We arrived in San Fran with all national monuments closed due to the federal government shut down, which meant not only that we could not go to Alcatraz, the Golden Gate museum but even public toilets in these areas were shut too. But hey, it also meant there was no one available to charge a [...]
For us this started after San Simeon and this is where you get the really dramatic coastline. We headed past the colony of elephant seals, but only saw juveniles as the mature males were all at sea. What we did see, however, was a stand off between 3 squirrels and a bull snake that was [...]
We started off this leg of the trip up the coast by staying in Malibu, home to the stars - what a place, our RV park was right on the coast with a lovely view for the sunset. We got a site that looked ok but then found another that was absolutely fantastic, the views [...]
The Joshua Tree NP is stunning but again nature was causing problems with some roads washed out and campsites shut due to flooding. All the trails in the east were shut as the floods had uncovered ancient Indian relics but more worryingly arsenic and mercury mine spoils! Consequently there was a bit of a scrabble [...]
After leaving Death Valley we encountered a sand storm so just decided to keep heading south towards the Joshua Tree NP to try and outrun it!. So after a long day we arrived at Yucca Valley to catch up on emails etc as nothing works in Death Valley. Right next to here is a place [...]
Despite Death Valley having had flash floods we were assured by a Cal Trans road-worker that the main roads were open so we headed in! The place we booked to stay looked like a car park! So we by-passed it and headed up north towards Scotty's Castle where we found a great camp site, Mesquite [...]
We left Yosemite and headed east across the Tioga Pass which had only just re-opened following the forest fires. We stayed next to Mono Lake and awoke the next morning to discover that the Tioga Pass had been shut that very evening due to heavy snowfall - we were so lucky as this would have [...]
Before we got to Yosemite we looked on their reservations website and realised there was only one place left in the valley available for 3 consecutive days, so we booked it. What a place! right next to the river with a beautiful view of the surrounding mountain. We couldn't believe how lucky we were! We [...]
This is the area south of Sacramento which played host to the gold rush many years ago and is full of sleepy old pioneer towns. Our first night in this area was on a park owned by the local casino which was well manicured to say the least. Everyone in the USA takes [...]
First long drive of the trip to Tahoe and what a drive. At one point crossing through the Sierras we reached over 7,000', well higher than anywhere in the UK! A loop around Lake Tahoe is roughly 60 miles and takes an awful long time but is more than worth it for the beautiful views. [...]
Napa Valley, just north of San Fran, is the home to wine making in California. Our first couple of nights were on a site surrounded by some of the best motorhomes in the world called Prevost. Out of a total of appx 30 pitches, 6 were occupied by these [...]
This is our road trip around the central part of California in a motor home! See if you can spot our van in the pics! Here's a clue - look for Lynn! We had no accommodation booked and generally just either turned up or booked it via the internet in the case of Yosemite. [...]