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Bounding through a new wilderness, or at least new to our eyes, ears, & feet we were in total awe of our first trek into the Los Padres National Forest, specifically the Upper Oso area.
Having camped in Los Padres before, but some 60 miles in a different direction, the scenery was quite different. If you look at a map of the Los Padres forest you will see that is covers from north Los Angeles all the way up to the Big Sur region, leaving plenty of room for exploring.
Camping at Upper Oso there are several hiking options. The pictures in this post are from the Santa Cruz trail & only from the first few miles of the twenty some it reaches east into the park.
The above photo was my favorite captured on the trip. The light coming through the canyon as the sun was setting was magical. The creek was dotted with yellow changing leaves where a real dynamic with all the green tree tops interplay through out the entire hike. The green trees in the background really pop getting the full setting sunlight.
Cheers to Carlos for capturing the best photo of me on a trip yet. I must say I don't end up in many of the photos, but I feel my presence is in the framing.
The above photo is another experiment in my learning about star photography. I will try to find the data on this one, but I know we are looking at over forty minutes of exposure, pointed towards the southern sky. The photo has the orange glow I believe b/c the Santa Barbara city lights are about four mountain ridges back in that direction.
This trip saw our coldest temperatures yet, hitting in the high twenties on the second night. The photo below is a fun shot of Carlos & I wearing headlamps, treakking back and forth to his car to put away things for the night.
2 comments:
I'm looking to go to Upper Oso soon and your site looks beautiful. What number were you in? Have any other hiking trails you'd recommend? Thanks!
Upper Oso is a great campground. One thing to keep in mind is there is spaces for RVs (cost a bit more) and ones for regular tent camping. To be honest I don't recall the site, but we went in the middle of winter & were the only people camping, so we just picked whichever. There is a camp host that lives near by that will check up on you.
There is a well defined dirt road w/ a gate at the back of the camp that leads to more trails. This is the Santa Cruz National Scenic Trail, there will be info online.
We went back & camped on the RV side b/c most sites were full, but in my opinion did a much better hike on the Aliso Canyon Loop. Although more difficult than the previous hike mentioned. Starts in the back of the RV section of the campground near the paved loop if I remember correctly.
http://jdboggs.blogspot.com/2012/01/upper-oso-camping-round-two.html
Enjoy! Have fun. Stay warm.
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