Travels with haRVy

There are distinct advantages to staying in one place for an extended period of time. In this case, we had been in Camarillo, CA for a month. This was made possible because of the extreme generosity of my brother and his wife, for which we are extremely grateful. The reasons why we needed to stay here so long do not make for good reading (don’t worry, they’re not health related), but we made the best of the situation by seeking out the area’s pleasures. We found some good yoga classes at the Camarillo Yoga Center, worked out at the new Family YMCA facility, and road our bikes on the Calleguas Creek bike path. We ate some great Chinese Food at Chester’s and delicious homemade Mexican at PJ’s Boulevard Café.

Besides enjoying the warmth of the sun, we delighted in the local farmers’ bounty it helped produce. Our friends in New England probably can’t believe that we got to eat scrumptious fresh strawberries and heirloom tomatoes in late February! My brother and his wife also took us to a few nearby attractions including the Murphy Auto Museum, the historic Camarillo Ranch, Conejo Valley Botanic Gardens, and Gardens of the World.

Saying farewell to my brother Jeff.

It was fun to dig deeper into one area for a change, but it was time to leave the coast to explore the natural attractions of the interior of our Southwestern States.

First stop: Red Rocks State Park, CA. Just a three hour drive, but a world away from Camarillo, this little park provides campsites nestled at the base of drip sand castle like geologic formations. It’s quite a small park, so one night was enough to explore all it had to offer, but it felt like a good start to our getting on the move again.

Our first desert flower sighting

Sunrise lights up the red rocks and haRVy

Next up was a location highly recommended by Judy, our Bookdocker’s Welcome host back when we were in Lompoc. It didn’t take us long to realize we were lucky she thought to tell us about China Ranch Date Farm in Tecopa, CA as it presented an extremely unique and enjoyable experience.

The uniqueness began on the adventurous drive into the property. A few miles off the highway the hard road surface turned to gravel and became very twisty and hilly. Near the end of the road, the valley opened up to show what appeared to be an oasis surrounded by acres of desert.

As soon as we got settled into our camping spot next to the date palm orchard, we realized we needed to stay two nights to take in all this place has to offer. Luckily, this Harvest Host welcomed us to do just that.

As the ranch’s brochure states, “We are not a resort or tourist development, but rather a working family farm in a truly unusual setting.” Brian Brown, who took over from his father in 1989 has done an extraordinary job here propagating different species of dates from around the world. He even provided us with a lesson on how date palms pollinate. Definitely an extraordinary destination worth visiting.

We appreciated an extremely quiet evening and deep sleep as the only sound we heard on our first night was the howl of a pack of coyotes.

The next day we took an extraordinary hike in an unexpectedly interesting canyon area adjacent to the date farm. We hiked down a long, wide canyon that contained interesting artifacts, up and over a mesa, across the Amaragosa River, over an historic railroad bed, and into a really cool (literally, as it provided much needed shade) slot canyon.

The slot canyon is in the distant center of this photo

Al took a video as we walked through the slot canyon, click here to view it. Here is another video of the drive back out of the ranch.