Forget tropical beaches, European castles and Disneyland.
I’m going to show you your next vacation destination.
With this caveat:
I’m not a roughing-it kind of person, so I may be a tad biased.
| And my idea of the Great Outdoors is what I can see from my living room window. |  |
| But awhile back I was reading Sunset Magazine and glanced at an article, The West’s Best Cabins. |  |
| Not because I’m interested in cabins, the “West’s Best” or otherwise, but because I was in the mood for a good laugh, and I found it: |  |
| Steep Ravine cabins, located in a state park… |  |
| on the coast north of San Francisco. |  |
| Sunset assured me that I would love Steep Ravine. |  |
| Clearly, they didn’t know with whom they were dealing. |  |
| And I can assure you that getting anywhere with the word “steep” in it is not on my Bucket List. |  |
| But if you’re a camper, once you arrive at Steep Ravine Cabins – and isn’t that an inviting landscape – |  |
| the park thoughtfully provides you with a wheel barrow to carry your stuff… |  |
| to your rustic cabin. “Rustic” means… |  |
| …no electricity. No water. No bathroom. |  |
| That means no stove, no fridge, and no ice for Happy Hour. |  |
| There’s also no cell phone service. But there are mountain lions that would like to invite you to dinner. |  |
| Inside your cabin, instead of beds there are sleeping platforms. |  |
| There are windows in the cabin, but if you want any privacy, bring sheets to cover the windows. |  |
| Inside there’s a place to hang clothes – but bring your own hangars. |  |
| Inside are also mice; according to one visitor, “I caught 14 before I finally gave up and stopped setting traps, |  |
| and stuck some earplugs in my ears so I wouldn’t hear them. |  |
| I found droppings each morning.” |  |
| To compensate, there’s that view out the windows, if you bring your own squeegee to clean the windows. |  |
| Of course, if you know the coast of Northern California, you know that most of the time your view looks like this. |  |
| Outside your cabin there is “space for chairs by the barbecue” – but bring your own chairs. |  |
| Outside are also two unisex bathrooms |  |
| with no shower, no hot water, and no electricity. |  |
| That makes using the bathroom in the middle of the night – and who doesn’t? – a particular adventure. |  |
| Watch out for those mice! |  |
| So, while I’m inclined to agree with the visitors who said… |  |
| I’d say the California State Parks system attempted the absurd and achieved the impossible: |  |
| They took over some crappy, old cabins… |  |
| in a lousy location… |  |
| with no amenities, not even a squeegee, |  |
| and somehow convinced people it was a cool place to go. | |
| Today you’ll pay $100 per night for a Steep Ravine Cabin. |  |
| And there’s a waiting list of six months. |  |
I Hate Houseguests 