Park and B&B Reviews

We visited a lot of parks this week so I thought I would give a little review of each one for anyone who is interested.

Pinnacles National Park- REALLY REALLY REALLY HOT! During the day at least. There are two sets of caves, but only one was open when we went - Balconies. We hiked there and it was really cool. There are also lots of places to climb for those who are into climbing. The campsite was also decent. There are bathrooms, 6-minute hot showers, although mine still seemed quite cold at 6am. There is also a pool that looked pretty nice but we didn't swim.

Big Sur- So there are 3 different parks in the Big Sur area: Andrew Molero SP, Pfieffer Big Sur SP and Julia Pfieffer SP. I will review them separately.

Andew Molero State Park- We only hiked here but it was beautiful. There is a cove area with a beach which is popular with the surfers. You have to cross over the river (wade) to get to it though. You can also hike out to the point which gives you a nice view of the cove and the ocean. This is actually the largest of the three parks, but also the least developed

Julia Pfieffer- the main attraction here is the beautiful cove with waterfall and crystal blue water. The area was donated by a lady who used to live up the hill with the condition that there be no access to the beach. So you can't touch it but the view is fantastic. Its only about a 5 min walk from the parking lot. There are other hikes back into the mountains but we didn't go.

Pfieffer Big Sur- This is the main park of the three and the one people commonly refer to as Big Sur. This is where we camped. I wasn't particularly impressed with the hikes. We went up to Pfieffer Falls (decent waterfall) and Valley view (totally not worth the uphill haul). I was also quite tired and cranky this day so that might have biased my experience.

Hearst Castle National Monument (or something)- this isn't technically a park but it is owned by the park system so I'll count it. This is incredible. Our tour guide was superb and the 'castle' is beautiful. A little pricey on the tickets but worth it in my opinion.

Montana de Oro State Park- This park was really pretty, lots of beach area, eucalyptus groves, etc. But we had the hardest time trying to figure out where we were supposed to go for camping. We went to the visitors center but it was closed (at 3:30pm). It had sign telling us to go somewhere else, that place said to go somewhere else, etc. We eventually figured it out with enough time to take a picnic out to the beach before we had to hike our gear in. This was our only night without showers but also the most peaceful. We were the only ones in the 1 of 2 campgrounds in the area. We had E-camp #2 which was in the eucalyptus grove but we could here the waves down the hill as well.

Point Mugu State Park- We didn't do much here besides camp and putter around on the beach for about 20 minutes. There were showers but you had to feed it quarters to get any hot water. Well worth it in my opinion :) You could also hear the beach from our tent.

Malibu Creek State Park- My least favorite park. Hot hot hot, bugs bugs bugs. Loud french people. Thats all I have to say about that.

Secret Garden B&B, LA, CA- After an entire week of camping we thought we had died and gone to heaven. There was a bed with lots of pillows and someone to fix us yummy breakfast that wasn't from a box. The owners were friendly but not too in your face, which we appreciated. We also got upgraded to the cottage (separate building in the back) for free! There is a nice garden with a waterfall and birds (like lots of them, in cages) that almost drown out the traffic (its LA, what do you expect). Overall, very pleasant, would stay again.