Highway 1 Road Trip

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Pictures

Here are some of the better pictures from the drive. Hope you enjoy!

Santa barbara and LA

we just finished our last bit of driving and are now at lax. More narrative later, but a few pictures now.

101 to Santa Barbara

on the road again, enjoying the sun after a huge breakfast at the madonna inn.

Hearst Castle & pics

The "castle" on the hill was an interesting stop, and while the building was impressive, the image built up around the man seems a touch over done. It is fascinating to see how he spent money, but I'm not sure the royalty like status can be justified.

The crowd was also quite different from what we saw in big sur. Perhaps that explains the presentation. As we've made our way south, this change has intensified - not sure quite why...

Also, a few more random pictures...

Cambria

we spent last night in Cambria, a sleepy little town with a great beach. Coming from Big Sur, the change in the landscape was very noticeable, as hairpin turns gave way to wide open roads - exactly what I would expect from southern california.

Elephant seals

just off highway 1, right before Herest Castle are these young elephant seals molting their fur. They fast for a month while the shedding takes place. The adults are already further north feeding.

Big Sur

we spent today driving, hiking, and relaxing around Big Sur. To my surprise, the town is very spread out, and it takes over an hour to drive from north to south - on very curvy roads.

The state parks were very nice, but alot of the tails were closed. When we found one that was open, it was rather anti-climatic as we didn't get far enough to see were it goes. I would rather have spent more time on sand dollar beach, which was the highlight of the day for me: you get to climb down the cliffs and finally touch the Pacific, which otherwise seems just out of reach from the car.

We're now at the ragged point inn, which has a great ocean view, as you can see from the video. it also had plastic table cloths, which you might not be able to tell... America!

Carmel River Inn

This was our room in Carmel, while nothing fancy it is just what I expect of a room off the highway. I would, however recommend a place closer to down town, as the 15 minute drive did get annoying the 5th, 6th, etc time we did it.

Carmel was a great little village, with plenty of galleries and small shops. It would be easy to loose a few days there. A tip; stop by the deli before the 17 mile drive, as they sell picnic baskets, and there are lots of places to stop.

A surprising thing in Carmel is that they pride themselves in being dog friendly, with even the hotel having water bowls in the rooms.

Big Sur

The drive from Carmel took longer than we expected. On the way we crossed the Bixby Bridge, and finally experienced the coast hugging road for which Highway 1 is known.

Arriving at Treebones two and a half hours after leaving Carmel, we checked into our yurt. The view of the pacific from the deck goes on forever. I could get used to this luxury camping thing - birds chirping, fresh air, and a big warm bed...