The campground is full of mature sycamores and stately cork oaks and has a resident herd of deer that can be found near the camp store at almost any time of day. There is a large clubhouse with all the usual activities and a nice looking pool thy was closed during our visit. A nice playground is located in front of the clubhouse and close enough to use the free WiFi.

Located off of CA-25 between the Hollister and Pinnacles National Park, the landscape in January is a beautiful green oak woodland set in a valley of rolling hills. Acorn woodpeckers and California quail are abundant, and we also noted eurasiasian collared dove, starling, scrub jay, ravens, vultures and a few other types of birds. Wild boar inhabit the area, but we did not see any live specimens.

The main draw to the area was the opportunity to visit Pinnacles, America’s newest national park, upgraded from a national monument in 2013. The park features lush oak woodland, coastal chaparral, caves, and red rock formations loved by climbers. It is also part of the California condor’s home range and has played a vital role in their population recovery. Condors can be seen at some of the higher peaks, but we were not able to spot any.

We used our free weekend to visit Monterey for a day at the aquarium. Ben had fun, but was most interested in the kids play area and the seagulls. It was crowded and a bit overstimulating, so afterward we walked down Cannery Row to San Carlos Beach for some time with our toes in the sand. Then we stopped by Sea Harvest Restaurant & Fish Market and got a sampler of fried seafood. Ben ate all the calamari thinking they were chicken nuggets.

The valve in the shower that our brand new tenants need to use suddenly stopped working, Dottie needed an urgent vet visit, and somebody tried to steal our Kia. Apparently Kia theft is all the rage these days, but the would-be thief was relegated by their incompetence to the role of vandal, as all the damage they caused didn’t help them start the vehicle.

My cousin, who has been storing the 5th wheel in her pasture for us, was gracious enough to let us camp there for a few days while we took care of issues at home and got the RV ready for full time living again. It was nice to spend some time with her family even though it was an unplanned delay.

When we finally set out for Yosemite Lakes, there was just one last point of stress: Priest Grade on Highway 120. It’s a narrow, steep and winding road that sits on the edge of a ledge, but for me, the biggest concern was my transmission temperature. These types of climbs with a heavy load in tow are hard on the truck.

I’ve always enjoyed seeing Yosemite in different seasons, but this is the first chance I’ve had to make

Fortunately, Thousand Trails – Yosemite Lake is under 10 minutes from the Big Oak Flat and Hetch Hetchy entrance gates to the park. In fact, a year prior we camped just a couple miles down Hardin Flat Rd with some friends, before we ever heard of Thousand Trails.

The campground was still in the process of reopening so we stayed at a site way in the back, near a meadow. It turned out to be a great spot. Over the course of our two week stay, the main camp sections were opened and the summer camp atmosphere came alive.

This has got to be my favorite TT campground yet, and being only three hours from Sacramento, it’s likely to become our new home away from home. We already booked another two weeks in June.

The park was beautiful and still covered in snow. Many of the roads were recently cleared and the evidence of a harsh winter was apparent. There was red clay across the highway in areas that had seen landslides, washed out shoulders, and trees down everywhere. In the higher elevations, the road was boxed in by walls of snow that had been plowed 10 ft high.

Once we arrived it was surprisingly uncrowded. We apparently timed our visit perfectly between impassable roads and tourist season. By the end of our stay, the campground, the park and the local grocery store were bustling with vacationers.

Rancho Notso Grande is an orchard and berry farm with a roadside farm stand and a steady stream of boondocking visitors. The owner took us on his golf cart for a tour of the farm and a sampling of his wares. It was too early in the season for pick-your-own berries, but he offered an assortment of wines, jams, vinegar, and meat from lamb raised on the farm. We got a pack of lamb rib chops, some raspberry-jalapeño jam and a bottle of berry wine.

We spent some time letting Ben explore the orchard and various berry patches before cooking up the lamb chops for dinner. After dinner, Ben played in a weird little stick teepee that the owner said was built by previous guests and continually added to by others. It looked like something from the Blair Witch Project, but Ben couldn’t leave it alone. We added a few more sticks from the orchard to shore-up the teepee and then called it a night.

