Big Sur
We started on the bit of the PCH called Big Sur, which is some of the most impressive coastline and windy windy roads!
Stopped a few times to take pictures, but also stopped at the elephant seals grounds. There were a couple of hundred sunning themselves on the beaches! Very cool, very impressive. Plus there were some tame chipmunks which came up to say hi, so I got some more nice pictures!
After that, we headed to the Limekiln National Park and did two hikes. We saw a lot of redwoods, some fire damaged and none of the giant scale you see, but still impressively large. There was supposed to be a hundred foot drop waterfall, but we couldn't find it despite taking both trails!
Limekiln National Park
We then drove trying to find accommodation in Big Sur, the first place was expensive and only had one bed..... The next one was twenty miles away..... We did the drive, listening to the BBC world service and tried at Deetjuns Big Sur Inn. It was a small place, with log outbuildings that serve as rooms. By this point the sun was setting and we couldn’t really have made the next hotel.
We managed to get the last room, the fireplace room, it had a nice big balcony, on which I drank a rather good Californian Pinot Grigio called Tutu. It also had one bed, a bed which, whilst described as a large double seemed awfully small to share with my associate. Still it's a pretty and amazing place, properly woodsy, rustic, but with charm and style. The menu is impressive and expansive.
Friday was an early start, up at eight and breakfast at the superb Deetjun Inn, I had a mammoth American breakfast with fried potatoes, sausage, eggs, fried sour dough bread and bottomless coffee...
After, we broke tradition and headed south on Highway One to get back to the Julia Pfeiffer-Burns Park. We stopped briefly at the vista point which, in the morning light with the tail end of the morning mist gave an incredible view over the water.
From there, we headed to the park and to the waterfall trail. Most of the rest of the trails were closed due to the severe fires which had ravaged California last year. The waterfall trail is short, but gives some impressive views. The waterfall itself, whilst high isn't breathtaking, but perhaps I am a little biased having been to both Niagara Falls and Maui.
After the park, we drove back north and stopped for coffee at a cool little cafe and art gallery selling all sorts of weird things.
Unfortunately the Henry Miller library was closed, as was the lighthouse park. But the views on this portion of Big Sur were incredible. We stopped in Carmel-on-Sea, a very affluent town on the coast. After a little time on the beach, and some window shopping we stopped at a cafe, which was a peculiar mix of Greek and Lebanese, with an old man singing Spanish folk songs... I think, to Americans, Europe is just one big amalgamous blob.... The Greek salad I had was very odd, but nice. It had a kind of sauce on it... Oddness! The fresh baked bread and tzatziki was lovely.
We took the 17 mile drive a paid detour starting at Carmel-on-Sea and ending at pacific grove. It was somewhat disappointing, some of the sign-posted stops were nice views such as when we saw a seal sunbathing on the rocks, but quite a few were things like "the golf club". We made it to Pacific Grove, which was intended to be our stop for the evening, but it was dead quiet. Totally dull so we moved on to Santa Cruz, stopping at an awesome little coffee place, called the Surf Cafe for a frozen mocha called a "cowabunga" and some time on the Internet to book a motel.
It was then we set off for San Francisco on the final segment of this leg of the wild American journey! This segment of the journey was perhaps the most "American" that we had seen. The road winded up along the coast between farms selling all sorts of produce. We pulled in to a place called the pie ranch, a commune type place on route one to get some fresh strawberries, see delicious fruits were consumed on router. There is little sweeter than fresh strawberries and coastal driving!
We stopped in briefly to a local lighthouse and saw some more seals playing in the surf, and stopped again a little later at a farm offering a hay maze. After half an hour or so of wandering round the maze, we gave up, and snick into the exit to find the trick. It was a cunning, cunning idea. I won't give it away, but the maze was much larger than we realized!
Whilst the maze was the main draw, the farm also had a coliseum made of hay and assorted metal mythological creatures scattered around.
My final stop on the drive was Half Moon Bay, home of a forty year old tradition of pumpkin carving. We wandered around town and stopped for an iced mocha and carrot & pumpkin cake at a local cafe, both of which were deliciously delicate. My associate took over the final leg of the drive, and took us through scenery which resembled Big Sur, so, to me, it will always be Little Sur.
