Tuesday we left Hearst San Simeon State Park around 09:30 and pointed it north on US1.
Driving US1 towards Monterey reminded me of when June and I visited New Zealand, the views were so stunning we kept stopping and taking pictures. Eventually you realize that you can't keep stopping or you will never reach your destination.
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| Piedras Blancas Light Station |
Leaving Cambria we saw a very picturesque light house. The Piedras Blancas Light Station has been in operation since 1875.
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| Ragged Point |
We stopped at Ragged Point, nice views.
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| Willow Creek Picnic Area |
The shoreline is much more rocky than the southern coast, and the waves crashing over the rocks create their own clouds, pretty cool.
We stopped at the Willow Creek Picnic Area where there is a road down to the rocky coast. You would get killed if you tried to swim but people were down there just to be close to the ocean.
We just kept stopping because the view demanded it....
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| Big Creek Bridge |
Bixby bridge is the most famous bridge on US1, but we thought the Big Creek Bridge, just south of Big Sur, is just as beautiful.
Our plan was to camp at Big Sur State Park, but despite our best efforts we could not secure a site. I was using CampNab and got 6 alerts for campsites, but could not get connected to book them. The reason is in the following rant, readers are welcome to skip it.
Rant Start. I replaced our in dash radio unit with a very high end head unit, the Kenwood Excelon Reference DMX1057XR. You can read about it here if you are at all interested.
It turns out that Kenwood uses WiFi to make the connection between the radio and my cell phone, so it ties up the single WiFi radio on nearly all cell phones. US1 north of Cambria has no cell coverage. I thought, no problem since I have a Starlink Mini in my sky light that works when we are moving. The problem is that if I connect to the Mini with my cell, I loose my Android Auto, and since we stream audio, I loose Audio. So I missed all the alerts from CampNab until I disconnected from my Kenwood and it was too late. All I can say is what a bunch of morons came up with this system. Tomorrow I will try doing a wired USB connection from my phone to the Kenwood, but I am not sure that will work either. Kenwood is going to get a strongly worded email from me when I get around to it, this was a very expensive head unit and this is a deal breaker to me. End of Rant.
So we got to Pfeifer Big Sur NP and tried to get a site, they had a site that would become available as first come first serve at 13:30 but you had to be at the gate and lots of people wanted it. We purchased a day use ticket and drove into the park to check it out and have lunch. I rode my bike around a bit and we even checked out the Big Sur River since there were lots of people enjoying it.
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| Dipping my toe into the Big Sur River |
We dipped our toes into the Big Sur, it was damn cold, not sure how these people were swimming in it! We were not able to get a site in a timely manner so decided to move on.
After lunch we departed Big Sur NP and continued north.
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| Point Sur Lighthouse |
The Point Sur Lighthouse is another beautiful sight along the highway.
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| Bixby Bridge |
Our next stop was the Bixby Bridge, it is an iconic symbol of the Pacific Coast Highway. I still think the Big Creek Bridge is actually more scenic.
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| Parking at Bixby Bridge |
The traffic, parking and activity north of Bixby Bridge picks up, I think due to the proximity to Monterey. Parking was a bit of a challenge, when I left Bixby Bridge, I took some of the right bank with me on the scooter ramp, no visible damage, but Doh!
From Bixby Bridge we navigated to the 17 Mile Drive. The 17-Mile Drive is a renowned scenic coastal road on California’s Monterey Peninsula, running from Pacific Grove to Pebble Beach. I wanted to tour it on the scooter (camping at Big Sur) but we did it with the Serenity; it made stopping and gawking a bit more challenging, so we did not get any pictures of the famous Pebble Beach Golf Links course.
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| The Lone Cypress |
The drive is very scenic, we did stop at The Lone Cypress, amazing a tree can grow on a rock.
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| 17 Mile Drive |
There are several golf courses on Monterey Point, they are all beautiful.
Since we could not find any campgrounds on the coast we headed inland, towards Yosemite NP. I drove about 30 minutes through the streets of Monterey before we realized we had routing set to avoid highways...Doh!
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| San Luis Creek Campground |
We drove for about 80 miles northwest and stopped at the San Luis Creek Campground which is on the O'Neill Forebay (forebay to the San Luis Reservoir). They had lots of sites and it is a pretty nice campground for $38.
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| June biking at San Luis Creek |
It was only 17:00 so we unloaded the bicycles and went for a ride. They have a nice paved bike path along the reservoir.
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| Deer at San Luis Creek |
We even came upon some deer that did not seem too concerned about us.
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| Dinner in the Serenity |
We retired to a candlelit dinner of Chicken Nuggets in the Serenity, it was a nice evening. We are "glamping" by the way.
Wednesday we will make our way to Yosemite National Park.
After reading about your Serenity radio upgrade and the “bunch of morons“ that came up with the system, I’m beginning to wonder who the moron was that bought the system? But I regress.
ReplyDeletePictures are great, thanks for sharing. Continue being safe.
Liz
Liz...I had the same thought.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your Monterey area comments and brought back good memories. Never realized it was that popular for camping, but it does have the natural beauty for sure.
ReplyDeleteDB
Another beautiful driving day that ended at a pretty campground. Finally got in a bike ride too.
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