Montaña de Oro State Park

 Came back to Pacific Ocean! During 2021 winter trip, we decided to visit some people in California: why not go for hiking on the way then!?

Mr.N chose Montaña de Oro State Park. Mr.N is from Montana. What is the connection? He chose this particular park due to that. As you may know, Montaña means mountain in Spanish. Since California was a part of Mexico, a lot of nature stuff is called with Spanish.

We arrived at night at the park and camped at the campground inside the park (we had a reservation). This car campground is not really close to beach or ocean view, but it was spacious and still able to hear some wave sounds. Admittedly, Big Sur campground is much more attractive than this one, in terms of ocean view, but we stayed there for accommodation. 

Next morning, we saw a cat coming out from RV. That is my dream----road trip with an adventurous cat! This was my second time a cat came out of RV. First time was in New Zealand! Now RV road trip with a cat is becoming a trend?

Hiking up the hill

Anyway we started hiking to go to Valencia Peak. The highest hill in the park. As a typical California weather pattern, it was cloudy in the early morning. So the ocean was a bit gray, but still a good view. I had forgotten the weather pattern of this. Later on blue sky came out. Good timing--we started walking along the ocean. Bluff trail is about 5 miles or so, is quite nice to see blue ocean.

Arch Rock

 

Ocean and the rugged cliff creates such a nice view. I liked the view in the above picture especially. There is an arch rock! Arch rock is fragile and someday it will collapse, so I feel lucky to see it. This Pacific Ocean's blue is always my rout. Being from an island in Pacific Ocean, my DNA always feel home with this blue!

Sea otter

Another very exciting thing about Bluff trail is that you can spot sea otters. Some spots you can see 15 sea otters of group. I think that I saw total more than 50 sea otters. According to Ms.L, sea otters in this area were gone for a while, but now they came back again. It is good. 

Next day we visited Mr.N's uncle and aunt, Mr.E and Mrs.G. It was first time in five years to see them. We had sushi takeout, watched documentary, had poke, went to Mexican place. A lot of enjoyment. Kindly Mr.E let each of us drive his Tesla! Whoa. First time in life. There are so much information on the panel at front. It was fun driving Tesla along the Pacific coast in Monterey. How many lucky people can do that in the world?

Then we visited another Mr.N's aunt Ms.H. We visited San Luis National Wildlife Refuge to look at Tule Elk. It was a driving tour. I had never done driving tour in the park. It was interesting. It was nice to see elk protected: at the same time a little sad to see elk was locked in a way, although it is a huge area. Then we went to Merced National Wildlife Refuge next day, I had never seen so many many many birds in a day. This is definitely a unique place to go if you are in the area.