Exploring Big Sur
California continues to amaze us. Variety around every turn, sweeping vistas, great food, plus fun and inspiring people everywhere. Counter to how we usually travel, this period of time (has it really been almost three months?) has us traveling like a couple of retirees, hanging out in beautiful locations until we’re ready to move on. That change has been fantastic, and a new taste of travel for us since we usually hop from place to shiny new place day after day when we travel. Instead, we’re connecting with nature at a leisurely pace, visiting and meeting local friends, and not feeling rushed.
Big Sur, the fabled area framed to the north by Carmel and the San Luis Obispo county line to the south, was stunning. (Check out our travel map to the right for perspective.) Rising from the ocean in steep cliffs from the Pacific Ocean, with cell phone signals a mere gasp, we quickly learned why it attracts people from around the world. Hiking, biking, animal watching – whales, condors, and much more – and solitude were the main events, all under sunny blue skies, which is rare for January.
Even more than usual, life is chock full of fun people, places to see, work to do, and exploring to be done, and so this post is simply a photo essay with captions to tell the story. One thing is for sure: the 10 days we spent in Big Sur merely whet our appetites for this beautiful piece of the California coast, and we will absolutely be back.
Over and out from Morro Bay!
Dakota
Glowing jellyfish with long tentacles at the super-cool Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Sardines whip around and around in a tank at Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Point Lobos vista south of Monterey.
Redwood Queen stretches her wings and gets ready to fly.
Point Lobos sunset with pelicans on Bird Rock.
Three cormorants sun themselves in the late hours of the day in Point Lobos.
Chelsea thugging it up in Point Lobos.
And the counterpoint pantomime smile! 🙂
Parked overnight in Big Sur on Highway 1 on a starry night.
A deer munches away on dinner in Point Lobos State Park.
Another morning view from our van in Big Sur.
The impressive span at Bixby Canyon Bridge. (Click to view full size, it looks much better!)
Ocean foam in Point Lobos State Park.
A twisting Highway 1 cuts through Big Sur.
Pretending I like alcohol at Nepenthe, a gorgeous redwood restaurant overlooking the Big Sur coast. I wound up sipping my (super strong) Manhattan a couple times and then giving it away to a young guy who regaled us with stories of backpacking the Appalachian Trail in -5 degree weather. He deserved it more than I did.
A chair carved into a stump in Big Sur.
An old college camping spot, Salmon Creek.
An inquisitive little guy checks us out at a Big Sur vista point.
The next generation: A redwood seedling at the base of a scorched older tree.
Sun spots on the pillowed Pacific.
A message from years of ocean waves wearing away a rock. (Point Lobos State Park.)
Dew on some Big Sur greenery.
Top of the Overlook Trail at Julia Pffeifer Burns State Park watching condors circle below.
Enjoying the vista at the top of Soberanes, an amazing (and hard) hike at the northern tip of Big Sur.
Livin’ the thug life. Ah yeah. Nice photos you two, well done.
There’s a Tupac song in there somewhere… We be thuggin’ til the day we die perhaps? Ahhhh, high school memories.
Chelsea and Dakota how beautiful life can be. I was in Big Sur as a young college girl and fell in love with the cliffs, the ocean, and all of the nature. Vowed I’d be back, not yet. Thanks for the beautiful photos, you look so amazingly good.
Love,
Aunt Bonnie
Thanks Bonnie! We hope you get back to the lovely cliffs of Big Sur sooner than later. You could do a trip with my mom – she’d love to go there too I’m sure.
dakota – what camera are you using to get these shots??
Sony NEX-3. About four years old and nothing too special. A four/thirds type camera that’s fairly small and easy to haul around, but is considered a DSLR. I usually shoot with an 18-200mm lens.