Monday on the road in Big Sur

Before we leave the subject to Pismo Beach we need to tell you that it has a section that is called a Vehicular Recreation Area where folks can drive on the shore!  The speed limit is 15 MPH and I think pretty much enforced.  You can drive your own vehicle or rent a dune buggy as there are also dunes.  Saturday am there was very high tide and lots of wind and blowing foam.  The tide was so high they closed the beach to vehicles and the parking lot was filled with a group named "Sand Outlaws", who had their vehicles all ready and all seemed to have these tall fiberglass poles with orange flags.  They, in particular, were unhappy about the beach closure.

We have been on the road from Pismo Beach today driving to Big Sur.  What a drive and it is not over with yet either!  We left Pismo Beach and headed up the coast.  The road (US-101) starts out being divided but when we went on CA 1 ar San Luis Obispo it became just a two lane winding road with turn-offs for slower vehicles like us!

The view is amazing!  We were constantly awed by the grandeur of this this coastal route.  So unlike our Maine and eastern Atlantic coast where there are nearly always rocks and the shore itself often miles from the main road accessible only on a finger of land that juts out into a bay or the ocean itself.  There are probably places where you can drive close to the water and see it all the time.  The closest thing to this is up in Canada along the Gaspe Pensinula (That is where I remember this kind of shore).

We stopped in at one beach because there were surfers.  Marty managed to capture this guy just as he was turning on the board.

We stopped at a place called Ragged Point, where we were treated to some lovely flowers and a great view.

Flower with a view!

We don't know what this is, but it was sure pretty!

Dee and Paul with a view!

Marty and David having coffee at Ragged Point.

View along the way to the campground where we are this evening:  Pfeiffer

Big Sur State Park.

And finally the massive trees in the campground, seen below.  The trees are so tall that Marty could not get back far enough to capture the entire height of them.  Amazing.

Now we have to tell you that along the way we stopped at a beach area where there were lots and lots of elephant seals.  These were many females with nursing babies and the huge males, which are about as ugly as they can be.  The smell from them is really rather strong.  It was really quite something to see all these animals on the shore, some of the mothers nursing small ones, and big ones just lounging around protecting their harems from intruding males.

This view shows a beach literally littered with seals.

This pup is having some lunch, while others are sleeping near by.

This big male was not the biggest on the beach, but still charged another slightly smaller male and drove it back into the water..

Just before we ended our day we stopped to see a waterfall.  It is supposed to be 80' tall but that is really difficult to tell from the height we were at looking down at it.  It was, however, a really beautiful place and we all enjoyed it very much.

For David this was a bit of a nostalgia trip, since he had made this drive fifty years ago when he was in the army and spent six weeks at Camp Roberts, near Paso Robles.  Memories of the California coast are still fresh.  On weekends, he had had time to explore the area, including driving up CA-1 along the Big Sur. Some of the little towns are now a bit more touristy, but basically the spectacular coastal scenery is absolutely the same.  Tomorrow we will leave the pristine coast and drive through the Monteray area, then through Santa Cruz and into the Bay Area to Oakland, where we will connect with Paul's daughter Emily and spend a week exploring San Francisco and other interesting sights in the area.

Above is the Bixby Bridge, next to the Golden Gate Bridge, probably one of the most photographed bridges on the California coast.