It has been several years since my wife and I have traveled up the coast on Highway 1 to the Oregon border. In June, we decided to make the trip again.

Not having a schedule planned, we decided to just take the four-wheel pop-up truck camper and leave the trailer at home. As it turned out, that was a good idea as Highway 1 is narrow and steep. Throughout the trip, we encountered a lot of light rain and fog, which is not fun when pulling a large trailer on narrow roads on top of the cliffs.

We left home June 23 and headed down the mountain from our home in Lebec, California. We then went toward Paso Robles, and as we passed through Wasco we stopped and photographed the rose fields. Wasco is the nation's rose capital — 55 percent of all roses grown in the U.S. are grown in and around Wasco — and there were miles of rose fields in bloom.

We arrived on Highway 1, and around 3 p.m. we started looking for a camping site around Big Sur. Everything was full, and we found no private parks. We then spent some time in Big Sur area and got back on the road toward Monterey. Once near Monterey, we had cell reception and called some private RV parks and were shocked at the price.

Over $110 a night was the highest. Most were $80 and up, and they were not interested in a truck camper in their parks. We stayed at a Super 8 motel and enjoyed the showers and a good night's sleep. It was cheaper than the RV parks.

In the morning, we traveled the 17-Mile Drive and saw the beautiful sights there. The weather was starting to get bad, and we had some light rain and fog. But we did have enough clear weather to get good photographs along the drive and Pebble Beach.

These birds are perched atop Bird Rock at Pebble Beach.


We took the loop back to Highway 1 and went into town and visited the pier. We were in the mood for good seafood, and there are a lot of good eats on the pier. We had the best clam chowder I have ever eaten, then shopped a little and decided to get back on the road north toward Bodega Bay.

San Francisco is a pain to get through. We planned on taking a loop road around San Francisco but missed it in the fog. We were dead stopped in traffic for more than two hours, and then Highway 101 ends and goes on as surface streets where it really gets bad. In another hour, we finally made it across the bridge heading for Bodega Bay.

We made reservations via cellphone at Bodega Bay RV Park, right on Highway 1 at the edge of town. This is a family-owned park, and it was clean with great service. After breaking camp in the morning, we went into town and visited some of the quaint shops and purchased a bag of homemade saltwater taffy.

We then started inland a little and headed for Fort Bragg where we planned on staying the night. We had made reservations at Dolphin Isle Marina and RV Park. It was raining when we arrived, and we set up camp right on the Noyo River, which ran next to the campground.

It was a little chilly, and I had left the heater home to save room for supplies. The built-in heater was not working, but the camper is snug and warm. We had a barbecue and ate well. We enjoyed the campground and watched the fishermen coming in with large salmon. I wish I had brought along heavier tackle as I would have stayed another day and gone out on the boat fishing.

We got up at 6 a.m. and had breakfast at the marina cafe before heading out for the redwoods, which was our main goal on the trip. We stayed in Crescent City for two nights at Bayside RV Park while we toured the redwoods. I wanted to photograph the Roosevelt elk and was hoping to get some images of newborn calves.

The legs of the newborn elk appear just before the calf dropped to the grass.


I do a lot of wildlife photography in the wild, and this was one of our main goals. We saw a few elk near Orick north of Eureka in a marsh and then a few cows in a meadow in the lower redwood park area. While watching them, I spotted one lone cow off by herself near the tree line, and she was acting like she was about to give birth.

Having lived on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, I recognized the signs. I worked over to the tree line and watched and waited with my 400mm lens ready. Soon I saw legs appear, then a little of the head. I glanced down for a second only to miss the calf dropping into the grass. We waited over an hour hoping she would get the calf on its feet, but it did not happen and we needed to get to the campground before closing time.

We spent the next two days touring the redwoods all the way to the border, sometimes driving the back roads in our 4x4 truck and camper. Nothing like seeing the grandeur of the big trees. I managed to take lots of great photos in spite of the rain, which under the trees hardly made it to the ground.

Our camper looks like a toy next to the redwood tress.

On our way back to Eureka, we again stopped to see if we could see the elk calf, and we finally got a glimpse of it lying in the grass. A few miles down the road, we took a detour through part of the park we had missed, and we saw a group of bull elk in velvet. What beautiful animals to watch.

We crossed over to the eastern side of the state from Eureka to Redding where we visited friends. They took us to the hourglass bridge over the Sacramento River, which is a site not to miss. We spent the night with them and headed out after lunch the next day.

I have a brother in Paradise who we had not seen in a while, so we stopped and visited with them. After leaving, we went east on Highway 70 toward Reno, camping at Pioneer RV Park in Quincy. This is a fantastic park and near great fishing in nearby lakes and rivers.

We left there heading for Bridgeport where another brother lives, and we wanted to spend July 4 there with them. We decided to go by Lake Tahoe and get some photos on the way. We ended up staying at the Fallen Leaf Campground at the southern end of the lake.

We love this campground with its large spaces, lots of trees, easy hikes to both Fallen Leaf Lake and Tahoe Lake. There were no hookups, but we will come back here again soon. We hiked to the lake and a mile or two along the shoreline. We enjoyed the beautiful mountain views and the good fishing.

On our way home, we went to Bodie, the ghost town near Bridgeport. If you have never stopped there, it is worth the time to see this place, which was abandoned when the mines played out. Stores still have goods on the shelves, homes with furnishings still inside were just left as is when people left the town.

Bodie was booming during the California gold rush, but now it sits as an abandoned ghost town.


We arrived home a day or two early but had a great trip.

Our four-wheel pop-up camper is a great little unit. It sleeps great with its queen-sized cab over bed. It is complete with stove, three-way refrigerator, heater, water heater, 12-gallon freshwater tank and outside shower.

The camper folds down to only 6 inches over the cab and rides well. When loaded it is under 1,000 pounds, and our half-ton Chevy hardly knows it is there. It opens up in about one minute and has lots of head room.

I mainly use it for traveling across country to see the kids and when I go out photographing wildlife. I have driven it through some very rough trails, and it is built for that kind of driving. It has been a good investment.