Big Sur

Link to home     Link to Road Trip Index      Back to Santa Barbara      Next to Nor Cal
A neat picture of the boardwalk at Cambria
Another boardwalk shot. I was fascinated by it - can you tell
The van parked on coast in Cambria
The view from inside the van at cambria - rocky point in background could be a good spot on a swell
More views from inside the van at Cambria
Crossing the stream at Andrew Molera State Beach
The perfect bench
The view from the Bench
Staircase on the trai to the point
The point at Andrew Molera
Guess where this is
Big Sur - trail to Pfeiffer falls
The Gorge at Big sur - cool swimming hole. You could hike up stream for some other swimming holes but this one is the best
Our camping spot for the night in Big Sur
Scenery along highway 1
Photography along the 1
Photography along the 1
Photography along the 1
The famous Bixby Bridge - it was built in 1934
Point Lobos State Reserve
On the Trail at Point Lobos
Cypress Trees at Point Lobos
Point Lobos Scenery
Point Lobos Scenery
Cool old guy passing time at Point Lobos
The dreaded Poison Oak
After our six days in Jalama we headed North again. The van had been a beauty so far. We spent all six days in Jalama without having to recharge our house batteries. The microwave is proving to be a good purchase. We'll usually cook a big dinner on the stove and then reheat the leftovers for the next day or two in the microwave. Much easier and cleaner than reheating on the stove. So far we haven't felt cramped in the van, either, and every seat is so darn comfortable (with the exception of the bucket port-a-potti that we try to avoid using). The fruits of our four months of Van-building 101 are finally beginning to show.

So onward we cruised up the Coast. We stopped in Morro Bay at Morro Rock and marveled at it for a few minutes and then drove on. The Coast drive was beautiful and we stopped at many pullouts to take pictures. We decided to stop and stealth camp in Cambria, which is just South of San Simeon, and turned out to be a beautiful little resort town. It had a downtown with a bunch of shops that we weren't interested in but the coastal drive was very scenic and there were wooden plank walkways all along the cliffs. The beach we were kicking back at had a little rock point that had a nice little set up for a good swell. The little peakes that were coming in were A framey and it look like it has some juice. Potential epic spot on a good swell. That night we parked in some industrial area and watched Bob Marley's Rebel Music dvd. It seems that watching movies while we're stealth camping takes away our anxieties about our environment. I think we're doing a good job scoping out the places we decide to stealth camp in but there's always those unknowns and it's hard to feel totally at ease in that environment. Maybe that will wear off as we go along. We end up sleeping well, nevertheless.

After Cambria, we drove up the coast and stopped in Big Sur for three days. We first hiked around the Andrew Molera Beach area. Saw a couple of Sea Lions playing around in the kelp and just admired the clear blue ocean water for a little while. There was a nice trail that led to the top of a cliff where we mosied for a while. I was watching every step, though because there was poison oak EVERYWHERE. It's very abundant along the central coast and it grows right along the trail's edges. The Big Sur River had many great ravines to go for a dip in. We hiked barefoot a ways past a popular swimming hole over rocks and switching back and forth across the river to this lagoon area that had a good rock to jump off of. We definitely caught Big Sur in its peak season, though, because all of the campgrounds were full. We spent two nights in one campground's overflow parking before continuing on to Monterey.

Point Lobos State Reserve was on the way to Monterey and claims to have the most abundant marine life in California. Aside from that it is home to one of the two places on Earth where Cypress trees grow naturally. Next to Nor Cal