{"id":418,"date":"2017-04-08T06:00:55","date_gmt":"2017-04-08T06:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/william.mtplace.net\/wpMain\/?p=418"},"modified":"2017-08-03T17:46:10","modified_gmt":"2017-08-03T17:46:10","slug":"carrizo-plain-national-monument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/william.mtplace.net\/wpMain\/2017\/04\/08\/carrizo-plain-national-monument\/","title":{"rendered":"Carrizo Plain National Monument"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gold flowers field near the Goodwin Education Center on the Soda Lake Rd.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Saturday Apr 8 – 9, 2017<\/p>\n

It has been raining a lot in California that the wild flowers are blooming every where, the press calls it “Super Bloom”; it has been so long that we have a good wild flowers year so we decided to check out Carrizo Plain National Monument where people say that the flowers are in full bloom. \u00a0It’s a 4 hours drive from Santa Ana so we decided to stay 1 night in some town near Carrizo Plain so that William would not feel tired of too much driving. \u00a0I booked the hotel in Santa Maria town without knowing that there’s no road that goes from Soda Lake Rd to 166 thus we had to drive a big circle to get to our hotel in Santa Maria (58 –> 101)<\/p>\n

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Avila beach, on the way to our hotel in Santa Maria<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Spend 1 night in Santa Maria @Best Western Plus, right off on freeway 101 on Broadway st.<\/p>\n

Saturday, left house around 6:20 AM, William woke up when we carried him to the car and would not go back to sleep. \u00a0First stop is at Gorman (there’s no wild flowers at all on the hills) to have breakfast at Carl’s Jr.. \u00a0Continue driving on 5 N – 166 W – Soda Lake Rd to enter the Carrizo Plain National Monument on the South entrance. \u00a0There were not that many flowers on the south of the park, lots more flowers at the north of the park. \u00a0We drove along the Soda Lake Rd, then stopped by the Goodwin Education Center for some information. \u00a0They said the best flowers found on the Elkhorn road. \u00a0But it was 3 PM and we didn’t have much gas left so we decided to go to the hotel and visit Elkhorm Rd tomorrow. \u00a0Lunch time William\u00a0refused to eat the spaghetti soup that we heated up using a small slow cooker plugged into the cigaret plug, so I gave him a bottle of water and then he felt asleep.<\/p>\n

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Our room 226 at Best Western Plus hotel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To get to the hotel we’d have to take 58 and then 101, it’s about 2 hours drive; but along the 101 we stopped at the Avila Beach and Pismo beach so the drive didn’t feel that long. From Avila town, before going back to 101 free way to get to the hotel, we stopped by a McDonald, bought some chicken nuggets and Strawberry Banana smoothie, Moca Frap because I thought William might be hungry. \u00a0William only ate 1 chicken nugget but he ate lots of fries. \u00a0I tried to feed him the smoothie but he preferred the Moca Frap better. \u00a0 There’s no gas or restaurants along the 58 but it’s a very nice curvy road along the mountain. \u00a0Finally we got to the hotel around 7 PM. William loved the bed, he climbed on it when we first got in. \u00a0Our room was 226, at the end, on the 2nd floor. \u00a0Pool and Spa is under construction so no access at this time. \u00a0Gave William a good warm bath, then we fed him spaghetti soup, he finished the whole can. \u00a0Tim & I had a quick diner: instant noodle.<\/p>\n

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South entrance to Carrizo Plain, we entered from 166 and made a turn on Soda lake Rd.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next morning, after breakfast at the hotel, left the hotel around 8:30 AM, stopped by a\u00a0Mexican market near by to get a pack of\u00a0hot dogs and jello for William because yesterday he didn’t eat the spaghetti soup; and there’s no foods sold inside the park. \u00a0We chose 101 – 166 – Soda lake road – Elkhorn road. \u00a0So we started at the South entrance again and then made a right turn which is next to the information stand to get to the Elkhorn Rd. \u00a0The road is uphill and then down hill. \u00a0It’s a dirt road so whenever a car pass by, dirt is all over the place. \u00a0 No internet service, no phone signal, no GPS, no maps so we were kinda lost after a while driving because we were not sure if we were on Elkhorn road or not. \u00a0Lucky for us we met some nice people camping along the way, they gave us a map and told us to keep going. \u00a0William at this time is too tired of sitting in the car seat so I let him out to sit next to me; our car was moving very slowly so I would not think that would be dangerous to William. \u00a0Finally we reached the destination the we were looking for: hills filled with purple and yellow flowers. \u00a0We made a right turn to the parking area to get closer to the hills. \u00a0Here I met my friends Phuoc & Hanh and their little 3 year old boy Minh. \u00a0Then I hiked 1 hour further into the hill sides while Tim stayed in the car to watch William; he was sleeping.<\/p>\n

The next crowded\u00a0spot: Wallace Creek; lots of people stopped by this place and hiking on the trails. \u00a0The hills were filled with lots of flowers than other previous hills at that we stopped at. \u00a0William was now awake and didn’t look happy so we didn’t stay long at this location.<\/p>\n

Continue on the Elkhorn road and make a right turn to get to freeway 58, we were surprised to see lots of yellow flowers along the road and the hills. \u00a0We stopped here and took a few pictures and then headed home because it was getting late.<\/p>\n

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William was so happy at In and Out burger, he kept sitting on the table!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stopped by the In and Out burger at the The Outlets of Tejon to fill up gas and have dinner. \u00a0William must be hungry because he ate some piece of burger with cheese and lots of fries. \u00a0He especially loved the lemonade. \u00a0We got home about 9:30 PM. \u00a0William ran straight to bed, happily sat on the bed and play with his toys.<\/p>\n

There was lots of driving in this trip but this was the first time that I’ve seen so many flowers in my life. \u00a0They’re so beautiful and Tim was so nice to watch the boy and encourage me to hike to watch flowers if I want to. \u00a0Thank you hubby!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday Apr 8 – 9, 2017 It has been raining a lot in California that the wild flowers are blooming every where, the press calls it “Super Bloom”; it has been so long that we have a good wild flowers year so we decided to check out Carrizo Plain National Monument where people say that Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,22],"tags":[28,32,29,30,31],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/william.mtplace.net\/wpMain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/william.mtplace.net\/wpMain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/william.mtplace.net\/wpMain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/william.mtplace.net\/wpMain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/william.mtplace.net\/wpMain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/william.mtplace.net\/wpMain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":431,"href":"http:\/\/william.mtplace.net\/wpMain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418\/revisions\/431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/william.mtplace.net\/wpMain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/william.mtplace.net\/wpMain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/william.mtplace.net\/wpMain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}