Summer 2011 Road Trip: CA/AZ

On Monday, my aunt and Eric and I took a day trip to San Francisco. We rode the BART in to the Embarcadero and spent about an hour at the Ferry Building, which is right on the Bay and full of shops and cafés. We grabbed a snack and walked around for a bit, then headed to Pier 24 for a photography exhibit. As it turns out, all of the odd-numbered piers are on one side of the Ferry Building, and all of the even-numbered piers are on the other. We figured this out when we made it to Pier 23 and Pier 27—no Pier 24. So we got some good exercise walking back down the coast!

 Inside the Ferry Building

The exhibit at Pier 24 Photography Museum, called “Here,” displayed over 700 photos of San Francisco by more than 20 photographers, most from the Bay Area. Different parts of the exhibit showed different aspects of the area—one section showed the growth and development of San Francisco over the past 100 years; one showed images of some of the natural disasters that have affected the area, including the huge Oakland area fire of 1991; another showed the socio-economic and cultural diversity and growth. It was quite an impressive exhibit!

Pier 24

After we left the museum, we went back to my aunt’s house and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. For dinner I helped her make a Moroccan dish called Chicken Tajine. It was fabulous, and we both loved tasting new flavors! It’s definitely something we’ll try cooking sometime ourselves.

We also spent some time with my aunt and uncle checking out maps of California and Arizona and discussing some possible routes and stops for the rest of our trip. There are so many interesting places, and we haven’t decided where to go yet. We might just wing it for much of the rest of the trip!

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Tuesday we had breakfast with my aunt, uncle, and cousin—yummy huevos rancheros!—and packed the car. We were on the road again by about 10:30. First thing we did before leaving town was get an oil change—can’t forget to do that on a 6,000+ -mile road trip!

Our original plan for today was to drive to San Diego and go to the zoo tomorrow, but we decided the drive was too long (considering all of the driving we are already doing) and the zoo was expensive, so we stopped at Monterey Bay Aquarium for a few hours instead. That was a lot of fun, and a nice little variety from hiking national parks. :)

Sea otters

Flamingo Exhibit

We also got to drive down California Highway 1, which snakes right along the coast—beautiful!

We ended up stopping for the night in San Luis Obispo, and found out that not all KOA campgrounds have tent camping available… Fortunately, the Avila Hot Springs on the same corner had tent camping, so we stayed there.

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Wednesday we packed up and continued south. We stopped for lunch at Shoreline Park in Santa Barbara, where we shared some of our sandwiches with a couple of seagulls.

We drove along Highway 1 a little more and got back on 101 to Hollywood and LA, where we picked up I-10. 

 I almost missed this! Had to catch this pic out the back windshield.

At the suggestion of my aunt and uncle, we decided to stop at Joshua Tree National Park. We did a short hike to Cottonwood Springs, in the south part of the park, and decided to camp at the Cottonwood grounds for the night. It was the most rustic night of camping that we’ve done so far—short of having running water and full bathrooms—but so serene we could hear the quiet of the night.

 Joshua Tree Park

 Cottonwood Springs

The park at sunset

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On Thursday, the morning heat woke us up before the morning sun did! It was only about 75 degrees in the park that morning, but our tent was like a sauna—especially with no shade around! It was a bit of a surprise for two people who are used to waking up in 40-degree weather!

After packing up we drove north through the park, which is named for the funky tree that grows there. This park was a much different experience from the other parks we have visited so far, because it is a desert area. Joshua Tree Park is actually part of the Mojave Desert, which covers part of southern California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona, and borders the Sonoran Desert to the south. We stopped and did a hike around Skull Rock, which is about the middle of the park, so it took us about an hour to finish the drive through the park.

 Cholla Cactus Forest at Joshua Tree Park

 A Joshua Tree -- even the park literature describes the Joshua Tree as something out of a Dr. Seuss book! They are all gnarled in such different ways!

 Skull Rock

We spent the rest of the day driving to Flagstaff, Arizona, where we are meeting a couple of our friends from Tucson for a weekend in the Grand Canyon. When we go to Flagstaff we had dinner at Outback Steakhouse, which was a deliciously familiar meal, considering we’d been surviving on camp food for the past couple of days, after being spoiled with my aunt’s amazing cooking! Then we found our way to a good-sized KOA for the night.