If you missed my post about Day 1 you can see it here: Pacific Coast Highway – Day I. The next day we headed north of Santa Cruz. Everything we did this day was thanks to the advice of my blogger friend at Weekend Campervanning, and it turned out to be such a fun day!
Our first stop was at Ano Nuevo State Park to see the elephant seals. Wow! So many seals and they make such interesting sounds. Check out my YouTube video below to hear them yourself.
Beginning of hike to go see the elephant seals; beautiful views along the way!
So many elephant seals all in one place!
These seals migrate to this beach twice a year to breed and to molt. At this time of the year they are there to molt or shed their first layer of skin. I found it so interesting that they migrate thousands of miles each year. How do they know to keep coming back to this exact location? Fascinating! I could have literally sat there and watched these animals all day long, but after about an hour or so my people were getting anxious to move on to something else.
Our next stop was at Bean Hollow State Beach to check out the tide pools which were very cool!
On the way back down towards Santa Cruz we stopped at a couple of beautiful view points. Notice how some pictures have clear, blue skies while others are foggy? It’s very strange how we can drive just a few miles down the road and the skies go from completely foggy to clear!
Our last stop was at Swanton Berry Farm to pick fresh, organic strawberries. Yummy!
While we were in this area we stayed at the Santa Cruz/Monterey Bay KOA campground. This was a very expensive campground and not what we normally spend, but it seems everything in this part of California is expensive so we had to splurge. This KOA though is one of the nicest we have ever been to. Our campsite had a deck/patio in back, a great place to relax! The activities for kids at this place were awesome! The kids loved the bounce pad the best.
The pool was under construction, but it was too cold when we were there anyway so we didn’t mind that it wasn’t open yet. They had a very nice playground, mini golf, a climbing wall and scheduled activities each day including bingo which we loved.
One of the scheduled activities included a hole-in-one contest at mini golf that Jesse won. His prize was a free bike rental so we tried out the four-seater bike to ride around the park.
We enjoyed our stay at that KOA so much and really enjoyed visiting the nearby areas along the Pacific Coast. After we left there we went to stay at a Thousand Trails park for free for 2 weeks to offset the cost. 😉 I know, it’s not technically free since we had to buy the membership to Thousand Trails, but if we stay at enough of those parks throughout the year it really makes camping cheap, and helps to offset the more expensive places we go.
4 Radical Roadschoolers and a Fat Cat 
What a beautiful drive! My boyfriend and I actually went strawberry picking today for the first time ever, what a coincidence.
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So glad you had such a fun day!! Loved reading the post and looking at your beautiful pics. I could watch those elephant seals all day, too. They are so interesting! That wall of fog is so weird isn’t it? It happens a lot on that stretch. Wish we could have joined you guys! 🙂
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I wish you could have joined us too, but I really appreciated your tips for things to do. We’re almost done exploring your state for now, heading to Oregon in a few days.
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How exciting to go from state to state! Glad some of the recommendations worked out! 😊
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