Alpacas Wild!

I spent the day driving up to Los Olivos to the SoCal Alpaca Fest. It was a long drive but the scenery was lovely. Mostly up the 101 and a good portion of it was coastal, so armed with a strong coffee I headed up there.



Half way through the Los Pedros National Forest north of Santa Barbara and Ventura and South of Solvang and Los Olivos I nearly ran out of gas. The gas light went on right as I was going up to the top and I managed to pull into a park area with a gas station before I ended up stranded but it was pretty close there.
The SoCal Alpaca Fest was at a winery, and the scenery was just incredible. Lots of horse ranches as well as rolling green pastures with cattle.





There were TONs of alpacas there, with breeders from all over. I got to wander around to each of the pens trying to coax them close enough to me to pet. They seem pretty skittish though. They'd sniff my fingers but soon as I reach into the pen they'd move out of reach. A couple of them I got to pet while their owners had them on leads. The Huyacaya's fiber is super dense and a lot like wool, the suri's fiber is amazingly silky and hangs in these little twisted locks. Luckily for you - I got lots of cute photos.