Henry Coe State Park—Ridge View Camp
MVP
Naturehike 60l backpack—it weighs only 1/2 of what my previous backpack used to weigh, and yet has more external attachment points and is just as comfortable. It’s going to be my workhorse for all trips with the girls, and it proved itself valuable on this short trip.
Camp Review:
Ridge View Camp was a great place to camp.
The vault toilet was clean, had tons of toilet paper, and didn’t smell at all.
There was no one else that we could see for at least a mile around us.
There were at least 3 well shaded spots for the tent, all with a table—it came in handy for staging, cooking, and eating.
It was a little windy, but it also meant that there were less bugs.
What I Learned:
I knew that I didn’t pack enough water (there are were no campsites available at campsites that did have a spring), which was fine, since it just gave us a really good excuse to visit the visitor center. Which meant more opportunities to snack.
This was the first time using the Naturehike 3 person tent in an area where it wasn’t fully shaded. The gray walls lent itself to beautiful photos as it diffused the light wonderfully.
All of us were very dusty by the end of the day, which meant a baby-wipe “shower” was a must to get a good night’s sleep.
I had turned the tent so that the wind would hit the tent aerodynamically (head-on), but I should have turned it 180 degrees. The wind blew a bunch of dust into the tent when the door was open!
We brought a card game (Monopoly Deal) and it worked out great. My eldest and I must have played 10+ rounds.
It was the first time I got to use the new sleeping pads. The Nemo Tensor sleeping pad was a delight (the youngest grabbed it though), and I really could lay on my side comfortably. The other inflatable that I got from AliExpress was fine—comfortable for sleeping on back, too thin to sleep on my side. However, the girls took the inflatables, so I ended up sleeping on the closed cell foam sleeping pad.
We ate two new Mountain House freeze dried meals: Yellow Curry and Chicken Fajita. Current rankings of the flavors that we’ve tried goes like this: Spaghetti, Yellow Curry, Chicken Fajita, and Chicken Pad Thai.
The girls carried their packs just fine (the packs weighed about 6 lbs each), but my youngest would have needed a rest if the campsite was further than a mile. I just ordered them a down sleeping bag, so that should lighten their load by a lot.
They have turkeys, coyotes, deer, vultures, and hawks at this park. There are more animals for sure, but those were the ones that we saw with our eyes.
What Happened?
4.3 miles, 3 hrs 19 min, 447 ft of ascent (over two days)
The girls were itching for their second backpacking trip, so we landed on Henry Coe State Park after I found out that the previously planned trip to Big Sur was no bueno (due to the amount of ticks I’ve seen in online reviews).
I called the ranger earlier in the week and he stated that if we made it to the park before 10am, there would be plenty of camping sites to choose from. We arrived exactly at 10am to find the parking lot to be half full. When we talked to the rangers at the visitor center, we found that there were no campsites available at Frog Pond, Sierra View, or Lion Spring. We asked for his recommendation of where to camp and he said that Ridge View would be the one he’s recommend given the small kids and the views available at sunset. We were glad that we came at 10 because by 10:30am, the parking lot was full and the overflow was half full.
We started our hike and enjoyed the shaded trail. The girls were worried about ticks, so we kept checking our legs, but no ticks. Maybe because they were so distracted by the possibility of ticks, they were surprised at how fast we hiked the trail to our camp site. We setup our tent, took a quick break, then ate our lunch.
Even though we had enough water until dinner, we took this opportunity to hike back to the visitor center to refill our water and get some snacks. It was already an easy hike back, but with the backpacks off our backs, we were all smiles on the way back. We enjoyed a nice picnic outside the visitor center and headed back to the campsite with our full water bottles.
We played some card games, explored around the campsite, and just chilled out until dinner, where we ate two new Mountain House meals, then settled into our tent for the night. We hit the bed for good around 9pm, and woke up around 6:30am.
We packed up, hiked back to our car, and drove home.
