Fairy Hut and Gargoyle

We headed back to Mt Madonna County Park to hike the beautiful trails that this wonderful park has to offer to hikers and equestrians.

We took a gamble by not making a camping reservation for a Saturday night, and we got lucky! Arriving early, around 10 AM Saturday morning, worked out to our advantage. We were able to snag a spot in Valley View 2.

We just managed to situate the RV into site 219 for optimum leveling. Most of the longer and more level sites were already taken.  After a lazy morning relaxing at our site, we headed out for a hike from Valley View 2 campground to Tan Oak campground. We had never explored the Tan Oak area of the park during our last visits to Mt. Madonna.

Walking under the canopy of redwoods and manzanitas was so peaceful. And even though all of the campgrounds were busy with folks enjoying the park, few folks were out hiking the magnificent trail system of Mt Madonna.

We hiked by a couple of dried up seasonal streams that cross the trails.

And we marveled at mother-nature's work of art.

Some of the woodland plants were in bloom, along with the meadow flowers that we saw as we crossed a small meadow near the Blue Springs Trail and Meadow Trail junction.

Back under the canopy of redwoods near the Tan Oak camping area, we came across this structure that looks like a fairy hut. Some kids must have had hours of fun entertaining themselves...unless there really are fairies living here.

After a delightful time of exploring the trails, we headed back to camp for a relaxing evening and pizza! We tried our new Biolite Camp Base oven, which worked wonderfully after we got the hang of keeping the fire going.

Cooking the Trader Joe's Gluten Free Cauliflower pizza with added toppings on the Biolite made the BEST gluten free pizza. The crust was crispy, not soggy like in the oven at home. The wood gave the pizza a nice smoky flavor to the crust too! I topped the pizza with small mozzarella balls, olives, basil, artichokes, smoked cooked red bell peppers, and garlic. It was so Yummy!

The next morning we headed out for a short 3 mile loop before packing up camp. We hiked from Valley View 2 to Blackhawk trail to hike a loop: Blackhawk, Iron Springs, Ridge, and Contour trails.

Nestled beside some of the trails are archery range areas. We still haven't seen anyone using the archery ranges; this is our third visit to the park.

It's very difficult to get lost here since the trails are very well marked and informative on a trail's route.

While hiking the loop, we came across a gnarly, root structure that looks like a gargoyle of the forest. The gargoyle is pointing one down the Contour trail in the direction to a very small waterfall.

We heard the water falling over the logs before spotting the falls. 

We are looking forward to many more hikes in this magical forest with beautiful treasures.

New Brighton

New Brighton had been on my bucket list of places to camp after reading in California RV Camping by Tom Stienstra that this campground was rated a 10.  Well, curiosity gets the best of us.

Husband and I decided that we would venture to the beach for an overnight Spring Break. We were able to snag site 98, which is mostly private due to the high growth of shrubs around the perimeter of the site. 

I wouldn't give this campground a 10 since there is freeway noise and the sites all needed mowing. At $35 and $50 a site and check-out at noon and check-in at 2, one would think the State should be able to have someone keep the sites in better shape. Plus, this campground gets heavy usage all year; so, no lack of funds. Overall the roomy, level sites are nice.

After settling in, we headed off for a hike in the Santa Cruz mountains. I had read about Byrne Milliron Forest as being an interesting place to explore since caretaker, Jeff Helmer, had hidden unusual items within the forest for hikers to find and enjoy.

So, off we ventured into the woods for a hike before heading to the beach.

From the parking lot, it's all up hill. The preserve is 402 acres of redwoods and mixed hardwood trees. 

All of the trails are well marked, with some having interesting carvings perched on top of the sign posts. And numerous posts also direct one back to the parking lot. So it's very difficult to get lost.

After a 3.6 mile loop up hill and back down, we drove back to camp. Along the way back, we made a stop at the little market, Corralitos Mkt & Sausage Co, for some of their wonderful sausages. That place was hopping with folks buying their sausages and sausage sandwiches. Well worth the trip out there for just a sandwich.

Back a camp, Meeks snoozed while I fired up the Biolite for my homemade burgers.

I love cooking with the Biolite. I brought some apricot wood from our yard to use in the Biolite. The apricot wood burned nicely and the burgers were very yummy! 

We took an evening stroll around the campground checking out other sites and looking out over the bluff to Sequel Cove, Monterey Bay, and the Pacific Ocean. Once the sun went down, the campground got very quiet which was such a surprise since the campground was full of large parties of campers at many sites. All that could be heard from our site was the freeway noise. That too quieted down in early morning. The next morning after the cloud cover dissipated, we headed down the bluff for a stroll on the beach.

Will we return here; most likely not since there are many other beach campgrounds that have our curiosity that we wish to explore.