a nature center with outstanding
exhibits.
Our camp site was
virtually across from a smallish marina, which is somewhat misleading because
the ocean was 2 miles away from camp with the marina opening into a bay with a
relatively narrow passage past mud flats. Hence, the closest public accessible
beaches are at the town of Morro Bay http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morro_Bay,_California , which is a scenic, relatively low profile touristy
place https://www.google.com/search?q=Morro+Bay&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=0rSkU83rLdLroATU4IHQCQ&ved=0CF8QsAQ&biw=1255&bih=600 . Prominent landmarks are Morro Rock and the
‘three fingers’ power plant. Neither has escaped choruses of criticism. The former because the rock used to
be free-standing in the ocean but got connected to the mainland by filling in,
which provided a road and created a rocky beach to one side against which sea
otters established a habitat to their liking and for the amusement of
spectators. A sandy beach for human entertainment on the other side rendered
the project even more useful. All of this is supposed to upset the ecology of
the entire region. The power plant utilized natural gas to produce 650 megawatt
but was shut down in 2014 when approval for upgrading could not be obtained.
A great deal of commercial
fishing is evident, which means we benefitted from enjoying good seafood,
before moving on to our next destination on Monterey Bay. We attended a church
service in San Luis Obispo, a neat inland neighboring town, where we met folks
with whom we maintain contact.
It was about a four hour
drive to New Brighton http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=542 at the northern end of Monterey Bay, close to Santa
Cruz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Cruz,_California. Route 1 along the coast posed some challenging
driving in thick fog, which jeopardized the purpose of having chosen the route
through the Big Sur. It wasn’t until we reached the correspondingly named tiny map
entry, with hardly more than a gas station that the fog lifted and the last 30
miles of Big Sur were revealed. The driving was a great deal easier and the
views rewarding. The camp site at New Brighton was spacious and the facilities
acceptable. We were at the edge of a high cliff overlooking Monterey Bay, with
a nice beach below, following the curve to Seacliff Beach about a mile to the
south http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seacliff_State_Beach. Two sets of stairs lead from the bluff to the beach
from where one can have an up close experience of pelicans diving to prey barely
feet from the beach sand. When they became less interested in sardines, they
went for small mackerel slightly further from shore, where they were less
bothered by smaller scavenger birds that snatched up spilled sardines. The
perspective from the bluff was broader and we were amazed at how extensive
pelican activity really was; the feeding ‘ground’ was in season, it would seem.
Awkward as these birds may look up close, in flight they are very graceful in
large formations. The same cannot be said of ravens in abundance and noisy,
especially when they ganged up to chase away an intruding hawk.
On the beach we ran into a
charming couple, their teen aged sons and the fellow’s father, who lives close
by. The latter reminded us of a 1960’s generation West Coast college product
such as what we encountered in the 1970’s in the East and the guy was rather
inquisitive and opinionated. Upon learning of our scouting-out venues for possible
relocation, and knowing nothing else about us, he abruptly disqualified California
for us on financial grounds. His son and daughter-in-law acted uncomfortably
and looked a little more relaxed after our further exchange. Dad asked where
else we’ve seen candidate places, upon which Willem said, ‘Texas’. This was
clearly not what he wanted to hear and ranted against the State. He didn’t
linger much longer after Willem responded it was interesting because he had picked
up similar vibes in Texas and elsewhere regarding California. Our conversation
with the remaining folks was informative and they expressed great interest in
our Texas comment. They had left California years ago, lived in Colorado and
then moved to Salt Lake City, Utah where they are not very happy at the moment.
We did not know that Salt Lake City can get really cold in winter and had an
air pollution problem. These family oriented folks have been thinking about
Texas and were encouraged by our positive comments. The bottom line, as we’ve
found out, was that corporations and people are leaving California in droves on
account of the poor economic state attributed to political failure, rather than
the drought.
This was pretty much corroborated
by neighboring campers -- Constantine, an immigrant from Kazakhstan and his
wife, an immigrant from the Ukraine and their three lively daughters. They are
from Sacramento, CA, where a Slavic community reportedly exists. He owns and
operates a business in the solar electric industry and is looking at leaving
California because of the hostile environment for business. Like others, he was
much interested in Texas and suggested we might run into each other again in
the future. If such is the thinking of operators in the alternative energy
field, one hesitates to ask about those in the fossil fuel business – even in
the natural gas aspect thereof. Morro Bay comes to mind. Politically he is as
much disillusioned with California as they are with the US Administration’s
handling of the Ukraine situation.
We made a day-trip to Monterey,
which is popular among tourists, in part due to John Steinbeck who was from the area and wrote about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Steinbeck . One can walk down Cannery Row with the preserved
corrugated iron facades and cross walks of the original operations albeit now
highly touristy-commercialized and put to alternative use. The entire area is
rather attractive and it was a day well spent. On the way back we stopped at a
road side farmer’s store and were astounded at the variety of products offered
– especially fresh fruit and vegetables, some of which we did not know at all.
Well stocked we took off looking forward to days of oranges, grapefruit and
avocados aplenty!
