California Coast and Open Road

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Today, I head into a region described by every guidebook as the most scenic in California.

Given everything I have already seen in this state that is saying a great deal.

The San Lucia Mountains rise directly on the California coast, creating a landscape of ocean waves crashing on towering cliffs.

In the 1930s, the state blasted a paved road through those cliffs, creating one of the world’s most dramatic scenic drives.

Today I explore the legendary Pacific Coast Highway through Big Sur.



I started by getting gas.

Big Sur is incredibly rural, which means gas is hard to find and expensive.

Having learned my lesson at Crater Lake (see A Day of Cascades), I filled up the tank while still in a major town.

Carmel Mission

My first stop heading south is Carmel-By-The-Sea.

These days, the town is an incredibly expensive resort town famous for the time Clint Eastwood served as mayor.

The current atmosphere completely obscures that fact that Carmel is one of the oldest European settlements in California.

Father Juniper Sierra (see The Golden State) founded the third of his missions here in 1770, San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo.

It was the last one he was personally involved in; he died before construction finished.

Parishioners buried his body under the altar.

Reports from the time indicate that the Carmel Mission ultimately became the most impressive of the chain.





Once Mexico achieved independence from Spain in 1821, the missions went into steep decline.

The local government took away their land and gave it to private ranchers.

By 1840, only the main church was left, and it was falling apart.

Local devout Catholics became alarmed at the decay, and started donating funds for restoration starting in the 1880s.

It took a long time, but the mission is once again glorious.

It celebrates its history and ministry with respectful enthusiasm.

While they do not actively proselytize visitors, some people may still find the heavy Catholicism off putting.





Tours of the site are self-guided.

The first building people see is the only one original to the site, the mission church.

The outside looks like really weathered adobe.

It contains a barrel shaped central hall flanked by two towers.

These towers hold old bells.

Inside it contains religious paintings and impressive folk art.

The art is famous enough the mission has published a book on it.

The alter sits in front of an incredible carved wall of Christ on the Cross surrounded by saints.

On the side, a display case holds pieces of ancient wood found while restoring the foundation in the late 1800s, what people believe is part of the coffin used to bury Father Sierra.





The tour then goes to the mission cemetery.

The graves are outlined with white stones.

Some of the oldest have weathered stone headstones; the remainder are marked with wooden crosses.

The largest headstone, a large stone cross, memorializes those buried here in the 1700s whose names were not recorded at the time.





The back of the complex holds an odd museum and memorial to four generations of a Mexican American family, the Munras.

Their story illustrates the history of church members in California.

They arrived in the early 1800s as cattle ranchers, and became rather wealthy.

They stayed in the state after the United States took over and became prominent members of the community.

Unusually, every artifact in the display came from their descendents.

The museum is here, in part, because they donated a large amount of money during the initial restoration, an expression of their deep faith.





The last room open to the public holds a museum on the mission and Juniper Sierra.

It contains a very old bible behind glass, supposedly owned by Sierra.

It also has a very old wooden confession booth, which many believe Sierra used.

One room is a Spartan bedroom containing little more than a wooden bed and writing table; it’s a recreation of the room where Sierra died on the original location.





Other rooms recreate what the mission looked like in the 1700s.

One room holds a kitchen.

Another room holds a library of incredibly old books.

Juniper Sierra brought them over from Spain, and they are now the oldest library in California.

Several display cases hold old religious items, ancient bottles, and other artifacts found during various restorations.

The museum, it’s worth noting, completely glosses over all negative effects the mission had on California’s Native American population, like turning people into virtual slaves.





The museum has a gallery of art featuring the mission.

It has been a popular subject over the years.

Some is deeply religious while the remainder focuses on history or landscape.

The style ranges through all popular artistic movements in California.

The gallery centerpiece is a sculpture of Juniper Sierra on his deathbed, surrounded by missionaries he inspired.

Point Lobos Reserve

From Carmel, the road enters Big Sur itself.

The first glimpse is not very enticing, a wilderness beach next to the road that looked like those in Oregon (see Oregon Pacific).

Things quickly get better, when a road for Point Lobos Reserve appears.

Big Sur is filled with state parks, and this may be the best of them all.

The road passes through scrubby pine and cypress forest until it reaches a large parking lot above a rocky bay, Headland Cove.

One direction shows a view of big cypress trees with grassy hills beyond.

The other shows a bare rocky peninsula.

The bay itself is utterly filled with kelp plants.





Each section has a trail.

I hiked through the forest first on Cypress Grove Trail.

Point Lobos is one of only three remaining areas of old growth cypress trees on the California coast.

Unlike trails I have seen elsewhere, this one is mostly sand.

It first passes through an open area filled with bushes, and then enters the forest.

All the trees have a canopy of tiny needles with only branches underneath.

The only other ground cover is grass.





Several overlooks appear along the trail.

The first gives a view of low rocky islands off a point.

The second shows a classic Big Sur view, steep mountains stretching along the coast.

This viewpoint sits next to a large old cypress tree, twisted into knots by wind and time.

The trail then reaches a group of exposed rocks above the ocean.

