While were so close to Monterey on our California coast trip, we decided to take a day and go to Monterey to see the fabulous Monterey Bay Aquarium.  We have been to many aquariums (aquaria?) but none is better than this one.
​
The aquarium is on the site of an old sardine canning factory.  The street where it is located is called Cannery Row because it used to be a string of canneries that were here when the Monterey Bay was loaded with sardines.  But we fished them out and the population crashed.  

It has slowly been recovering.  We did see some sardines in one of the fish tanks along with a bunch of other fish.  The little guys were swimming together in a school and quickly to stay out of the way of other much larger fish which they seemed to do rather well.  Of course, all the fish in the tank are fed so maybe they weren't just that hungry.

The star for us of the aquarium were the sea otters.  I didn't get a photo as there were crowds that kept me from getting close enough to the tank glass to get them.  Our lesson: Don't go on a weekend.

There is quite a variety of sea creatures at the aquarium and you can get pretty close to some of them and get some nice photos, and of course, enjoy seeing them and learning about them.
It was fun to see my photos from 4 years ago during our last visit to see some creatures we missed this time, and vice versa, so it is worth multiple visits. 

One feature of the aquarium is their Seafood Watch list.  It tells you what fish you can eat without endangering that species, and what fish, or seafood, should be avoided or at least minimally consumed.  You can get a pocket list there, or download one for your state from their web site, or use their app.

There was such a variety of interesting creatures that it was hard to select a set of photos to share.  Do try to get to this aquarium and to visit Monterey which is pleasant city to visit.

From Morro Bay, we went to Fruitdale, and stayed at a KOA which positioned us to go easily to Monterey, Pinnacles, and home.  The KOA was like a lot of RV Parks, mostly pads for trailers with little greenery or separation from your neighbors.  This park was almost all paved with what seemed like a lot of permanent or at least long term campers.  It seems that there are more and more long term campers in RV Parks.
​
Since we got a trailer, we have gone to Pinnacles National Park about once a year.  This year, since we were coming up the California coast, it made more sense to visit the park from the west rather than the east.  The park campground is in the east so we had to find another place to stay.  The park highway is not continuous.  You can approach the park from the east or the west but the only way across the park is by foot.  Since we had almost always come in from the east, we decided to go from the west.

A major feature on the west side is the Balconies talus cave and we had never tried to visit it.  The lead photo shows Jennifer under one of the rocks that make the cave.  Unlike most caves, it is made from rocks collapsing to form a roof rather than the usual way a cave is made by water eroding out rock.  Well, actually, the floor of the cave is somewhat eroded out but there is no tunnel in the rock like you would expect in a usual cave.

We walked up the trail and found the cave trail.  Unfortunately, the trail from the south was so steep with you having to walk down very large rock steps without a railing or chain to help you.  We probably would have made it a decade or two ago, but our joints are not as flexible and we felt it was not worth the risk of trying to get down into the cave.  We might have made it from the north as that would have involved climping up the steps rather than going down them.

The Balconies area has two trails in a loop.  The one we started on is the Balconies Cave Trail, while the other is the Balconies Cliffs Trail.  We walked up part of the Balconies Cliffs Trail.  It was already getting rather hot.  We disturbed a snake out sunning itself along the trail.  If you look carefully in the photo, you can see the snake who was rather well camouflaged.

We also saw quite a few wildflowers along the trail.  I suspect that within a month, they will be gone for the summer as it is very hot here during the summer months.

The area of the Balconies goes past another feature of the park, the Machete Ridge.  It appears to be a popular rock climbing destination based on the trail signs pointing to it.  It would be quite a challenge.

On the way to the west side parking lot for the trailheads, there is a new visitor center.  There wasn't one here before so it was nice to see some investment in the park since it became a national park.

After our visit to Pinnacles National Park, we decided to visit another area near our campground: Elkhorn Slough Reserve.  We had not heard of it and yet here it was.  The visitor center is on a bluff above the slough.  There are a number of trails down into the slough.  Since it was getting late, we decided to take the trail to the boardwalk that looks out over the slough.  There were quite a few birds there, some of which we had not seen before.  I, of course, left my telephoto lens in the car, thinking that there would not be anything down along the slough to photograph, and I was wrong, so you can't really make out any of the birds in this photo.
​
The Reserve is run by the Federal Government.  We were told that their funding was very much in jeopardy in the proposed budget.  I really hope that areas like this are not left to no longer be accessible to people like us.

