Getting Away from it All - Even on a Holiday Weekend

Ahhh...a three-day weekend. Just enough time to get away from it all. Of course, on a holiday weekend, everyone wants to get away from it all. So where does one go for peace and quiet without being followed by the rest of the world?

I found a spot this Memorial Day. It all started with some poor planning-the idea of camping on Memorial Day weekend without making reservations months ahead of time. Of course, every campground around was booked solid-and had been for months.

So my significant other, Gary, and I did some research, and decided to try our luck at an out of the way, primitive campground that didn't take reservations. We headed up the coast of California and inland just a bit to a National Forest campground called Cerro Alto. It was situated just seven miles inland from Morro Bay-just enough inland to be a bit warmer and not quite so foggy.

Now the key (and I can't emphasize this enough) is to sneak out of work a little early on Friday. Otherwise, this campground would have been booked as well.

We arrived around 3:30 in the afternoon with fingers crossed. We were prepared to just park the car somewhere and sleep in the back if necessary, but that certainly wasn't our preference. We were pleasantly surprised as we entered the campground. It was beautifully wooded with a little stream running (well, kind of running) through it. You had to travel about a mile into the park before you even made it to the campsites, which added to its charm. The first site we passed--#8-was cute and quiet...off to itself. We were taken with it, but decided to see what else was available. We made our way around the campground. At least four or five sites were still available. Some were hike-in sites and a little more private, others were situated around a loop. We were there for solitude, not camaraderie. And, we had over-packed a bit, so really didn't want a walk-in site. So we headed back to the first campsite we saw and made our camp.

Cerro Alta is a primitive campsite. You won't enjoy warm showers in the morning or, flushing toilets for that matter. But there were inoffensive pit toilets throughout the campground, and a spigot of drinkable water at each one. It's camping-you make do. Each site had a fire pit, grill and picnic table. Our site was surrounded by trees and little gopher holes. Now and then one would peak its head up to see what was going on. It was also surrounded by poison oak, so you did need to watch where you stepped. The camp, uh, bathroom area, couldn't be too far off from the tent or you'd end up with a terrible situation on your hands (and everywhere else)!

The first day was spent pitching our tent, getting settled, having a few beverages, and realizing we left an entire bag of groceries sitting in the refrigerator at home. And while the afternoon had been toasty warm, not so for nighttime-burr. We had to put on just about every layer we had packed! But the campfire took our mind off the chill.

On day two we headed to Montana De Oro for hiking. Montana De Oro is a beautiful state park about 18 miles from our camp. We had tried to get a campsite there, but it was booked solid.

Even though the visitor center was closed when we arrived, we lucked out because the kind lady running it let us in so we could ask her about hikes. She recommended some different trails based on what we were looking for (I wanted ocean views, Gary wanted vegetation and flora. We managed to get both).

The hiking at Montana De Oro is spectacular. We started our hike on the Ocean Bluff trail-a 3.5 mile walk along the ocean with spectacular views of undisturbed coastland. In the distance we could see otters swimming in the kelp beds. And on the other side of the trail all colors of flowers were in bloom. The Ocean Bluff trail led into our second portion of the hike-the Cold Creek trail. This was a riparian forest trail that reminded us of a rainforest-lush and green. The final portion of our hike took us on the Rattlesnake Flat trail-and I'm happy to report there were no rattlesnake sightings on the trail. While beautiful, this was my least favorite of the trails. It was typical of many of the hikes I've done since moving to California. However, beautiful mountain views nonetheless.

All in all it was a great day with about nine miles of hiking on every terrain we could ask for.

On day three we decided to explore the trails right at our campground. There was a great loop (The Cerro Alto Trail) that went up to a summit allowing you to see miles of San Luis Obispo County. It was a tough climb, but definitely doable. On our way back we detoured into a Eucalyptus forest. I have to say, it was the most disappointing part of our hiking vacation. Instead of being hit by the refreshing smell of eucalyptus, we entered into a grove of trees filled with bullet casings and broken beer bottles. It's too bad some have to ruin nature.

Throughout the holiday weekend, the hiking trails were practically deserted. So it was a successful-a true holiday get-away. And I would highly recommend it to anyone who is into the camping scene (and doesn't mind now showering for a few days). And so far, neither of us shows any signs of poison oak!