This Place SUR Is Beautiful

Our drive from Paso Robles to Big Sur was full of surprises and scenery. Along the way we came across some controlled burns as California preps for the dry season which reminded us about the volume of fires and floods that this coast has experienced the past couple of years.  We stopped to visit with the elephant seals and could have stayed for most of the day, but we had other things to see.

huge elephant seals south of Big Sur

Just as we passed San Simeon, we noticed something odd with the cattle beside the highway. The odd animals were zebras! The cows ignored them as they galloped around. I videoed one while it kicked at a rival.

Highway 1 was closed for a year in 2017 due to landslides from heavy rains. The roads were open, but still under repair.

road work on Highway 1

 Spring flowers were in bloom and this bunch was on the side of the road.

picnic on our trek

We stopped at Lime Kiln State Park to hike and explore the lime kilns. After a half mile hike through redwoods, fording a couple of high rivers, we finally got to the four lime kilns. These were operating from 1887-1890 to heat the local limestone to create lime for cement to construct buildings in San Francisco and Monterey. Processed lime was loaded onto ships from a nearby cove. The operation ended when they ran out of limestone. We also hiked to Limekiln Falls that was full with winter rains.

a lime kiln!

Our cabin at Riverside Campground and Cabins was very comfortable with a kitchen, deck and gas grill. From our bed we could either look up at the stars through our roof window or at the redwoods through our bedside windows.  The Turk was quickly known through the campground once he started grilling. The manager gave us an extra riverside campground so that we could build a fire every night.

Limekiln Falls

Three of four kilns

Evening fire prep on Big Sur River

our cabin deck

Pt Lobos is considered the most beautiful hike in the area.  We agree! We started early to avoid the crowd. Even during the week in spring this hike gets busy.  The harbor seals had just had their pups. Since the pups stay with their moms for only 6 weeks, we timed it right to see them learn to take care of themselves.

mom seal teaching baby

amazing tree hugging cliff

this year's storm damage

scary woods

Turk can't cook these whale ribs!

 The Pt. Lobos Whalers Cove housed a community of Portuguese whalers in the 1860's who hunted whales and rendered their blubber for oil. We saw remaining whale bones, rendering equipment and an original cottage where a redwood had grown into the wall.

bones from 3 different whales

Was fun to watch the birds prepare their nests. They were VERY picky about location.

painters capture the beauty of the Pt. Lobos cove

We visited Garrapata State Park along the coast to enjoy the wildflowers and vistas.  There is not an official entrance, so we stopped in several locations before reaching the ideal hike.  But these stops were productive because the Turk found his greens growing everywhere. He gathered so many mustard greens that we ate greens for 3 meals!

wow!

wildflowers, but no greens here

coming out of a tunnel of trees

once again, lost in flowers

Next day, we drove down to Pfeiffer Beach. Besides its obvious beauty, I noticed the beach has sections of purple-pink sand. I looked it up and found out that there are only a few beaches in the world with pink sand and this is one of them.  The color comes from garnet in the cliffs around the beach.  Note that Turk and I were wearing multiple layers for the 65 degree windy breezes. But at EVERY beach we visited in Big Sur, we walked past half naked people laying in the sun, and even partially in the water. I felt like a wimp!

pink sand on the beach - I read that this is not always visible. This is just a small sample of what we saw!

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Turk was terrified I would leap into the waves. See how bundled up I am!

Cave where water crashed through

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Beachy Turk

you can see tinges of the pink sand in foreground

Bixby Bridge from the north

glowing green from setting sun in mountains around Big Sur

We chased another redwood hike in Andrew Molera State Park. Note that the best hike here is to the beach which required crossing a thigh deep river of icy cold water. While hikers were doing it, the Turk would have none of this! The alternative hike to the cliffs was closed due to the winter's floods that washed away the trail and safety features....like steps.  So we took the woodsy hike along the uncrossable (per Turk) river.  The river was fast and loud at times. The redwoods were majestic. We were dry.

ya, majestic redwood

fast, cold water

Turk found new home

After our woodsy hike, we went to the Hawthorns Gallery across the street from Nepenthe to tour their sculptures, fountains, paintings and handmade furniture. The views of the Pacific and beaches from upstairs were gorgeous. Would love to spend the night just to hang out on the rooftop deck.
While were were in the garden area, someone turned on all of the fountains, at once! It sounded like a tsunami was hitting as each sculpture fountain came alive.   Most of the artists shown at this gallery are from the Hawthorne family. Hence the name.

the meandering gardens show off interesting sculptures

not sure what this is, but fun to listen to