California or Bust…
Days 19 – Day Trippin’ US1 to Big Sur, Cali.
Wednesday, November 9th, 2011
Another beautiful day in Paso Robles… the temperature had dropped and the highs were going to be in the 60’s, with evening temps. dropping in the 40’s. We had planned a day trip to the California coast and we were looking forward to the fun drive along US1 to Big Sur. We left about 9am and made the 30 mile drive west on Hwy. 46, a winding mountain road to Cambria, a nice seaside village located midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Drew was excited to see the Pacific Ocean and we stopped at the first pull out beach area where he collected a few beach rocks to add to his collection. He has collected rocks throughout our travels… from Alaska to the Greek Isles and the Amalfi coast. We drove through the San Simeon State Park which is one of the oldest units of the California State Park System. The coastal bluff and promontories offered unobstructed views of the ocean and rocky shore. Sitting to the east and high up on one of the Santa Lucia Range peaks was Hearst Castle built and owned by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst between 1919 and 1947. Hearst died in 1951 and in 1957, the Hearst Corporation donated the property to the State of California and since that time has been maintained within the San Simeon State Park. This acreage was beautiful and well taken care of… many of the local restaurants purchase grass fed beef from the Hearst Castle Ranch. At 80,000 acres, it is one of the largest working cattle ranches on the California coast.
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| Brrrrrrrrrr |
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| Rock Hunting |
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| Hearst Castle in the distance |
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| Zebras grazing at Hearst Ranch |
About 5 miles further up the coast we stopped at Elephant Seal Vista Point at the Piedras Blancas Beach. In early fall, the elephant seal colony is populated with juveniles resting and playing some of which are this year’s pups born in December and January and others from one to four years old. The interesting fact is this is there “home base” in the sense that they return for a few months each winter to give birth and breed. Adult males spend eight months at sea and four on land. Adult females and juveniles spend 10 months at sea and two on land. It’s amazing that the older males make a 5,000 mile trip to the Aleutian Islands twice a year. They travel along the continental shelf and feed on bottom fish at about 2,000 feet. They can also stay down for over an hour and spend less then 15 percent of their time at the surface to sleep and rest. Here we looked at them as big blubbery lazy seals when really they only get to snooze and playfight for only a month or two… the rest of the year they swim hard.
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| One of the big guys |
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| Juvenile Elephant Seal |
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| One of the many lighthouses |
We continued to make our way up the coast road that twists and turns between the cliffs and mountain canyons. Highway 1 hugs very fragile hillsides in this region. Mud and rock slides are common and we were stopped on several occasions by CALTRAN (California Department of Transportation) workers when the road narrowed to one lane for either road repairs, fallen rock removal or new bridge building. These bridges not only have to be built in these dangerous places but they have to be earthquake proof too!
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| About a 15 minute wait.. this time |
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| Brigit in her "caution cone hat" |
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| Guardsticks for Safety? |
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| Just a few more feet... |
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| Advanced bridge building. |
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| One of the older bridges |
We were grateful not to be driving the KeyZRV on this road, however there were some gorgeous state park campgrounds on sheer wall cliffs that looked very nice to stay. We passed through Lucia and Gorda, both areas were especially prone to damaging slides. It was amazing to see the unique homes that were built on the cliffs and as we entered the Big Sur area, we stopped at the infamous Nepenthe Restaurant. I had driven past this restaurant probably 2 or 3 times in my youth without Drew and had always wanted to stop… this was my lucky day! The view looking out over the cliffs is amazing… you can almost see Hawaii… ;o)
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| In Big Sur, CA |
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| Fun restaurant with a great view |
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View of the Pacific at lunch
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| Very Big Sur... "magic bus" and a huge redwoods. |
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I drove the 72 miles back down Highway 1… that means Drew had the catbird seat and had the view of the ocean. I did not look… just kept both hands on the wheel and eyes on the road.
We got back to the RV Resort about 4:30 so we could shower and drive down to San Luis Obispo for dinner. I was excited because we were meeting my niece Nan who lives in Nipomo with her husband, Eric and her brother, my nephew, Chris (C.J.) were meeting us for dinner in San Luis Obispo at 6:30pm. Chris lives near Talkeetna, Alaska but decided he did not want to spend the Winter there this year so he is hanging with his Sister in Nipomo and hopes to do some traveling...I have not seen my niece and nephew for probably 14 years.
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| Sunset at Site #82 |
We met in downtown SLO and for a Wednesday evening, it was busy… there were restaurants of every cuisine, lots of bars and nightlife, clothing stores, knick knak stores, etc. Nan and Chris decided on a nice quiet Thai Restaurant where we could visit and catch up on family and life… a little overwhelming to cover 14 years. I miss eating good Thai food and Nan made great choices to enjoy family style… and with a bottle of Eberle Cabernet Sauvignon. I really wanted to tell Nan that we were getting married on Friday (at Eberle)… but we hadn’t and couldn’t tell anyone. The city is full of history and after dinner we strolled down to the Mission Plaza to see the Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa which was founded in 1772 by Father Junipero Serra. It was the fifth mission in the California chain of 21 missions. We said our goodbyes… until we catch up again on Saturday.
Our drive back to Paso took about 45 minutes… tomorrow we explore Morro Bay.
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