After being in Pismo Beach, which was rather disappointing, we went to Morro Bay and had a great time there.  This first photo is Morro Rock, 578 feet high, from the top of Black Hill, 661 feet high.  We all know that Morro Rock is at the mouth of the Morro Bay harbor and is one big rock sticking out of the water at the shoreline.  It is actually one of a set of volcanic peaks that remain after erosion has done its thing in this area.  The peaks go all the way to San Luis Obispo and you can see several of them as you drive from SLO to Morro Bay down route 1. ​

Black Hill is in Morro Bay State Park, where we camped.  It was as nice a state park campground as we have seen.  It had the benefit of electric and water hookups.  You can see that the campsites were built by the CCC with stone picnic table legs and fireplace.  Many of them need repair but they were really nice to see.  We were along State Park Road which led right into downtown Morro Bay.  

We didn't realize that we had picked a time to camp when the Tour of California was happening, and the last day we were there was the day that the Tour went from Pismo Beach to Morro Bay and the route went right up State Park Road to Morro Bay.  We have seen the Tour several times when it went through Santa Rosa so we decided to see it again.  We took our camping chairs to the roadside and sat waiting for the Tour to reach us.  They have a really good app that shows you where they are real time and allowed us to know when they were getting close.  It's fun to watch but it's mostly a lot of time waiting, and then swoosh -- they go by -- and that's it.  We did follow the drama of a breakaway of a few riders from the peloton, the main pack of riders, and how they managed to stay ahead for most of the race.  Just before they got to us, there was one lone rider out by himself but the work was just too much, and he got collected back into the peloton.  Bikers get a lot of help from each other with the drafting effects of being near another rider who helps pull you along.  Aren't physics great?

The Morro Bay State Park is basically a marina, golf course, and a few hiking trails, like the one to the top of Black Hill.  There was a nice Museum of Natural History which was fun to visit.  But we discovered several other places to go while we were there.  Just south of the state park is the town of Los Osos and on its northern side is El Moro Elfin Forest.  It is a small wilderness area preservation with a circular boardwalk through the elfin forest.  The trees were no more than about 10 feet tall with most of the vegetation more like 3 feet tall.

The forest had a nice display of wildflowers.  The trail was peaceful while very close to civilization.  We could see Morro Rock from the trail, and when we got to the other side, we could also see it across the mud flats of low tide.  The Rock of Morro was visible everywhere.

We also discovered Montana de Oro State Park which is a few miles south of Morro Bay.  It is a large area with some beaches, tide pools, and forests.  We got tide tables at the Natural History Museum and saw when the next low tide was and decided to go over there to see if we could find some tide pools to walk through.  As it turns out, there are some but we didn't know where to go to see them.  We walked along several beaches but didn't really see any interesting tide pools to visit.  There is a visitor center which is the house of the rancher, Spooner, who used to live there.  They had interesting displays of the furniture, tools, photos, and household goods of the time when the ranch was there.  Then after lunch, we went on the Bluff Trail and discovered the most popular feature, and best tide pool, Coralline Cove.  But we were too tired at that point to go down the trail to the coast and it was well past low tide.  We will definitely go back next trip and be sure we get to the Cove in plenty of time.

We learned that Anacapa Island is a place for Western Gulls, several thousand of them, to lay and hatch eggs, and to raise their young.  It's the largest such place for the Western Gulls.  When we visited in early May, they had laid their eggs and were incubating them with hatching expected in a week or so.  Each gull lays one to three eggs. and the couple take turns sitting on them until they hatch.  They are everywhere on the island and they make their nests everywhere, including right beside the hiking trails and even one right on the trail.  Some seek some shelter for their nests, including in the middle of vegetation or under some structure, of which there is very little.  We saw one nest under the sign welcoming us to the island and others just about everywhere you could find space for a nest.

The tour boat drops you at the landing cove and you must climb about 150 steps to the island where there is no beach.  From the landing cove, you can hike the trail to Inspiration Point by way of either Cathedral Cove or Pinniped Point.  As you can see, the view there is quite inspirational.  From the Point, you look west toward Middle Anacapa and West Anacapa islands.  You can only visit East Anacapa which by itself is rather small, about 2 miles long.

