Crystal Cove State Park February 16-18

Day 19, 20, 21:  Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday   February 16, 17, 18   Crystal Cove State Park, Laguna Beach CA

Jim drove us safely through the Los Angeles traffic, including going through heavy traffic at Santa Barbara and  over 1000 foot Sepulveda Pass into the LA basin, and we arrived safely at the Moro Campground at Crystal Cove State Park.  This state park includes several miles of beach, many acres of back country, and rentable cabins that have been restored from many years ago.  A large number of early movies were filmed in this cove, with foliage added to make it look tropical.  Beaches was one of the later movies filmed here.  We drove back up to Newport for groceries, had a nice walk around the campground.

On the trail.
Our campground is down to the right.

Wednesday we went on a hike in the wilderness area here, hiked up to the top of the ridge and looped back around, about 5 ½ miles.  We encountered a Red Diamondback Rattlesnake on the trail!  Linda was walking in front, and Jim called out when he saw it stretched across the trail.  By the time Linda saw it, it was coiled.  We read about these later.  They are not particularly aggressive snakes, although it would not have reacted graciously to being stepped upon.  This made us very alert the rest of the hike!

Our Red Diamondback Rattlesnake,
in a defensive, not-rattling posture

Thursday morning we took Sarah for a walk on the paved trail above the beach where dogs are allowed.  Then we met Linda’s sister Jean and her friend Dick to have lunch at the Beachcomber Café at Crystal Cove.  It was great to see them.  They like to rent cottages there.  Rentals are done by lottery, 7 months in advance, and go very quickly.  We took a picture of them in front of their favorite cottage.  They came back to the campground with us to see how we were situated.

Dick and Jean, so great to see them!
Birds of Paradise on the right.

A 3.8M Laguna Beach house we could see from our
$45 a night campsite (Expensive for us!)

In the morning before leaving we went for a walk down on the beach.  Nobody there but us, in Southern California!  We discovered a dedicated environmentalist, doing his best for the earth's oceans, picking up plastic on the beach.

What environmentalists look like

Jim and a birdie