The view from here is even better than the previous two.

For those who can bear to look over the edge, waves crash against the rocky shore below.





The trail then follows the edge of a rocky cliff.

The view shows jagged exposed rock towers below, as the ocean flows into narrow gaps.

White surf surges against rocky walls.

The cliff ends at a long narrow bay backed by a rocky peninsula, Pinnacle Cove.

The trail reenters the cypress forest and circles the bay.

Several breaks in the trees give views of the bay, which is absolutely filled with kelp plants.





The trail finally reaches the peninsula, the Pinnacle.

It only goes a little way along it, because the peninsula rapidly becomes too narrow to hike safely.

The peninsula view shows a large section of Monterrey Bay, with Santa Cruz barely visible on the far side.

Pacific Grove blocks a view of Monterrey itself.

This area also has some old picturesque cypress trees.

Past the peninsula, the trail follows a cliff above yet another narrow inlet.

This one is so filled with kelp plants they look solid enough to walk on.

The trail then leaves the forest into an area filled with low bushes.

It passes through this back to the parking lot.





The other trail goes to the bare rocky point, Point Lobos itself.

It first passes through an area filled with bushes and wildflowers.

This leads to an overlook of the point.

Point Lobos Park was created as a haven for coastal wildlife in 1933.

The view shows dozens of animals.

A narrow rocky island sits in a cove near the viewpoint.

Five seals (see Historic California) were sunning themselves on the rocks.

Another rocky island further off shore was covered in California sea lions.

Their characteristic call echoes over the area, and gives the point its name.

Finally, the kelp beds floating far off shore support California sea otters.

Even with the binoculars at the view point, they are tough to spot.





After the viewpoint, the trail continues to the point.

It runs along a rocky ridge and then drops through a series of wooden stairs.

It ends on a flat rocky area, the point itself.

The point has nice views of the animals on the surrounding islands, although it has none itself.

A steep rock scramble from the point leads to a beach at the end of the cove containing the seal island.

This is one of the few accessible beaches in the park.

The water is green.

To protect the wildlife, swimming is not allowed.

Big Sur

South of Point Lobos, the Santa Lucia Mountains quickly rise to form one of the most dramatic coasts in the United States.

Steep mountains covered mostly in grass drop directly into ocean surf.

The Pacific Coast Highway clings precariously to the side.

Waves pound the shore in rock filled coves.

Every single turn produces another incredible view of this dramatic landscape.

Thankfully, the highway has plenty of pull outs to stop and enjoy it all.





Along the Big Sur coast, lots of little ravines cut into the mountains.

Several of them are not so little.

The Pacific Coast Highway needs to cross over all of them.

It does so on a series of bridges.

They are all cast concrete arches, the same type pioneered at Donner Pass (see A Beautiful Place to Die).

Many are highly picturesque.

All of them are now national landmarks.





This road cries out to be driven in a convertible, and I saw more of them here than anywhere else on the trip so far.

The only thing needed to complete the California road trip stereotype is the Beach Boys blasting on the radio.

I pulled out their Greatest Hits CD and proceeded to do just that 😊





A sandy parking lot along the road marks Garrapata State Park.

A sandy trail goes from the parking lot down to a beach.

The entrance sign warns about dangerous undertow.

The trail drops steeply through the type of bushes and wildflowers I saw at Point Lobos into a ravine, and follows it to the water.

The beach itself is pretty, a strip of white sand backed by cliffs.

It also shows a distant view of one of Big Sur’s most photographed landmarks, Bixby Bridge.





Bixby Bridge, built in 1933, is the highest and most dramatic of the bridges in Big Sur.

It crosses a narrow and very deep canyon.

This bridge competes with the Golden Gate (see Forest from Another Time) as the most photographed in California.

Ironically, the view of the bridge from the road is not particularly good.

A parking lot sits just before the bridge.

A sandy and steep trail goes down the hillside to the top of a cliff with beautiful views along the way.

Check footing incredibly carefully while hiking this, because the steep drop off warning at the top is no joke.

Alternatively, a dirt road branches up the canyon just before the bridge, which also gives a beautiful view.

Old Coast Road

Since the Pacific Coast Highway was not built until the early 1930s, how did people get around before then?

One answer is that they used boats and horses.

Part of the other answer starts at Bixby Bridge.

That dirt road mentioned above is the Old Coast Road.

Driving it is an adventure, with some serious caveats.

It is one lane of dirt throughout.

Parts of it are very steep.

Some of the curves are very tight.

Passing someone going the other way, to put it mildly, is tough.

Drivers need a car with manual shift and solid mountain skills to handle it well.

For those who can, the trip is fantastic.





The first section follows Bixby Creek up the canyon.

The canyon gets narrower and narrower.

Second growth redwood trees tower over the road.

Overlooks give views of rolling mountains.

Eventually, it reaches a stretch with a cliff on one side and the creek on the other.

It then crosses the creek and starts climbing the mountainside, through yet more redwood trees.

It finally breaks into open grass, with a huge view of the surrounding mountains that stretches all the way to the Pacific.





