Travels of The Mercury: California Coast 2015 - San Diego to Cambria, May 3rd to 7th.

We head up the coast from San Diego. Our next stop is San Mateo Campground at San Onofre State Beach. The campground is paved with lush trees screening the sites. There are token operated showers, flush toilets, a dump station and water. The cost is $35 a night. It's a quiet setting away form the highway.

Camp site at San Mateo State Park.

A one-mile nature trial leads from the campground to Surf Beach State Park and we walked down to bird and watch the surfers.

As we sit on the beach a flock of Sanderlings came scurrying by forging along the surf. Aren't they cute? They soon disappeared into little dots as they hurried on along the beach. When they run their little legs are a blur while their bodies remain perfectly level. They're fun to watch as they follow the receding water when they forage and then race back up the beach ahead of the next wave.

The surf is high and we enjoy watching some great surfing.

The pier at Oceanside.

We take a 47 mile round-trip bike ride from the campground to Oceanside. The route is mostly bike path with some sections of bike lane along busy roads.

Jackie on the pier.

Back at the campground that afternoon we're treated to maneuvers performed by three V22 Osprey that do several take-offs and landings. The campground is on the north boundary of Camp Pendleton so these things must happen once in a while. From the campground all we can see of the Camp are a valley and rolling hills. The Osprey flew in and landed in an open space in the valley.

V22 Osprey

We travel on north and stop at Venice Beach. The architecture is the most interesting thing about the area. Each home on the beach front is unique. Due to the cool weather, the "freak show" was absent from the beach.

Venice Beach

There are also lovely and unique homes long the canals behind the beachfront properties.

The Canals of Venice Beach

Our next camp is at Malibu Creek State Park where we spend one night. The sites are short so there aren't any large rigs. They have token operated showers, flush toilets, dump station and water for $45. The campground is about 8 miles up Malibu Canyon from Hwy 1.

Our camp site at Malibu Creek State Park.

The opening scene from M*A*S*H and scenes from the first Planet of the Apes and Logan's Run were filmed here.

Malibu Creek Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains.

A lone Valley Oak spreads its limbs over a meadow in the canyon.

Our next camp is at Gaviota State Beach. Sites are small side-by-side parking spaces, There are restrooms but most of the doors were locked. There wasn't a dump station and the host said we had to go to a private campground and pay to dump and by the way, don't use too much water. There's a railroad trestle next to the campground but fortunately only one train went by. The campground wasn't well cared for and the beach was a bit trashy. All this for $45 a night.

Our camp site at Gaviota State Beach campground.

A rail road trestle is the backdrop to our camp site.

The best thing about Gaviota were the birds. There is a small estuary and we saw a Bonaparte's Gull, Great Egret and Snowy Egret. Jim used his new spotting scope / camera to take these photos.