The Sonoma Coast

Leaving Jedidiah state park we headed down to our next stop on the Sonoma Coast.  Here drive wanted us to take the 101 all the way down but we thought we'd cut over to hwy 1 and take a more direct and scenic route, looked like it would only add a half hour or so to the trip.  It was a terrible mistake, the worse drive so far.  Way worse than the traffic into Seattle, the foggy mountain pass over the Big Horn, or avoiding shaving a redwood with the camper around Jedidiah Smith.  It was all bad but it started out with the mountain pass over the coastal range and it was by far the worst just a stupid road filled with crazy turns we probably averaged 15-20 mph though the whole thing.  It was full of suicidal bicyclists, spinning like crazy to get over the stupid thing and making it hard to not hit them, watch for oncoming traffic around the blind corners, and maintain enough momentum to keep ourselves moving forward.  When we made it over I was thinking well that's behind us and it was but only marginally as the curves just kept on coming.  Scenes were great but couldn't take my eyes off the road for very long to enjoy them and really not as many view opportunities as I thought there would be anyways.  If you're pulling a trailer I'd avoid as much of hwy 1 as possible to get to your destination.  The views will be there when you get to your final stop.

We made it and pulled shaken into Wrights Beach the first spot we picked out when we were dreaming up this adventure and my most looked forward to campsite which was on the beach and we could fall asleep listening to the waves roll in. But not so fast the park attendant was sure we wouldn't fit into the site, but we had put our camper length in when we made the reservation 5 minutes after all reservations opened for the month of June in California surely we'd fit it.  After taking his advice and parking and walking into the site to take a look the fears were confirmed no way we could get in there and use the slide out and even if we managed to wedge it in a way it would work we couldn't park the truckster and no idea how we'd be able to get it back out again.  So on down the road to bodega dunes we went went.  It was an ok campsite, the kids had fun playing in the sand but it just wasn't the beach.

The next day we went to San Francisco to spend another day in a big city.  We went in easy breezy like we did in Seattle but it appears San Francisco is a different animal and it ate us up and spit us out.  Read Becky's post to get the full story I really don't want to get into it.

Here's some pictures for our time at Bodega Dunes and San Fransisco.

Hiking up a dune on a trail in Bodega Dunes

Hiking the dunes wasn't much fun so we got over to the road to get to the ocean

At the ocean one last dune to get to the beach

Pacific Ocean

Watching the waves roll in was amazing

Shot of our campsite at Bodega Dunes

Other angle, yes lots of sand it was everywhere in the camper after a bit

The Rock

Audio tour, highly recommend but might have been a little violent for Marcus

A cell

The Munschs love San Fransisco.  After yet another cable car passes without stopping

Car going off the cliff of Lombard Street

Again waiting for a cable car that's not full, in a little better spirits this time around

Waiting for a wave after loosening our strict no one goes close to the water policy.  The Sonoma Coast beaches are the deadest beaches in California and we didn't want to mess around.

Oh that's cold

Preparing a fortress for another round against the tide

Boys built another fortress, the remains of the previous battle from above can be seen at the waters edge.

Fun TravelingWithTheMunschs fact: This was the farthest from home (as the crow flies) we're going to be on this trip.

Family truckster update:
Miles Driven: 3342
Gallons burned: 316