Skip to main content

The Coastal Route into Los Angeles

Friday, June 3rd –Casper’s Wilderness Regional Park, Orange County to the Angeles Mountains, Los Angeles, California - Day 113 

 We woke up and headed for the coast. We wanted to continue our drive north into Los Angeles. The coastal drive was very upscale. In the town of Laguna Beach, we noticed a beautiful beach and decided to stop for some lunch. The parking was $3 an hour which is a steal. The kids played on the playground. The waves were massive. Gen and I both went in for a swim. Swimming through these huge waves was fun. Surfers were in bigger waves on the other end of the beach. 


We continued our drive into Los Angeles. Passing through Huntington Beach, we decided to stop at the State Beach. The very friendly woman in the booth wanted $15 to access the beach, we started chatting about how expensive that was and where we were going to stay while we were in LA. As soon as we mentioned that we were dispersed (free) camping in the Angeles Mountains, she said “Fantastic, your lucky you have me today, enjoy the beach”. John was asleep so I hung out in the car, eventually I carried him to the water. Gen and the girls were in the water playing in some much more reasonable waves. Still, Gen got dumped by one wave and ended up with a scalp and ears full of sand. 


 We didn’t have that much daylight left so we headed for the mountains. Los Angeles has the Angeles Mountains on its eastern side. Going from freeway to freeway, Gen drove up and up some more into the mountains. We finally neared the top of the first layer peaks and settled into a large dirt pullout at the top of a valley before the second layer of peaks. The view down the valley was fantastic. We settled in for the night.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Desert Forest

Saturday, May 28th – Joshua Tree National Park - North to Joshua Tree National Park - South, California– Day 107 Our campsite was a large open dirt area with some scrub around the outside. In the dark we had managed to park beside the pile of horse poo and shaving. Horses were allowed in this site. Gen stepped in the middle of a pile.   The Joshua Tree National Park visitor centre was a five-minute drive away. The town of Joshua Tree was packed with college age millennials communing with nature. There was a market with kombucha, organic greens and a few small tortoises. It was all very pleasant but very busy. The laundromat was at the edge of the market, I charged the devices and did the laundry. Gen bought some produce from a guy loading a truck. I even snuck in to buy some watermelon kombucha.   The drive into the park was ten minutes followed by a ten-minute line to show our pass. A quick stop to fill up our water bottles and we were into the park. Th...

Meow Wolf and O

Wednesday, May 25th –Lake Mead National Recreation Area to Las Vegas, Nevada – Day 104  We woke up in our roadside turn out and got ready for the day. Our plan was to go for a swim at Lake Mead, see the Hoover Dam and head back into Vegas. The morning was stifling hot, we were looking forward to the swim.   We drove to the visitor centre at Lake Mead Recreation Centre. We could see Lake Mead on the way. The water was well below the high-water line on the rocks. At the visitor centre we got our passport stamped, filled our water bottles, and received junior ranger booklets. The air conditioning was so nice we set up the kids to work on their booklets and hung around. The kids finished up enough activities that they were sworn in by a very nice ranger before we left.   We decided to go see the Hoover Dam first. We dropped the trailer in the parking lot. We heard it might need to be opened at the security checkpoint and we couldn’t be bothered. The H...

Canyonlands is Another Planet - Pt 1

Thursday, May 12th – Moab, Utah – Day 91  Utah is another planet. I cannot do justice to the sights that I have seen in Canyonlands National Park. They are beyond compare. I would encourage everyone to visit. The pictures we have taken do not convey the beauty of the scenery we witnessed.   We woke up in the morning after a late night. The kids did some schoolwork. We ate our oatmeal. We tried to clean up the dust that was all over the trailer. The wind had subsided in the night and the morning was pleasant and warm. Aisling had made us promise that we would climb the rock that they had all been climbing on. We strapped on our hiking boots and started towards the rock. A quick climb later we were at the top; on the way down, we were looking for pretty rocks.  The road to Canyonlands sits between two buttes with their cliffs rising on either side. The drive was thirty minutes to the entrance. The visitor centre had displays that detailed what each layer of the canyo...