Saturday, July 18th, 2009

Clearly longing for the coast after our Oregon trip, I planned a trip to Big Sur.

Nice views below the fog. One of my first stops of the day at Big Sur.

Rugged rocks emerged into view once I descended low enough. I also like the caves down there.

The trip was a quick, one day drive all the way down to Ragged Point. Any further south on Hwy 1 would have led us to San Simeon or Piedras Blancas Lighthouse, two destinations we’ve already been to, and I believe are outside what is considered Big Sur.

It was roughly 90 miles on Hwy 1 scenic byway, between Carmel at the North, and Ragged Point at the South. Apparently this segment of Hwy 1 is nationally recognized as a beautiful destination in its own right. We have driven this area before multiple times, most recently on our drive back from Piedras Blancas Lighthouse, but this time I wanted to stop at all the vista points as well as other areas that allowed us to pullover.

Right around Bixby Bridge, appreciating the rock to the South.

Just north of Bixby Bridge. I could see the endpoint of the rainbow-y looking arc down at the water below.

I really liked this mysterious looking effect the rugged rock just beyond Bixby Bridge portrayed in the fog.

I ended up walking down dozens of small, barely paved paths that led me to nice views of the Pacific Ocean.

We left home at 6:30 in the morning, headed south on Hwy 17. Right around Santa Cruz we split off to Hwy 1 South, and spent the rest of the drive on 1. Right after Point Lobos (probably the best state park I’ve seen in this country to date), I started pulling off at any turn-off I could find. It was extremely foggy, but when I was able to get far enough down the trails, I was able to see great views of rocks, ocean and waves. Tobia opted to rest in the car on most of the initial stops, so that gave me a chance to jump around the rocks quite a bit.

At one of the latter stops, we fed pieces of a banana to this chipmunk and others. Clearly they’ve learned not to fear humans, often getting on their hind legs and stretching out as if to say “I’m ready for food”.

This is what Ragged Point looks like. I was able to descend about halfway down the left side of the big cliff in the middle of the picture.

Repeating this stop-and-go process all the way down to Ragged Point, we got to the Point around 11:30am. I walked down a small, dangerous trail at Ragged Point, but it was ultimately too foggy to see much of anything.

We had lunch at Ragged Point Inn restaurant, then headed back up north. Thankfully, on the way back up, the fog was lifting pretty rapidly, and I was able to get a better view, albeit less dramatic, of most of the places I saw in the morning.

I couldn’t see this spot in the morning, but it looked beautiful in the afternoon. Reminded me of the rocks right near Piedras Blancas.

I liked this view of many small rugged rocks, overseen by a large white rock.

Beautiful Big Sur coastline.

The fog was slower to lift around here, but it made for a nice view of the rugged area.

My favorite picture of the day. I loved these rugged rocks decorating the coastline.

Much later in the afternoon, on our way back, we stopped by at Nepenthe and Cafe Kevah, both with very nice views of the Big Sur area. We made many other stops along the way; this time, Tobia joined me on most of them.

Ultimately, I hopped back on Hwy 17 and returned home around 5:30pm. It was a lot of fun, and the area was truly beautiful.