Los Padres National Forest - What No Showers?

Before the boys, Jonathan and I called ourselves the slowest of the elite hikers. We climbed mountains, clung to the sides of cliffs, hiked under waterfalls, trekked through the wilderness in any weather -- of course the real elite hikers always passed us on the trail. We camped in the outback, carried 50 lb backpacks, purified our water from a stream, cooked our dinners, left no footprints, and came out of the woods greasy haired, dirty, but happy.

Boy those days are over. Last month we went on our first car camping trip with the boys. I called it a success, and then I happily planned our trip to Los Padres National Forest. We stayed in Los Prietos Campground, a beautiful location in the Santa Ynez Mountains near Lake Chumash, and only 23 minutes from downtown Santa Barbara. Even better, I was able to reserve on a weekend only a month out.

Well, so you know there are no showers, paid or otherwise, for the Santa Barbara Ranger District, and there are no sinks in the bathroom, and some campsites don't have access to water. It never occurred to me that a shower (even five miles from our campsite) wasn't standard issue for any campground. No wonder there was availability.

But we are tough, rugged, experienced campers...

With two boys under five, one still not potty trained, we apparently are not. We stayed only one night at Los Padres National Forest. The location was awesome, we didn't even mind the black flies at all, and our boys (especially Caleb) loved it.

But Saturday after a day at the beach with scummy teeth, covered in saltwater, sand and camp dust, we gave up on camping and found a hotel. On Thursday I'll write about our fun in Santa Barbara. But lesson learned, car camping with kids requires certain amenities, and those amenities are not always a given.