If you’ve been reading along this year you would know we are road trippers. We love the freedom of having our own car and hitting the road, being able to stop when and where we want along the way. When we started planning this US leg with Jane we knew we were returning to a few cities we had already been to, so wanted something new on the agenda too. Given we needed to be on the west coast to get home the opportunity to drive the Big Sur coast was perfect, and something that has been on our radar.
Often noted as one of the great drives of the world, we had read about the dramatic coastline in travel books and articles. The region takes its name from the original Spanish “el sur grande” meaning “the big south” in reference to the region south of Monterey. The 153km stretch of California’s Highway 1 sits in between Carmel-by-the-Sea in the north and Morro Bay in the south and we set ourselves up with an overnight stay at each end so we could take a whole day to enjoy the ride.
Blessed with sunshine, no rain and not too much traffic thanks to being winter, we had a perfect day cruising along the curving narrow road which bears more than a few similarities to driving the south coast of NSW or Victoria’s Great Ocean Road. Travelling from north to south we collected a caffeine fix in the quaint village of Carmel-by-the-Sea, a town not short on cash when Tiffany & Co and Kate Spade both have stores here, and you can buy doggie cookie bags in the bakery for US$9.
The ocean has carved out coves and headlands all along the length of the coast where national parks and state reserves line up one after each other, protecting this stunning area. The abundance of birdlife proves the area is well protected and chatting with some divers in Point Lobos state nature reserve we discovered there is a thriving marine life to be explored too, including otters which we did not get to see in amongst the sea kelp forest.
The elephant seals could not be missed though – at the end of our day after stopping for nature trails, a waterfall view, lunch by an open fire and many photo opportunities we arrived at Point Piedras Blancas at the southern end of the Big Sur drive. January is birthing season so the beaches were full with pregnant seals, new pups and alpha males putting on a show. With the sun quickly dropping toward the water the three of us agreed it had been a perfect day as we drove the final stretch toward our room for the night.
The drive was an excellent opportunity to get a glimpse of lush and mountainous California and has certainly sparked our interest in exploring more of the national park areas of the US down the track. We continued the coastal route and made our way slowly toward LA, passing through Santa Barbara and Malibu where we stopped for lunch. Now over 600km south of San Fran we were peeling off the layers and worshipping the sun – LA had turned on the heat and the three of us were not complaining!
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