Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Goal for Next Summer: Horse Camping

When Brett and I were up at my parents' house for Thanksgiving we spent Friday driving around.  First we went north a bit to Paso Robles where we went shopping at our favorite farm and feed store.  We got all of our Christmas shopping done for each other.

Then we drove west, through the wine country, back to the coast.  We had lunch at our favorite place in Cayucus and checked out a new B&B there.  Maybe next year for my birthday...

Last, we drove through Montana de Oro State Park.  They have a horse camp ground and miles upon miles of trails; some on the beach and some in the hills.  We picked up a map and looked at the horse trails.
There are trails up on that coastal bluff.  No horses on this particular beach which is across from the people only camp ground.

The Montana de Oro coastline is spectacular.


We also checked out the campground.
Decent sized pipe corrals

Trails are limited to horses and hikers.  No dogs.  No bikes.   They have other trails which allow dogs.

Cable Trail goes to the beach.  I'm not sure I want to go on the other one...

The footing is perfect for Jackson.

There's a big Santa Maria style BBQ.

And a fire pit.
The shortest trail to the beach from the campground goes through the dunes to a long, flat sandy beach.  Perfect for long canters along the surf.

So, the goal is to keep the horses sound so we can go next summer.  The campground closes in the winter due to the rains washing away the trails.

It was a good Friday.  Much better than doing that Black Friday thing at the stores. 

11 comments:

  1. Holy cow, that looks like a spectacular place to horse camp and trail ride! I hope you get to go so we can enjoy the pictures :)

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  2. i would agree with that sentiment! :) the shore scenes are beautiful!

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  3. Reminds me of when we used to ride in Baja, Mexico a long time ago now. It was so much fun, but I wouldn't go there now. Nor would I ride for that matter -- too many creaky bones!

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  4. I'll take that kind of Friday any day! What I would give to ride on a beach like that.

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  5. That has got to be the nicest horse camping area I've ever seen. You must do it! I wish we had camping places lik,e that on Canada's east coast.

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  6. What a beautiful place to camp!!! I sure hope you do get to go next summer!

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  7. your birthday is already booked at the b&b.

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  8. This looks like an amazing place to ride, all the facilities are there. what is the b&b like/stables? Can you take your own horses or do they have ones there?

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  9. What a great place! Love the trail name.

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  10. Cool! That would be so awesome! I'm hoping to go horse camping in the spring too, but we don't have a beach sadly. Looking forward to reading about you going camping and riding on the beach. I'll keep my fingers crossed for sound horses.

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Thanks so much for commenting!