Every Mile a Memory: San Clemente and DohenySB

April 3, 2016

We moved on to San Onofre State Beach – San Mateo Campground today. We left San Diego at 10:45 and arrived at San Mateo campground at 1:30. Since it was so early and we are only going to be in the area for two nights we set up camp, ate lunch and headed for the beach. We drove about a mile down the road and went to the Surfers Beach at San Onofre. It was fun to drive right up to the beach front and watch the surfers from our jeep. A group of people left the picnic area located right in front of our jeep, so we took it over…including the cool fire pit… so we enjoyed the sun setting with a fire on the beach while watching the surfers. Fun way to end the day!

Driving down to Surfers Beach in San Onofre State Park

Picnic tables with raised fire rings was a nice way to stay warm on the beach.

Beautiful day in San Clemente!

The remains of the fire Dave made from the hot coals someone left behind.

Lots of surfers to watch...no wonder they call it Surfers Beach

Nice ride!

Surfers waiting for the next big wave!

April 4, 2016

Hiked up the mountain trail at our campground today. It leads to the beach and if it weren’t so foggy this morning we probably would have walked the entire trail.

We're pretty much following the "Royal Road" up California's coast on this trip.

The trail up the mountain from our campground. But since it’s a little chilly

and foggy, we decided to go to the library and put a new entry on the blog.

Taken from the trail of our Forza in the middle of the pic. Lots of

tall natural trees and shrubs for privacy around the campsites.

Spent about 3 hours at the library and then headed back to the campground for lunch. Then packed up our cooler and beach chairs and drove to the beach to take a bike ride along the San Clemente Beach Trail. The trail had the most beautiful scenery we’ve probably ever experienced on a bike ride. The trail followed a commuter rail line and since we were there between 4-6, we got to see several short (6-10 cars) trains go by. So we had the beach on one side of us, and beautiful bluffs with gorgeous houses on the other side…and the trail crossed back and forth over the tracks.

The start of our bike ride on the San Clemente Beach Trail

Bluffs on the right; commuter train and beach on the left

Part of the trail was packed sand and part was wooden bridges

Dave on one of the bridges watching 4 military helicopters fly over.

We rode the trail between the hours of 4-6 so saw several trains along the way

Wendy on the trail as a train goes by.

After the bike ride, we set up our chairs on the beach and enjoyed the sun setting over the water. Then went back to Ralph’s Grocery to pick up something for dinner, then to the campground for dinner and a fire.

Enjoying a beverage on the beach after our bike ride.

The trains are so quiet and fast, it was hard to get a picture.

Campfire at San Mateo Campground

April 5, 2016

Today is moving day. Heading to the campground at Doheny State Beach! Couldn’t make a trip to California without staying at Doheny!

The Story behind Doheny State Beach

Even Groheny's stay here

It was a short drive from San Clemente to Dana Point (less than an hour) so we left at noon and arrived at Doheny SB at around 1:00. Since check in isn’t until 2, they took our information at the gate and we had to park in the day use lot until check in time. We unhooked the jeep and walked on the beach to the campground to see what our two sites look like (we had to reserve two different sites in order to stay for two days). We’re happy with the first site, not thrilled with the second. The campground is packed with families on spring break. It’s a fun atmosphere…reminds us of our Wildwood beach days. Anyway, we headed back to get the rv and jeep and move in.

Doheny State Beach

Dave wishing this snack bar was open while we waited

for our check in time at the campground.

After setting up camp, we grabbed our beach chairs and a cooler and headed to the beach, watched the surfers. Went back to the RV to grill some burgers for dinner. Then back to the beach to watch the sunset.

First campsite at Doheny - #115

Big backyard

We actually found a little quiet area down the beach a bit.

Looking toward the campground

Sunset in the campground

Sunset looking toward the day use loop

Beautiful!

April 6, 2016

Got up early to watch the sunrise. Then got on our bikes to see if we can change our site for today. They had us in #24 and the registration ranger was able to move us across the street to site #118 which was really nice! The reservation system at Doheny is kind of screwy…it seems nobody can get a block of time in one site. The people whose site we were taking were also moving to another site and the people who took our first site, had been in the site caddy corner to us. Anyway, since we can’t move the rv until the people in the site move out, we continued on our ride along the San Juan Creek bike trail.

San Juan Creek bike trail, looks like a road in this pic!

The Doheny Visitor’s Center is open today so we went there to restock our Doheny State Beach t-shirt collection. They had a limited selection so we didn’t go crazy. They were expecting a new shipment in 2 weeks. That figures. One of the volunteers working in the shop also gave us a Doheny State Beach sticker when she found out our last name is Doheny. She also told us about the tidal pools at the Ocean Institute.

Doheny sticker

Restocking

So after we dropped the t-shirts off at the RV, we rode our bikes through Dana Point (beautiful town!!) and went to walk around the tidal pools. Didn’t really see much in the pools, but the walk through the rocks was an adventure!

Dana Point...

is named after this guy. (not the one in red shorts)

Richard Henry Dana Jr.

It was a pretty ride to the Ocean Institute

These funky looking twisted trees were all along our ride.

Tidal pools

Walking out to the caves at the end of the peninsula

One of the cave entrances. Those others were occupied with teenagers.

Got back to the RV at around 2 and had lunch then walked on the beach. By the time we got back to the RV it was dinner time, so Dave started a fire and we grilled a steak. After dinner we sat by the fire. The kids in the site next to ours brought us over a plate of chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven. Yum!