We left San Francisco and
headed back towards the coast. We stopped off in Santa Cruz to have a quick
coffee on the boardwalk before heading on to Monterey and Carmel. There was a
lot of heavy traffic on Route 1 so we tried to detour round it and accidentally
stumbled across one of the most famous scenic drives in the world: 17 mile
drive through Pebble Beach. The road meanders through forest and along the
oceanfront as well as passing through three golf courses (not a massive golf
fan but apparently these are pretty famous). Unfortunately the summer’s morning
fog was still hanging around so it was a bit cold and windy and the pure white
sands and blue waters were probably not as beautiful as they could have been.
It was still pretty amazing though, we stopped off at “bird rock” lookout point
and saw a huge pod of humpback whales, launching themselves out of the water (called
lunge-feeding) and smacking the water with their tails and long pectoral flippers.
We were also greeted by some overweight chipmunk/squirrel hybrids looking for
food. The other main attraction was The Lone Cypress. This salt-pruned Monterey
Cypress, has prevailed on its rocky perch for more than 250 years and has
become one of the most photographed trees in North America.
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| The Lone Cypress |
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| Views from 17 mile drive through Pebble Beach |
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| Friendly creature |
The following morning we headed to Big Sur to drive and hike
the beautiful and ethereal coastline; route 1 passes along the coast for about
75 miles of absolutely stunning scenery. But this place is a real paradox: the
landscape is very beautiful yet harsh and rugged, the climate equally pleasant and brutal. We started with the day overcast, windy and cold and ended up
overheating in bright sunshine.
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| Big Sur Coastline |
Our first hike took us up to the Pfeiffer Falls.
It’s a nice trail; reasonably short but quite steep and it meanders through a
redwood-filled gorge. The woods were heavily damaged in a fire in 2008 and there
is still evidence of the charred remains. We emerged out onto the falls which
were looking a little dry (due to the massive drought currently in California)
but still quite impressive.
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| Hiking to Pfeiffer Falls |
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| Pfeiffer Falls |
The second hike was to the McWay Waterfall. This is
probably the image that is most synonymous with Big Sur. It is truly stunning
and one of the few waterfalls that empties directly into the ocean. The falls
drop about 25m onto a pristine beach in an enchanting cove. I wanted to get
down to the beach and see the falls close up but apparently the cove is
protected to maintain its natural beauty (fair enough) and there are massive
fines if you get caught down there. Instead we continued along the trail until
got to another ocean overlook where we saw more humpback whales swimming and
feeding close by.
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| McWay Falls |
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| Humpback Whale |
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| Whale Tail! |
Our final hike took us along the Big Sur River which
eventually ended up at a secluded beach with purple sand! Manganese garnet
particles wash down the hillside when it rains, colouring the usually pure
white sands. Very strange experience!
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| Purple Sand |
Total distance: 2404 miles
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