California, 8th November, Montana de Oro State park

We had not booked camp sites along the central coast of California as we were not sure of our timings. But after hunting around for a camping space the night before, we left Lake Lopez early the next morning and drove across to Montana de Oro State Park, on the coast roughly halfway between Los Angeles and Monterey to try and book in immediately. We were thrilled to see a pumpkin field on the way, so American!


As we got near to the coast the mist came down and swirled around the eucalyptus trees that grew along the side of the road.



There is a state run campsite right next to the sea. We saw the warden who said we could reserve a spot now, so we paid him, filled in a slip and attached it to the marker  post next to an empty site. Normal procedure. Comforted that we had somewhere to lay our heads we drove to a little car park next to Spooner's Cove and walked down onto the sand.
The fog still hung around the horizon but there were a few people on the beach including a fisherman. As you can see it wasn't hot and we kept our sweaters on.



The cliffs rise quite a height up from the beach so we had a walk over them, to see the pacific rollers come in and wonder at the colonies of cormorants and pelicans. Even in the dull light the cliffs were a beautiful golden colour, folded and wrinkled. This park along with 47 others was up for closure in 2008 when governor Arnold Schwartzenegger proposed selling them as a cost cutting exercise. Fortunately there was a public outcry and he had to back off. How tenuous these public spaces can be.
The Chumash natives once occupied the central coast of California living in small villages. There were 20,000 to 30,000 of them. However in 1769 Don Gaspar de Portola brought in troops to seize the land for the King of Spain. The Chumash fled inland and died out, mainly from European diseases. 
We must have walked for around 2 hours along the top of the cliffs and the following are the pictures I took en route. I hope these give a flavour of the dramatic scenery.






















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