And then we reached the
real purpose for having come to New Brighton. It was a comfortable and
relatively close venue to Los Altos, where Willem and Susan have dear friends,
originally from South Africa. Two of Pirow and Hortense Bekker’s four children
were present when we made a daytrip to visit with them. Francois just completed
high school and is headed to Santa Barbara for college in the fall, while Pirow
Jr. graduated in Michigan and is now furthering his training from home. Annie
is doing an internship in Sacramento to complete her training as physician and
Anke, who studies music and specializing in voice in New York, is on a study
abroad trip in Europe. All four of us were received jovially and we had a most
enjoyable day and great eats! We stayed much longer than planned, given the
long trip we were doing the next day. But Pirow advised us not to start out
early to Yosemite on account of the morning rush traffic. This meant we could
pick up the odd supply, get gas and also swing by Seacliff to observe its most
notable feature, the sunken concrete boat at the end of the pier, before
hooking up and leaving New Brighton.
For the trip from New
Brighton to Yosemite we relied heavily on the GPS. There was no straight route
and various changes were anticipated, going east. The going was pretty good and
scenic on Route 152, when a sizable water reservoir became visible in a quite
arid appearing stretch of the way. The
San Luis Reservoir http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Luis_Reservoir is the kingpin of the California State Water Project,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Water_Project a monumental
piece of work to generate electricity and distribute water to Southern
California for irrigation, industrial and human use. The consequences of this
ambitious endeavor are still being probed, debated, politicized and enjoyed
with varying implications for various interest groups. One of which, relating
to the smelt fish problem mentioned before (On Things Along the Way 22), presents
its case on large poster boards along highways by challenging politicians. On
pausing at the visitor center for lunch, there was no lack of politicking
either, when Willem ran into a virtual carbon copy encounter of that on the
beach at New Brighton. One began to think that using the word ‘Texas’ with some
Californians is like showing red to a bull.
We kept going east on
Route 152 and the GPS delivered us to Route 99 along which we would find a
connection to Route 41. But before reaching that turnoff, GPS announced a
change of route and directed us to take the exit that was just about then upon
us, which Willem did. We found ourselves on a smallish road headed in the right
direction, though and figured that GPS must be party to info we didn’t have
regarding the original course. This ultimately proved a poor choice because the
route became very challenging through mountainous areas and afterwards
impossible to trace on any map we had! It put our patience and driving skills
to the test and prolonged the going by a considerable amount of time. We would
get pointers to Mariposa indicating some 20 miles on two occasions and after
significant time intervals and not planning to go through Mariposa, stuck to
what GPS called for. At last we got to Route 49, leading to Oakhurst and
finally Route 41. We regrouped somewhat in Forks before making it some seven
hours after leaving New Brighton to Wawona Campground http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/wawonacamp.htm where we had an excellent drive-by campsite on the
edge of the river. It was dry camping but the rules for using generators were
lenient and fresh water could be tanked before setting up camp; the restrooms were
satisfactory. We were there for three nights, which meant two full days to peruse
the area, and started the first morning by taking the shuttle to Mariposa Grove,
south of Wawona, to see the giant sequoias http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/mg.htm and https://www.google.com/search?q=giant+sequoia+photo+gallery&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=BVGqU9zvMpfpoAS2oYLoDA&ved=0CDUQ7Ak&biw=1366&bih=622
We would later in Redwood
National Park learn that these giants of up to 314 ft (96 m) have diameters, up
to 30 ft (9 m), while Redwood Trees are taller at 378 ft (115 m), and diameters
to 26 ft (8 m) currently exist!
This was surely worthwhile
and after a stiff hike, we were on our way back to camp to regroup for the
afternoon/evening excursion to Glacier Point http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacier_Point for a sunset presentation by a NPS Ranger, https://www.google.com/search?q=glacier+point&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=MEWqU966AtG9oQTa04LoBA&sqi=2&ved=0CEIQ7Ak&biw=1366&bih=622 . Learning more about the history and glacial events
that led to what one now sees at the Point was instructive, especially in view
of the fact that we would be looking up from the base to the Point the next
day. Needless to say this was a good outing that got us back in camp by about
10:30 pm.
Up early the next morning
to catch the one and only shuttle to Yosemite Valley at 8:30 am. http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/yv.htm enabled us to use the Valley shuttle service similar
to the service in Zion Canyon. Shuttles run at about 20 minute intervals and
can be boarded and alighted at any one of many stops throughout the Valley to
appreciate the scenery: https://www.google.com/search?q=yosemite+valley+photos&client=firefox-a&hs=NfL&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=fflb&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=SkyqU4jwGIr_oQTn1YLQAg&ved=0CEIQ7Ak&biw=1366&bih=622 The beauty of
the matter is that the shuttle system cuts down the amount of private
traffic, enabling a very large number of
visitors to be accommodated. The return shuttle to Wawona wasn’t until late in
the afternoon, so we were pretty exhausted by the time we got back to camp. We
had dinner, made quick preparations for an early departure to San Francisco and
hit the sack.
Ready to depart the next
morning, Mark and Diane Zorick from Simi Valley, California, our camping neighbors,
saw us off after sharing wisdom and good advice for the remainder of our time
in California, Oregon and Washington State. And we were on our way for the long
trek to Pacifica, south of San Francisco, so Susan could catch her flight the
next morning to be with Matt, Herine and Teo in Chicago, according to the
original schedule!
