Such a familiar sight this time of year in Watsonville with all the strawberries that need to be picked.
This park has special meaning for me as I worked here as a state park aide. I never camped here for some odd reason. The park isn’t as popular as Seacliff or New Brighton in Santa Cruz, but it is just as busy. One thing to consider is there isn’t a dump station. When we arrived we had no water in our tank and the park aide said we would need to go up to New Brighton to fill up. Traffic was not the best at this point soooo we chose to drive through to the campground and look for a threaded water line. Found one by the bathroom and with the help of a flat head screwdriver we were able to fill up before a problem arose.Did learn a big lesson – check the website or call to make sure there are the amenities available that one needs.
Campsites are in the trees, open and semi-close together. Our spot was site #49. I always pick outside campsites and in this case it was a good choice as the inner loop was a bit congested. Needed to do some leveling, but not much. Neighbors were great and we even had a family come up to ask to check out our Airstream. The weather was foggy and drippy – glad we had the Cloud!
Site # 49 in Pine Hallow-not the best for the Cloud -but it works for two nights. We did have campers want a look inside – which was cool.
View of our loop from the group camp area. The entire east side of the park is surrounded by fields of flowers and strawberries.
The beach at Sunset is the best for collecting sand dollars. We hiked out to the beach and no one was on it, except for a few joggers and a person fishing. I picked up clam shells, sea glass and a great collection of sand dollars. As we were just about to leave the beach I heard a clap clap and turned back to the the water to see a sea otter cracking with a rock their breakfast. We also saw a few dolphins and numerous sea otters after this breakfast eater got our attention.
I spent a lot of time in this building at one point in my life.
Day use area and the vast beach with Pajaro Dunes in the distance. The beach here is awesome – sand dollars all over and virtually empty.
