June 2, 2005

• Memorial Day Weekend in Big Sur

  
  

  We didn't leave LA until about 10:30pm Thursday night.  The good part was there was no traffic.  The bad part was that we started to run out of gas along a desolate stretch of PCH at about 2am.  We had about 30 miles to the nearest town of Gorda when my gas gauge light went off...driving in the dark on a one lane super curvy highway with so much mist that you could barely see 5 yards in front of you and not having any cell phone reception was a little scary.  Luckily we made it into Gorda but the gas station was closed and didn't open until 8 in the morning.  We were offered a room at the only hotel in town by a guy that seemed to materialize from nowhere but we figured it would be safer to just sleep in our car until the morning than to follow some stranger who could potentially be a psychotic axe murderer.

  
  

   

  
  

  The next morning we got gas and were on our way up to Big Sur.  We didn't have any campground reservations since some of these people book these sites a year in advance and this was a relatively spur of the moment trip.  The plan was to stay at 1 of the 4 first come first served campsites.  We started to get a little worried, however, when the first 3 campsites were full.  Luckily, the last campsite, Bottcher's Gap, had a few empty spots.  This site was located in a beautiful redwood grove by a stream with the only negative factor being the 8 mile windy drive to get to it.  After setting up camp, I did a little hike close by to Turner Creek.  Then we decided to drive up to Carmel By The Sea, a cute little town filled with restaurants, art galleries, and shops.  Grabbed a cup of coffee and a croissant before taking a walk along Carmel Beach. 

  
  

   

  
  

  Driving back south along PCH we stopped for some scenic pictures at Garrapata State Park.  Also got some great views of Rocky Creek Bridge and Bixby Creek Bridge.  We decided to stop by Pfeiffer Beach to relax and catch the gorgeous sunset.

  
  

   

  
  

  Dinner was at the Big Sur Roadhouse where I ordered the BBQ chicken with a sangria.  Nice, casual restaurant with pretty good food.  After dinner, we stopped by the River Inn where they were playing some live music but it wasn't quite our scene.  Later that night we had a reservation to soak in the hot springs at the Esalen Institute.  The hot springs here are located on a cliff over the ocean and are only open to the public between 1am-3am (yes in the middle of the night).  Clothing is optional here and pretty much everyone was naked.  Since I forgot my bathing suit, I went au naturale   It was a pretty liberating experience.

  
  

    

  
  

  On Saturday morning I got up early to do some hiking along the Skinner Ridge trail by our campsite.  Then we headed out to Point Lobos State Reserve.  We did a 0.6 mile hike to Sea Lion Point where we saw a lot of harbor seals, sea otters, and of course sea lions.  We also drove by Whaler's Cove to watch the kayakers and scuba divers.  Another area we went to that is popular with divers is Carmel River State Beach.  Our next stop was Andrew Molera State Park where we did a 2 mile hike to Molera Beach.

  
  

   

  
  

  After that we went to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park where we hiked 0.6 miles to an overlook facing McWay Falls, an 80 foot waterfall that drops directly onto the sandy beach.  The last stop of the day was at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park.  Here we did a 2 mile hike to Pfeiffer Falls via the Valley View trail.  Then we stayed for a sunset concert at the campfire center where we were entertained by banjos, harmonicas, fiddles, tambourines, and a slide show of Big Sur.  For dinner we went back to our campsite for some pasta and wine.

  
  

   

  
  

  Sunday we went to Point Sur Lighthouse where we did a three hour, 1 mile hiking tour.  We learned a lot about the history behind its construction and had wonderful views of the coast.  Later we drove to Pacific Grove where we snorkeled at Lover's Point.  The visibility wasn't very good and it was extremely cold, even in our wetsuits.  Showered at Ventana campgrounds before heading back to our site for dinner.

  
  

   

  
  

  We started driving back on Monday morning.  Stopped for a picnic snack at Sand Dollar Beach and for lunch at Ragged Point Inn.  On the way back we also decided to stop in Solvang to do some wine tasting.  Our first winery tasting room was at Presidio Winery where I didn't find anything too distinctive.  I ended up buying a bottle at Royal Oaks Winery that was a little sweeter than what I usually like.  The last winery we visited was Buttonwood Winery where there were a lot of good dry wines and a nice garden area to take a walk in.  Also bought a cheese danish at Olsen's Bakery...yummy!  Luckily traffic wasn't as bad as it could have been and we arrived back in LA at 8pm.

  
  

   

  • 3:46 am
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