At this point, the road enters a private cattle ranch.

The owners erected many signs reminding people of this fact.

The road itself is public, but the surrounding land is not; it’s important to stay on the road.





Now in open grassland, the road continues to climb the side of the mountain.

The view just grows and grows.

It finally reaches the top of the mountain with a huge panoramic view of this part of the Santa Lucia Mountains and the Pacific beyond; a big contrast to the one along the coast.

This is the view of Big Sur that few visitors ever see.





From the mountain top, the dirt track descends steeply into the valley between it and the next mountain over.

The switchbacks are really tight.

Since the road is all dirt and loose rocks, traction is rather questionable.

The mountainside has no trees, so the views are incredible.

The road finally reenters trees near the creek at the bottom.

It follows it for a bit and then crosses a bridge.

The creek is part of the ranch (with lots of signs reminding people of that fact) but the view from the road is nice enough.





After the creek, the road climbs the mountain on the other side.

Thankfully the curves are not as bad.

The road shows yet more endless views of rolling mountains, which grow as it climbs.

Eventually, the road summits this mountain as well with a panoramic view nearly as good as the last one, with the Pacific glowing in the distance.

From here, it drops into yet another valley.

This one features open fields alternating with groves of redwood trees.

The views continue until the road, mercifully by this point, finally ends at the paved coast highway.



(LATE UPDATE)

Watch it from a motorcycle!

Soon afterward, the paved road pulls away from the coast into the Big Sur River valley.

The valley is pretty, with mountains rising along the highway, but it’s similar to what I just saw on the old coast road.

Along the way, the highway passes through the town of Big Sur itself, little more than a gas station and a post office.

Soon afterward, the highway climbs a ridge with a beautiful view of the valley and rejoins the coast.

McWay Falls

The next stretch may be the most dramatic part of the entire drive.

The road clings precariously to the side of cliffs above the ocean.

A long set of roadside overlooks shows steep mountains dropping into the surf.

The road twists over ravine after ravine between the mountains.

Every turn shows another glorious vista.





Eventually, a sign appears for Julius Pfeiffer Burns State Park.

The park charges for parking, so many locals park on the main highway instead.

Read the signs carefully before joining them.

This park holds another of California’s classic sights.

A little stream runs next to the parking lot.

A trail follows that stream under the highway to a set of steep cliffs.

The trail then runs along the top of the cliff until it reaches a set of terraces.

These terraces are all that remain of Mrs. Burns house; she demolished it at the time she donated the land for the park.

The former house site has a perfect view of McWay falls, where the creek drops from the cliff onto a beach next to the ocean.

This is the only ocean side waterfall in California.





The beach next to the waterfall is a tempting hike target, but getting there is actually deadly.

The cliffs are steep, and made of crumbly rock.

People lose their grip and fall every year.

At least the cliffs beyond the waterfall are nice to look at.





After the waterfall, I drove back north.

I want to see the sun set over the Pacific at least once on this trip, and this is my last chance to actually do so.

I drove until the sun got low in the sky, found a roadside pull out, and waited.

The sun turned orange and then deep red as it sank in the sky.

Unlike my last ocean sunset at Fort DeSoto Beach in Florida (see Jungle Paradise) the air had enough humidity that the sun did not reflect on the water.

This is my last ocean sunset of the trip, another reminder that I am soon heading, however slowly, toward home.





I spent the night at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park back in the Big Sur River valley, which is not to be confused with the previous park.

The park has a resort lodge and a big campground.

I bought dinner from a deli in the lodge.

The campground is located in a field along the river.

Thanks to its location, it’s one of the few campgrounds in California with no bears.

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Photos

Carmel Mission
Mission San Carlos Borremeo de Carmelo, better known as the Carmel Mission. It is the third oldest in California

Serra's Bible
Bible many believe was owned by Jumipero Serra, founder of the mission

Mission library
Portion of the library donated to the mission by Father Serra, the oldest library in California

Point Lobos cypress forest
A small portion of the Point Lobos old growth cypress forest, one of only two groves remaining in California

Point Lobos
Point Lobos on the right, seen through cypress trees

Cypress and sea
A lone cypress tree along the Cypress Forest Trail, with Monterey Bay behind it

Kelp forest
Vast kelp forest off Point Lobos. The far edge holds sea otters.

Sea Lions
An island full of sea lions off Point Lobos

Harbor seals
Harbor seals sun themselves on an island near Point Lobos

Garrapata Beach
Beach at Garrapata State Park, one of the few safe areas to reach the water in Big Sur

Bixby Bridge
The photo that every Big Sur visitor wants, and almost every visitor gets.

Old Coast Road
Redwood trees tower over the Old Coast Road in Big Sur. Yes, the road is just as narrow as it looks.

San Lucia Mountains
The scenery above the Pacific Coast Highway: The San Lucia Mountains reach the Pacific, seen from the Old Coast Road

California Dreaming
The Central Big Sur Coast, one of the best scenic drives in the world

McWay Falls
McWay Falls near sunset, another Big Sur classic

Pacific Sunset
Another rite of passage, sunset over the Pacific Ocean in California