We spent the first weekend + of Spring Break this year camping at one of the most amazingly beautiful places ever! Separate Star Point, just south of Salt Point State Park and just north of the town of Jenner, CA. We were right on the side of the cliff with ocean waves crashing on the rocks on all 3 sides of us. We were in awe as we watched dolphins swimming by. We chatted with some early morning kayakers as they went fishing and we watched the sea change from a brilliant turquoise blue to an angry grey over the few days we were there. We were instantly refreshed by the smell of ocean, mixed with the eucalyptus trees. This is a place to be at peace.
One big thing that this trip taught us is that we need to expand our vocabulary, because we quickly ran out of ways to say this place was awesomely amazing and incredible.
We used hipcamp.com to book Separate Star Point Campsite which is about 2 hours north of home. Hipcamp is an awesome website that allows landowners to rent out pieces of their land to allow people to camp on. Much like Airbnb, the owners just advertise their space on the website and then all money and other transactions are done through the site. You can read and leave reviews about both the space/host and they review us, the campers. If we ever have land somewhere, Ryan and I have big plans for how we will set up our Hipcamp to be the greatest place ever! If you click the link you can get a discount code that will also give me a code for referring you.
Our good friend, Dan, joined us on this trip. He flew in from Minnesota to spend a few days away from the continued snow and slush that is still "Minnesota Springtime." He and Ryan enjoyed stargazing and experimenting with the light and camera filters at sunset.
We spend our first day just setting up camp and enjoying the beautiful spot. Typically for each camping trip we do, we like to buy one new camp supply item. This time, since we had to wait so long since our last camping trip and since we had REI gift cards and dividends, we decided to splurge and get two new camp supply items. Our newest additions include the greatest sleep pads ever! Thank you shout out goes to Evie and Steve Wright for showing us the Therm-a-rest awesome sleeppads. They had these pads when we camped with them at the Paddocks Hipcamp site last year and we have had our eye on them ever since. If you are doing tent camping and want to feel like you are still sleeping in your own bed at home... buy these pads! Our second purchase for this trip was the MPOWERD Luci Solar String Lights from REI. These babies are amazing. They roll up into a solar charging circle thing (seen in Ryan's hand.) They are insanely lightweight and charge themselves all day. You can even plug in your cellphone to get charge from them. They are super flexible and pull out of the case about 18 feet. We wrapped them around some trees along the path to our tents and by our camp kitchen. They put off 3 levels of light that made our campsite glow. These lights are awesome. I highly recommend them. I have started drafting a blog post about our Top 10 favorite items that we recommend for camping...stay tuned for that post.
The next day of our trip, we woke up early and hiked along the coast in Salt Point State Park. Ryan and I had been here before when we camped at Salt Point for my Birthmonth 2018. The hike is mostly flat and rocky but puts you right along the water. We saw seals and some tide pools. Dan and Ryan were fascinated by the various birds we encountered along the way. Me, not so much! Our hike was cut short by the excessive puddles of mud we had to trudge through. California has gotten more rain in the past few months/weeks than we usually get in an entire year.
That rain is also what cut our camping trip short. The campsite was beautiful by being right on the side of the cliff, but it was also potentially very dangerous as the cliff got muddy and slick. As we read the weather reports and saw the changing of the skies, we decided to pack up a day early and head back home. But not before we had one more kick-ass camp fire and gourmet s'mores.
This spot was amazing and we hope to be able to camp there again sometime. It was a great start to a great Spring Break.
