Big Sur

Di Yin and I explored Big Sur on Sunday, August 14, 2011. Big Sur is a scenic, remote section of the California coast along highway 1, stretching roughly ninety miles from Carmel down to Hearst Castle. I say remote because there really isn't much there besides nature; there are few restaurants and shops. Big Sur is nestled between hills (the Santa Lucia Mountains) and the Pacific Ocean. We saw only a fraction of it this day; we drove less than half of it. Although we stopped at numerous pull-offs and vista points, we looked at only two of the many state parks along this stretch of road, and these two parks we only saw part of. Thus, this visit is certainly incomplete; I won't bother to list the many sites we skipped. Regardless, I feel I got a true and great taste of Big Sur.

I can confidently report that Big Sur is spectacular. Indeed, I found myself often choosing to take pictures at my camera's highest resolution because I thought I might want prints of many sights. Highway 1 is rightly called a scenic highway, a la Kings Canyon Scenic Highway from two weeks prior. The sights of nature are tremendous. The road builders were smart and, knowing that people want to stop and gawk frequently, built many pull-offs, sometimes as dense as every hundred meters. If a pull-off was full, we could take the next one and get nearly the same view. Although we didn't stop every hundred meters (that would be absurd), we probably stopped at least once every mile during most of the coastal sections of driving. We'd emerge from the car, gaze in awe, take pictures, and, if it was windy as it frequently was, retreat back to the car.

I'll let my many pictures stand as testament to the day. The rest of this post provides a brief outline of our day in order to make better sense of the pictures. The captions provide further details.

Di Yin, by the way, took even more pictures.

In the morning, we drove our usual route to Carmel, taking 101 to 156 to 1. Once past Carmel and into Big Sur, we stopped often. After a while in Big Sur, we made it to Big Sur Village (a small complex of some shops and restaurants), which we explored briefly, then stopped by the Big Sur Visitors Center, and, a mile or two farther on stopped at an even tinier complex of a couple of restaurants and lodges and a gas station. There we had good lunch at the Big Sur Bakery & Restaurant.

After lunch we continued driving south, again stopping at many vista points, until we reached Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. We were there to see McWay Waterfall. After viewing the waterfall, we headed north, stopping at Nepenthe for a good aperitif in a great setting. After relaxing for a bit, we headed north to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, where we hiked a short way to Pfeiffer Falls.

Though Pfeiffer State Park was our last stop within Big Sur itself, we stopped once more on the way home: by the beach in Carmel to watch the sunset. We also made a small dinner-picnic from food we'd packed.

Thus concluded our great day. We returned home after more than twelve hours seeing beautiful sights, exploring the world.