Did you Ever Want to See Big Sur?

We just finished a jaunt down Highway 1 from Monterrey, California to Morro Bay; it's about 100 miles.  It took us two days to drive and hike this area, and we feel like we just scratched the surface. Undoubtedly, some of the most scenic coastline

McWay Cove and Waterfall

I've seen on the American mainland.  We started with gigantic coastal redwood trees, moved onto protected dunes, hiked inland to a waterfall, did scenic driving and watched whales.  As always, if you want to wade through them - the pictures tell the story.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/115478608971584948192/albums/6040107970317504769?authkey=CKKr6Nrf0ayXcg

Morro Bay

You can't take pictures of the attitudes you encounter on Highway One.  Monterrey is all about tourism at the tackiest level.   The harbor and wharf were clam chowder in a bread bowl you carry around, cotton candy, ice cream, plastic souvenirs and tons of people in Bermuda shorts.  Pebble Beach is exclusivity and the residents of this community, littered with famous golf courses, will let you have a grudging peek at the high priced scenery they've secured for themselves for by charging you $10 to drive 17 miles along the Pebble Beach coastline.  Carmel is all pretension; it's for the nouveau riche who want and need to throw around their new big money in a loud and boisterous fashion.  You can still catch hints of the hippies who settled in and around Big Sur in the 1960's and '70's.  They built small cabins, stores, and restaurants in wood taken from the forests and they are still perched precariously on the bluffs along the coastline.  Morro Bay is about working the sea for a living.

Another feature of this coast are the dunes.  The sand dunes are covered with vegetation that has specifically adapted to the climate and region.  We took a dune hike which was hellishly hard since one-third of it was slogging through deep sand, but worth it to see the plant life up close.

Dunes at Marina State Beach

We stayed in Carmel and had a hotel room with an Pacific Ocean view.  One of the highlights for Drake was the evening we sat out on the balcony with the binoculars.  We saw whales spouting, and jumping completely out of the water just like the Pacific Life commercial logo.  We were very fortunate to have almost clear weather at the coastline for most of the entire trip.

Other than the amazing scenery, my favorite of the trip was the Morro Rock.

Morro Rock

 It's a gigantic rock (539 feet high) sitting in the center of the Morro Bay Harbor.  The rock is actually the remains of a 21 million year old volcano.  There are seven of these ancient volcanoes in a string along the California coast.  The 'Rock' is the most visible remains of the seven.  It was originally an island, but was quarried (and made shorter and smaller) in the early 20th century.  The entire town of Morro Bay and the area surrounding it is a National Bird Sanctuary.  Guns are banned here since any kind of hunting is illegal.  The Rock is no longer an island, no longer a quarry, and it has been completely taken over by birds.  There are huge marsh areas near the town and these as well as the coastal shoreline are habitats for several endangered birds as well as on the migration path of several species.

I'd recommend this trip to anyone with one caveat - avoid anything inland - you'll be disappointed.  The Pfeiffer Falls hike was a lot of energy expended for little return.

Waterfall, Pfeiffer State Park

  Also in hindsight, we would have skipped the 17 Mile Drive - better scenery just down the road.  Expect to be ripped off anywhere in Carmel and Big Sur - they know their attraction, and the hotel room prices are jacked up.  They can command those prices since they are sold out during the high season.  We also decided to skip the Hearst Castle in favor of looking for a coastal hike along the Pacific Bluffs outside of Morro Bay.  That fizzled when the fog rolled in.  I did find out there's another 'wine area' in California - around Salinas and Soledad in the inland Central Coast area.  They seem to have a nascent wine tour attraction developing.

One off the cuff stop turned out to be our history lesson for the trip and very fascinating.  We stopped at Mission San Miguel Archangel.  It is the 16th of the 21 missions the Spanish Jesuits built in California during the 18th and early 19th century.  The sanctuary of the mission we toured has never been repainted, since it was originally painted by the natives under the tutelage of the Jesuits.

Sanctuary, Mission San Miguel Archanger

The weather and terrain is all over the place up and down the Central Coast.  Temperature depends on how far you are from the sea, and whether or not there's fog.  Coming back north to Berkeley, we jumped over to Highway 101 ( parallel to Highway 1 on the coast), but about 40 miles inland, the temperatures were summertime hot.

Inland, central coast

 This trip was just a dabble.  There is lots and lots more to do between San Jose and San Luis Obispo.  Perhaps a several month stay during another summer.