Once near Palmdale, we veered south toward the town of Acton and our destination, Thousand Trails Soledad Canyon. The campground is so named for the canyon in which it is located, which follows the Santa Clara River through the Angeles National Forest to Santa Clarita.

I wasn’t sure what to expect of a Thousand Trails in Southern California, and I was unfamiliar with this particular area of California. Upon arrival, the campground seemed a little beat-up. There is a dry river wash that you cross and some steep hills to get to certain sections. The sites and facilities looked a little run down, and I was getting a similar impression from many of the guests.

We found a spot that backed up to a bit of a ledge that overlooked a lower section of the campground. That’s when our huge rear window had its moment to shine. It perfectly framed Mendenhall Ridge and Magic Mountain, while blocking out the campground below.

(Yeah, I thought Magic Mountain was just a rollercoaster park in Santa Clarita.)

We spent hours staring out the back window while we were here, watching the clouds and the sun move across the mountain. Early in the mornings, the clouds would sock in the peaks and give shadowy texture to the mountain as the sun burned them off throughout the day.

The south-facing hills on other side of the canyon were golden with blooming poppies and the edge of the slope we were perched on was covered in wildflowers.

Ben watched the birds and the squirrels and we identified the dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis).

As California’s harsh winter continued into April, we even got a fresh dusting of snow to look at on the mountains.

The campground is on the east side of town, right off of Boulder Hwy. It’s one of the few TT parks we’ve visited that’s in an urban area. It’s tightly packed, but there is a pool and a hot tub, and it’s away from the madness of the strip. There are some old timey casinos near by that are good for cheap prime rib and Fremont Street and The Strip are a short trek across town.

We hoped to meet up with a cousin who recently had a baby, but as luck would have it, the family came down with a big and we decided call off the visit.

By another twist of luck, we were able to meet up with my mom and grandpa as they were making their way back from Missouri to California. They were only in town for a quick stopover, but we took the time to wander around Downtown and take in the spectacle.

We also spent a day walking the strip and eating at some of our favorite spots, including the La Creperie inside the Paris Hotel.

Our goal was to find a suitable dispersed site near the south entrance of the park. I knew there would be patchy snow and potentially muddy conditions, but I was hoping at least one of the National Forest roads along AZ-64 would be open and passable. If all else failed, there are a few private RV parks nearby that would be alright for a few nights.

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We did notice a few elk along the dark shoulder of the highway and quite a lot of snow near the summit. I’m always captivated by these “island in the sky” environments that develop when tall mountains are isolated by surrounding lowland desert. We put Cloudcroft on our list of places to check out “next time around.”

On the western edge of the airbase is Holloman Lake, a scenic wastewater pond that offers free camping and has become all the rage for the Instagram #VanLife crowd. And not without reason… Despite the unappealing nature of the water, it makes an excellent reflecting pool for the already incredible New Mexico sunsets. The rugged, arid and wide open landscape combined with the typically wispy scattered clouds makes the sky look like a painting and helped us quickly understand how New Mexico got the nickname “the land of enchantment.”

The public access to this area is a small and not very well marked turnoff directly off US Hwy 70 and immediately through a tight cattle gate, so getting in and out can be a little tricky. It seems like you are on the military base, but the parcel of land where people can camp is actually BLM. We watched F-16s and MQ-9 Reaper drones taking off and landing at the nearby runway, which was a bonus for the aviation nerd.

The other nice thing about this boondocking location is White Sands National Park is less than five miles down the road. The park consists of a 275 sq mile gypsum dunefield, the largest in the world. There is a visitor center and some boardwalk nature trails near the edge of the dunefield, but the best part of this park is a road that stretches deep into the middle of the dunes, with large parking areas and picnic facilities spaced regularly along the route.

Anywhere you like, you can pull over and climb the dunes, sled down them or wander across miles of wind rippled gypsum. The gypsum is courser than typical beach sand, but it doesn’t heat up from the sun like sand and it is surprising comfortable to walk on. And, of course, the sunsets were amazing.

This may have been Ben’s favorite part of the whole trip. This kid really loves dirt.