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Big Sur Country
North America » United States » California » Big Sur
March 14th 2008 by Wondering Naturalists
In this blog entry we are using a different approach that we hope will integrate the written comments and the pictures better by putting most of the text in the captions for the pictures. We hope you like it.
Big Sur, California
Big Sur is a unique coastal section of California located between Cambria in the south to Carmel in the north where the coastal mountains (the Santa Lucia Mountains), with elevations up to 5000 feet, ... [more]
The Coastal Road (Highway 1)
The one road through this area, the Coastal road (Highway 1), is awesome and a little bit scary. It is a narrow road with often no shoulders that winds around the sea cliffs overlooking the Pacific. T... [more]
More Big Sur Scenery
A minor problem with this area is the absence of cell phone reception (not that we are arguing for ugly cell phone towers on the Santa Lucia peaks!!). Since we have been using a cell phone-based inter... [more]
More Big Sur Scenery
In addition to cell phone, TV, and radio reception is also poor. The only reliable radio program we could get is the BBC. So, we felt rather cut-off from the world, but then we got the word about our ... [more]
Big Sur Camping and Cabins
We spent five nights at Big Sur Camping & Cabins, a small RV park situated in a redwood grove. The camping sites, roads, and facilities of the park are positioned in the space available between the tr... [more]
Camping in a Redwood Grove
This image shows how tight the fit was in the space that was available. We felt as one with the redwood grove.
The Big Sur River
Our campsite looked out on the river and Jon was ecstatic to discover that dippers were common there. Although they are supposed to be rarely seen in this area of California, we regularly saw a pair ... [more]
De Angulo trail
There are many great hiking trails in the Big Sur region and we explored a new one each day. Starting at sea level and climbing 2500 vertical feet is a pretty good workout and the scenery in this part... [more]
Bixby Bridge
One hike we took followed the original coastal highway, a gravelly, narrow track that followed a more interior path on its way south. When the present coastal highway was built, a major achievement wa... [more]
Cyprus Grove at Peiffer Beach
The isolated beach located here is at the bottom of a winding side-road off of highway 1. It allows dogs, which Moxie appreciated. Notable birds included a large covey of California quail and band-tai... [more]
Pfeiffer Beach
The scene seems to be constantly changing based on the tide and sea conditions. For example, at low tide this island is accessible from shore. Everything seems to be in flux.
McWay Falls
Julia Peiffer-Burns, one of the prettier state parks in the region, is where McWay Falls is located. At high tide, water from this falls cascades directly into the Pacific.
Trail in Julia Pfeiffer-Burns State Park
Who lives here? At least some who did were inspired by the arts. Our campground was near the Henry Miller Library, celebrating the many writers and artists that have occupied the Big Sur. Other fam... [more]
Trail in the Ventana Wilderness
On the surface, there is little sign of human dwelling in Big Sur, except in a few places. Much of the land is the Ventana Wilderness National Forest or occupied by state parks. In places like the t... [more]
Burned Redwood Stump
One of the things that surprised us was that in Redwoods, every tree had some burn scars on the lower part of the trunk. Some trunks were blackened to 20 or 30 feet but the trees were fine above. Si... [more]
Redwood Grove in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park
The oldest tree in Pfeiffer State Park, near to our campground, is 1100 years old. Most of the redwoods in the Big Sur are not that old but many are hundreds of years old. We not only camped in a b... [more]
Elephant Seal Calves
The elephant seal rookery just north of San Simeon was very impressive, even at a time of the year when mostly the weaned young and a few females remained on the beaches.
Mature Female Elephant Seal
When we visited the rookery, all the bulls and most of the females had departed leaving the pups to fend for themselves.
Unidentified Butterfly
We end this blog entry with a small sample of pictures showing some of the coincidental flora and fauna we encountered.
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The text and photos of article remain the copyright of the Author (Lynn & Jon Glase). Under no circumstances should the photos or text be used without the express written permission of the Author (Lynn & Jon Glase). If you wish to use or publish photos or text from this article - please
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