When we landed, we asked where the school groups were going, and we headed the other way toward Inspiration Point where we ate lunch.  The hardest part is that with all the gulls, there is barely a square foot without bird poop on it.  But we enjoyed walking around the gulls who warned you with their squawking to stay away from their nests.  If you got close, some would walk away while others just stayed on their nests and squawked.  We heard that when the chicks hatch, the gulls will aggressively try to keep you from their chicks.  A hard hat seemed appropriate to us to protect yourself.

After viewing Inspiration Point, we walked to the other end of the island where the lighthouse is.  You are warned to not go too close to the lighthouse because the fog horn could damage your hearing.  There was no warning that the gulls squawking at you could also be VERY loud.  So we just kept walking and enjoying the wildflowers and seeing what little vegetation was on the island.  There is no source of fresh water naturally on the island other than the winter rains and the fog.  There have been attempts to collect water on the island but right now, they boat the water supply to the island.  

The length of trails around the island were perfect for us.  We had time and energy to walk all of them during our time on the island.  The trails were about a mile from end to end, so we walked about 2 miles while we were there and would have had time for a little more walking if there were only more trails. We were on the island for about 5 hours, from 10:30 to 3:30.  After hiking around the island, we returned to the visitor center and then to the boat landing cove.  The ferry boat met us as scheduled and took us back on another relatively smooth trip to Ventura Harbor.  The trip was obviously not long enough for the kids as they had plenty of energy left to run around the boat and visit the snack bar.

We booked a trip to Santa Cruz island, the most visited island.  The trip to the island was rough, with the catamaran boat being tossed up and down.  We selected seats near the front of the boat, not a good thing in a rough crossing on a catamaran.  We did OK, especially with the Dramamine Jennifer took.  And we learned that you want to sit toward the back of the boat if you want a smoother ride.  So we did for the trip back and for the next day when we got in the last row.  Actually, the trip back and the trips the next day were much calmer than the first trip out.
​
When we first got our reservations, we were told that the dock had sustained some storm damage and we would be ferried to shore and would get "a little wet" getting to the beach.  Fortunately, the Park Service repaired the dock so we were able to land there and just had to climb a few steps up a ladder to the dock.

The island was a sheep ranch and the environment was badly distorted.  The National Park Service and the Nature Conservancy worked to restore the environment to what it was before the ranch.  They removed the sheep and pigs and saved the Island Fox who was headed for extinction.  The fox are not very timid especially if they think they might get some food from visitors.  They are smaller than other foxes that we have seen are, about the size of a large cat.
We hiked the Cavern Point loop, named because you can go to Cavern Point and view the coast from a high vantage point.  Since we had limited time, we had to choose hikes that we could take and get back in time to catch the boat back to the mainland.  If you miss the boat, they tell us you get to spend a night on the island.  At least there is a campground and a park office there.
After going to Cavern Point, we hiked up part of Smugglers Road which was part of the ranch and goes to Smugglers Cove, the other place to disembark from the boat.  Then we settled near the visitor center to wait for the return trip.

As I said, the return trip was quite smooth compared to the trip out, which is backward from the usual experience as the wind usually picks up in the afternoon and is much calmer in the morning.

Our neighbor grew up spending a LOT of time on Carpinteria State Beach, so we decided to make it our base.  There are two sets of campgrounds.  One set are more traditional campgrounds with grass between you and your neighbor, although they also had a strange way of putting two or three campgrounds together by sharing a parking space.  It seemed awkward for parking a trailer, and they have no hookups there, so we opted to go to the other set of campgrounds, the ones for trailers and RVs.  But they have their own issues.  They do have hookups which always make it nicer to camp as you can brew coffee and make toast a lot easier than without electric.  We chose space 338 in the Santa Rosa Loop.  The loop is basically a parking lot with the spaces marked off with painted lines.  We chose a space at the end of a row so we would have no one on the door side of the trailer and we were also close to the restroom.  You can see it in the photo.  I didn't really think about the location relative to the beach, so we were one row off the beach.  The view was of our neighbors and the beach beyond them but we spend so little time in the trailer when we are camping that it wasn't a problem.

Carpinteria State Beach has several interesting features beside the beach.  There is a tarpit along the beach and I guess it is one of just five in the world.  It was rather large.  Most of it was big black piles on the beach but there were several places where we could see the tar in its liquid form.
​
Just south of the beach is a harbor seal rookery next to the oil pier.  We walked out to the bluff above the area and look down on the seals relaxing in the sun, or so it seemed.  
And we were reminded of the significant number of offshore oil rigs along this part of the California coast.