William Heise Campground

I had a 3-day weekend two weeks ago (Monday off from work) so Dom and I decided to go camping! We tried out a new campsite for us near Julian. Dom's friend Hippo and his gf, Rana, planned most of the get-together and invited 3 other couples...although Reno and Ryan only stayed the first evening. All good company.

Dom and I headed out on Saturday and stopped by the Julian Pie Company on the way in (and on the way out) because Dom had heard so many great things about it. I've NEVER had a better piece of pie! On the first stop we tried Peach Apple Crumb and Boysenberry Apple Crumb, on the second stop I tried Apple Mountain Berry Crumb and bought a whole pie to bring back to my family. They LOVED it, too. I'll definitely be stopping in town again for more.

The entire weekend was pretty chilly since we were expecting a big storm to come through. This gave Dom and I a chance to finally break in our new 4 season tent we purchased together from REI. It's supposed to withstand all extremes of weather and it held up nicely in the rain that came in on the last night we were there. It comfortably sleeps the 2 of us along with Roxi and her bed. It doesn't allow you to fully stand up in it though, since it's meant to be small and light to easily carry on overnight hikes. We also got to try out our 0 degree and 20 degree mummy sleeping bags. Everyone else at our site was FREEZING through the nights, shivering. Dom and I were nearly sweating in our insanely warm bags. How rad is that? Roxi and I woke up happy, cuddly campers :)

HIPPO! We all definitely needed our gloves. My hands are always cold. Hippo and Rana brought their new addition to their family, Oliver. He's an adorable little puppy.

Dominic and I spent Sunday afternoon on a leisurely hike up the mountain. Click the photos to get a closer look. The trail was interesting...since there was a big fire in that area years before. Many trees were charred and weak so they had fallen with the strong winds. It seems the vegetation is trying to grow back and I'm sure the recent rains helped a lot. I liked the reddish colored dirt along the path. We took our time on this hike since it was fairly easy and we were in no rush. It was nice to explore a little and just appreciate the scenery.

We both liked this campsite, but it's more family friendly since it has an 11pm curfew on fires and they prohibit hard alcohol (we brought some anyways). I did like that the bathrooms/showers were nearby us and the showers were warm..no HOT! That's always a plus.