Yup - it was a longgggggggg travel day. I doubt many people do that much coastal driving in one day!
Crazy!
But here is the thing - although the forecast called for sun - we ended up doing much of our coastal drive in the fog or low cloud although there were a few breaks in the day - and also - there really weren't many places that we could pull off.
Our rig isn't too big to do this stretch of the coast but it is a bit big for the small - car sized pull outs along the way.
I doubt this post will do the coast much justice - sorry - but most is a windshield view - we only stopped a few times when there was a large parking lot. Because we were heading from south to north it is a little more difficult to get over to the ocean side pullouts.
So - here we go - lot's of pictures for the day!
Hmmmmm - I thought it was supposed to be clear today!
It didn't take long to get to our first stop. No way were we going to miss the Elephant Seals that everyone had wrote or told us about.
Amazing - right!? They are RIGHT there.
I'm sure I took at least 100 pictures - it was hard to stop. I know - - they are not really doing anything - but fascinating nonetheless.
Up on Dad's shoulders - Cassia had one of the best views. Nice that a boardwalk lines the rookery area.
It was much busier than we expected for about 9:00 am on a Monday morning.
It was hard to pull ourselves away from the seals but after about 45 minutes we got back on the road - more to see! Is that blue sky????/
I took lots of pictures along the way - when I wasn't holding on to my seat that is. This road is VERY curvy to be sure. Lots of tight corners and switch backs. Not my favourite.
As I said - good thing I was on the far inside corner - my tune would be completely different if I was looking over the guard rail over there.
Going south to north means you don't get the dramatic ocean views much but you do get to see all of the beautiful grasses and plants on the banks.
This is just past Sand Dollar Beach - a State pullout that we had planned to stop at. In looking for a place to turn around we noticed that there was a trail. We decided to do that instead.
A now closed off road that goes up into the hills. A nice way for the four of us to stretch our legs.
Continuing on…..
Derek stopped briefly at a pull out so I could take a none windshield picture of the coast.
We had stopped to get a good view and photo of the Bridge.
And look who went by! Hard to believe that someone would take a rig this long on this road. Just goes to show that it isn't that bad if you take it slow. Still - I think this size is a bit large - he must be a good driver!
The road goes along the coast and then down into the trees and then back to the coast again. You really don't get much faster than 25 miles for much of the day.
We had read about this stop just before Big Sur in our book so decided to stop.
A very interesting stop. It obviously attracts a certain type of person - beatniks - I guess you would say.
Now on the other side of Big Sur. Strange - again we were totally off on what a place that we had heard about was really like. For some reason I thought that Big Sur was a sleepy little surfing - beachside - kind of place. Nope - Big Sur - is a spread out village in the trees. We didn't stop.
Probably our most favourite part of the day - beautiful colours on the side and nice and open.
And just look at the sky!!!!
Derek stopped again for a coast picture.
Approaching Bixby Bridge.
There is a large pull out just across from us here, but since we are headed north Derek just pulled over and I ran across for a few more pictures.
A late afternoon stop just south of Pescadero for a beach walk.
We went way further than we ever expected in one day. My original thought was that we would take a few days to get up the coast and that we would stop in Santa Cruz. It was not to be. We weren't inspired to stop a long the way and the ride from Carmel by the Sea to Santa Cruz is very uninspiring. We got through there as fast as could be and no pictures. Too bad that the #1 gets caught up in the traffic there.
Since we moved so fast we decided to make our destination the brewery just south of Pescadero - Highway 1 Brewing Company.
It sure was nice to not be moving from side to side.
Our flight - a nice way to end a long travel day.
So, that was our highway 1 ride from Cambria all the way to Pescadero.
It IS a winding drive but not near as bad as I feared and not as exciting as Derek was hoping for. I barely got seasick so that just goes to show. On the other hand - I don't think it is good for a large rig. Chris and Juan - you'll be fine - you'll just have to take it slow.
On the other hand - it isn't much fun in anything other than a car because you cannot take advantage of all the little pull outs and you end up spending more time concentrating on your driving than looking out at the view.
Beautiful though…..we are glad we did it. Nice that the sun came out here and there.
Looking back - this part of the #1 was a PIECE OF CAKE!!!!!!!!!! compared to that north of San Francisco - a complete nightmare from my point of view! Not sure why you never hear warnings about THAT stretch of road!
@##%^&^%*!!!!!!!!!!!!!
More about that later!
The next day we took a much needed day off from driving again ……..
Teresa
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