The camping trip ended up being fun. We spent the one full day at the tide pools and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk which was a very nice way to spend the day. Having something really fun to do makes camping more enjoyable. Who would’ve thought!?
We hit up the tide pools at Natural Bridges State Beach. I had been there before (my sister is a UCSC alum) but many years ago. It was fun to go back.
I had never been to the tide pools before, and that is probably because you had to walk through a cute little community to get to them.
I asked my husband to look up the asking price for a spot here that was for sale and evidently you have to be 55+ to but property there. Something to keep in mind.
At the tide pools we saw lots of sea anemones and even a sea star.
We also saw lots of crabs. So. Many. Crabs. Luckily my son isn’t terrified of them anymore.
The tide pools at this spot were so deep. I heard you might even see an octopus, which I couldn’t understand until I saw them.
The rocks were so cool. I want to learn more about these patterns.
We headed back to the car around 11am so we could hit up the Boardwalk.
It was a beautiful day for the Boardwalk. Sunny and warm but not too hot. My son and I got black-out date season passes and my husband got a full day wrist band.
Our favorite ride was Space Race, which was giant circle bumper car things. We went on it three times. We just kept slamming into each other and laughing so hard. It was the best time.
We went on all the big rides, including the Giant Dipper, which turns 100 this year. Sadly I didn’t get a photo of it without us in it.
I haven’t been to the Beach Boardwalk since my kids were little. We went back to the littler kid section and rode all of my son’s favorites from when he was younger. It was a lot of fun.
On the way out we played a round of mini golf. We got a discount with our new season passes.
We headed back to the campsite pretty late for dinner. The days are so long right now, it is still broad daylight at 7pm.
We originally planned to stay three nights, but later decided we’d leave Friday without being worried about the 12pm check out time.
In the end we realized we didn’t need another full day, and we packed up and headed out by 11am.
I really liked this spot and would definitely come again. The trees were beautiful, as was the beach. Our son doesn’t love the beach and the water is freezing so we didn’t spend much time down there, but I’d love to return with my daughter one day.
We had tickets for a steam train through the redwoods at 1:30pm so we needed to kill some time. The ranger at the front gate recommended a state park nearby, which evidently was the epicenter of the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake.
The park was beautiful, but poorly marked and we ended up getting lost on our hike. I had to run 1.7 miles back to the car so we wouldn’t miss our steam train reservation.
The steam train was in Roaring Camp in Felton. It took about 30 minutes to get there and was on the way home.
The steam train uses recycled car oil and water. Lots and lots of water. It winds its way though an old growth forest, sometimes switchbacking forward and backward.
The train stopped at the top of a hill and we were able to get out and take some photos for about 10 mins.
There was a “fairy circle” at the stop. We heard a dad telling his kids that fairy circles are the results on one tree being struck by lightening or catching fire and dropping seed pods in a circle. Sure enough this one had a downed redwood in the middle.
At one point the steam train goes over a bridge in the redwoods. It’s very cool.
We headed home after this little adventure. We hit almost no traffic going home, and we never had to charge the car for this whole trip!
The weekend was pretty low key. Our son had swimming, our daughter got home from DC, I went to the dojo Sat morning and then met at our “master’s house for dinner and a belt test review (from that big test in April). I also did laundry, tons and tons of laundry. And packed for the KOA, which is where I am now. Only three boys came up today (including my son) because two of them got strep at an away camp and only one has already taken 24 hours worth of antibiotics. The fourth boy is coming tomorrow morning early and then the fifth is coming on Wednesday. We’re here until Friday.
Wish me luck! I’m sure I’ll post again before we leave.
Such wonderful pictures! Thank you for taking us along virtually. What a wonderful start to summer. My guesses re marking on stones/rocks is consequence of shell fish attaching to the stones and causing marks due to chemical composition of the attaching mechanism, OR different rates of sediment being layered down as the rocks were forming and then dissolving at different rates due to the varied composition of the materials. IF you find out, please do share the correct answer!!!! (I am probably wrong on both guesses!)
It looks absolutely beautiful. It is really best to have activities planned, isn’t it?
Yes! Having activities planned is key! I am all about hiking when we camp, but this spot didn’t really have long hikes nearby. At least not in the park we were camping in. The big activity there is the beach, but my son isn’t too into that and water is too cold for me to be into it. So the Boardwalk it was! It was fun because my husband doesn’t get to go to amusement parks with us much.