Adventures in The Big Sur

The weekend before the San Fran wedding - Patrick and I took a long weekend and drove up the scenic Pacific coastal highway 1 to the central Californian coastline of The Big Sur.

Strangely enough, I had never done this drive before (having only taken the less-scenic, but far less-trafficky 5 freeway to drive to San Fransisco). The furthest I'd been up the coastline before was Santa Barbara. So this was yet another new and big treat for me to share with P :) And loyal readers will know that E loves camping and hiking out in nature!!!

A word to other campers: except for 1 place in San Simeon there are no camping reservations possible thus making it pretty stressful to drive all that way and almost not get a camp ground! We even left late on Thursday night - driving until about 3 am before getting a motel just past Santa Barbara and starting out early. When we arrived at Plaskett Creek campground we were bitterly disappointed to see that it was full. We took our chances driving another 1.5 hours to another 2 possibilities before returning and while circling the campground found that someone had packed up and left. Whew!
Plaskett Campground was very cool - shaded by tall Monterrey Pines and right across the street from Sand Dollar Beach. The only bad thing (and we weren't the only ones caught unawares of this): they don't allow campfires or using the grill after a certain date for fear of forest fires. P's coworker had just gone a month previously and been able to (as well the website said they were available), so we had packed the car full of firewood and food for grilling (since we don't own a camp stove). We were pretty bummed seeing we couldn't make a fire - that is truly one of the best things about camping! Also, since we couldn't live just on snacks - that meant we had to backtrack 15-30 miles to Cambria for breakfast or dinner to eat (so much for our budgeting).

That said: the weather was great - it was cold at night and morning but pleasant when the morning fog would burn off. Of course we had a great time taking hikes and pictures - although upon returning to our tent to take a mid-afternoon nap - P's pants were infested with ticks!!!!!!!! EWWWWW I have never seen one before!!! We got him out of those clothes and luckily they didn't bite him - whew!!!

Other highlights of our adventure was going to Hearst Castle (future blog), stopping and driving through tiny towns along the way to eat and take pictures (some felt like old Mexico - in fact: not much English was spoken at all). We also stopped a couple times to observe and laugh at the enormous elephant seals (the coastline is evidently a protected reserve for them). We have sea lions in San Diego, but these mammals were simply gigantic and had the oddest gurgling-popping chortle sound that they'd make. Also, the males, according to the specialist who was there answering questions, hate each other, are grumpy and bug each other for space all the time. Come mating season, they actually truly bloody each other in their fights for the fewer females. It was really entertaining to watch them.
But, without a doubt, our best memory and highlight was the fact that we found out through another family of campers that we'd run into here and there - that late at night across the beach and down the cliffs of Sand Dollar Beach we could try getting away with making a rock fire pit and still having our campfire after all. Thus, our last night, P hauled some heavy bundles of firewood across the street and down the trail, and I grabbed some snacks and margaritas and ice and we tried to look inconspicuous traipsing through our campground carrying firewood.
Well, it was beyond worth possibly getting in trouble. Having a campfire to ourselves, alone on the beach late at night was amazing. All other campers pretty much go to bed by 10, since no campfires are allowed and quiet-time is at 10, so no one would have known or dared to do what we did at the beach late into the night. Well no one but one Indian couple who saw us and copied us but only had 1 log to burn, so left early.

Imagine the crashing waves, along with the cackle of our fire for hours while relaxing dreamily and telling stories from my never-ending repertoire.... I mean - it felt like our own private beach!!! What a great memory...

Click below for slideshow of more nature photos!

Big Sur