Hello, we are the Scherfs!, We travel around the country (the western United States so far) in our Keystone Cougar 2100 RK to see and learn about our great country. Check out our story of how we got here https://thescherfswanderingwheels.com/the-beginning/ We would love for you to join us on our travels. When we left off last, we were in Morro Bay visiting the area.
Buellton
We headed south out of Morro Bay without a destination in mind. There are not many places to park a trailer between Santa Maria and Santa Barbara. Although one of our favorites places to go is Flying Flags RV resort. We have been here about 4 times and absolutely love it. When you think of resort, this place fits the bill with 2 pools and hot tubs, cottages for those that don’t have RV, bocce ball courts
Santa Barbara
We headed south out of Morro Bay without a destination in mind. There are not many places to park a trailer between Santa Maria and Santa Barbara. Although one of our favorites places to go is Flying Flags RV resort. We have been here about 4 times and absolutely love it. Next time we stay, we will have to do a review of it. But since we wanted to try to find something new, we pressed on. With my Googling skills, we decided to call Sun Outdoors Santa Barbara which is actually in Goleta to inquire about availability. https://www.sunoutdoors.com/california/sun-outdoors-santa-barbara We were informed, they had plenty of space and we could drive right in without a reservation. Now mind you, we did our research on line and knew the prices going in. I requested a site with an ocean view, and was told they were all taken but was given the next best site. The prices were listed online and was quoted $10 higher. When I questioned this, I was told that their prices change daily depending on availability. We decided to stay anyway since Andrew had to get back to work and it was only 2 days.
We found our site to be very good and somewhat private. Our site had a cement pad with some grass that we backed into. We had the pool on one side so no trailers and we had a trailer on the other side with bushes and trees between the sites. Check out that sunset! Our site had a picnic table and a fire pit with grill.
Amenities
For the kids
The kids have a big grass area to play tag or football in addition to having 2 play structures. For quieter times they have a semi-covered patio for games and patio sitting.
What to do in the area?
Driving into Santa Barbara is only approx. a 25 min. drive. One of our favorites places to go is the Stearns Wharf.
We actually had our wedding rehearsal dinner at Moby Dicks 28 years ago so when we are in the area, we have lunch on the pier. “Stearns Wharf, the oldest working wood wharf in California, was built in 1872 by John Peck Stearns to facilitate the transfer of cargo and people from ships to shore.” For more history on the Wharf visit https://stearnswharf.org/history/.
The Santa Barbara Zoo
As an animal lover, I love going to the zoo! The Santa Barbara Zoo is AZA accredited and I was sadly disappointed. The zoo was opened in 1963 with the purpose to preserve, conserve and enhance the natural world and its living treasures through education, research and recreation.
Parking at the zoo is $11 with admission of $25. Although I didn’t find a lot of big animals or the animals that I expected to see at a zoo they did have a nice variety of animals that I wasn’t overly familiar with.
The White-Handed Gibbon was heard throughout the park with its loud “whooping” sound.
Have you heard of the Amur Leopard? No? Me either! Maybe that is because it is the most endangered big cat on the planet. I felt bad for this incredible cats because the sign claimed this leopard can jump 19ft horizontally and up to 10 feet vertically and can run up to 37 miles per hour, but not in this enclosure. This cat was pacing back and forth and didn’t have the space to really run and stretch its legs.
The cotton top tamarin was a funny creature to look at with his white wig on his head. He is actually from the tropical rainforest in northwest Columbia and is critically endangered.
The California Condor exhibit was very good and had some of the best views in the park. Did you know that the condor became extinct in the wild in 1987? All remaining condors were captures as part of a recovery program. Today there are 561 condors with 214 in captivity. Each of these birds are tagged and the lower the number, the older the bird.
As one would expect to see at a zoo are the giraffe’s and Lions. The giraffes you can feed for a small fee of $8 if your not a zoo member. The Masai Giraffe was declared endangered in 2019 due to poaching and changes in land use. These lion mates came to this zoo in 2020 and a baby for born that year as well. As most lions in zoo, they just lay around and sleep. The had a somewhat large cage for them to run a little.
I was really looking forward to seeing the Gorilla, but unfortunately the Gorilla was not available to see because they were remodeling the exhibit. The Santa Barbara zoo didn’t have many animals that you would expect to see such as tiger, zebras, or even elephants. I did take the train ride for an addition $7 hoping to get behind the scenes and learn something new like at the San Diego Safari Zoo but was sadly disappointed. So for $43 for my trip to the zoo, I can’t say it was worth the money.
Santa Barbara Mission
Along the 101 you follow the California Mission Trail. Santa Barbara Mission is the 10th of 21 missions is know as the Queen of the Missions. It was founded in Dec. 4, 1786 by Father Fermin Lasuen. What is amazing about all the missions is that they are so old yet they are still standing after earthquakes that California is known to have. With regard to Santa Barbara, the towers were severely damaged in the 1925 earthquakes and restored that same year. A self guided tour of the mission is only $15 and well worth the money.
So if you’re in the area of Santa Barbara, you might want to check out staying at the fairground RV park. We have not stayed here but we did drive there to check it out. It is somewhere we would definitely stay in the future https://earlwarren.com/venue-rental/rv-park. Whether you stay in Goleta, Buellton or at the fairgrounds it is a beautiful place to visit. Stayed tuned as we go inland to avoid the Pineapple express.