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| Edge of the world (Garrapata State Park) |
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| Big Sur: Limekiln State Park |
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| Nepenthe |
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| Andrew Molera Beach |
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| Henry Miller Memorial Library |
Has this every happened to you - you have vacation/time off coming up and you are very excited for it, but the days leading up to it are super busy and stressful in some way? My 30th birthday actually fell on a Friday, so a while back my husband and I planned a 3-day weekend road trip to Big Sur, my favorite place in California and possibly on this planet. Time was blocked off, reservations were booked and I started daydreaming. Then a couple weeks ago I found out I'd have to make a work trip (rarely happens) which was fine, and I made sure I'd get home in time for my trip. That week was packed with meetings, and even though I felt productive I also felt like work was piling up in the background and I'd have so much to catch up on, blah blah blah. But, I landed in California before midnight on my birthday and we got on the road the next morning for a mostly off-the-grid weekend.
I'd already gone to Big Sur before by heading south on Highway 1 from Carmel, so this time we took the inland route all the way down route 101 and started at the bottom. We toured Hearst Castle (more on that some other time) in the afternoon before heading into Big Sur. What is Big Sur exactly? Generally it's about 85 miles of sparsely developed coastline. With beautiful cliffs and beachs, it looks like the edge of the world. Phone service drops off when you're out there - a big reason I love the place. It's a big tourist spot, but we were fortunate in our timing and didn't run into too many crowds and a lot of times it felt like we had the parks to ourselves.
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| Lucia Lodge |
On our first night we stayed at Lucia Lodge. I picked it because of THAT VIEW. Your "front yard" is an amazing cliffside. We watched sunset while sipping some local wine and eating cookies my friend had shipped to me as a birthday surprise. This older British couple passed us from their lodge and said something like, "Can't think of anything that would be better than what you're doing now." And I agreed with them. Then we drove down the road and had a really good dinner at Treebones Resort. Treebones is probably best known for their yurts but it is
definitely a resort. It would probably be fun to stay there but for this weekend I was happy to be off in our little cabin.
Saturday we woke up early and did a few short hikes: a hike to a waterfall in the woods in Limekiln State Park (and a stop at the beach under the bridge); a trail to the beach at Andrew Molera State Park; and a walk along the bluffs up at Garrapata State Park. All the campgrounds we passed were full. We parked along Highway 1 a bunch. Going through Andrew Molera was the most crowded of our walks, possibly since we hit it in the afternoon and it's far enough north to be an easy reach from Carmel/Monterey. Once we got to the beach though it was easy to move away from the crowds. A few years ago we had seen McWay Falls and hiked in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, so we avoided those crowds this time around. I think my husband M. would like to do more wilderness hikes there so that'll be a future goal. (A good friend had given us a copy of
Hiking and Backpacking Big Sur which has been so useful.)
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| Nepenthe |
We made stops at the
Henry Miller Memorial Library (smaller than I expected) and at
Nepenthe restaurant (much bigger than I expected), both of which hark back to the mid-century mystique around the area. I've been a Beat fan, and though they're not the reason I enjoy Big Sur, I can understand why they and other artists liked it so much out there. We also tried getting into the baths at Esalen, but reservations were sold out, so, another time.
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| Henry Miller Memorial Library |
After all that we spent our second night in Monterey, although by the time we got up there I was pretty tired. After getting an early dinner downtown (
great sushi if you're in the area) and walking around Cannery Row, I was content. On the third day we started driving back to SF after a late breakfast. We came home to flowers and a balloon sent by another dear friend and I spent the rest of Sunday organizing my life a little and still relaxing, easing back into civilization and mentally preparing myself for a busy week.
I love having beaches and mountains so close and really wanted both of them for my birthday. I'm glad M. and I got to have a weekend getaway without too much effort (we threw some clothes in a bag that morning and got in the car. We got In-N-Out for breakfast... perks of a road trip). I could totally spend a week in Big Sur just relaxing with Mother Nature and hope we get back sooner rather than later. There are a couple campsites with incredible views that I'd love to stay at... there are also a couple high-end resorts I'd love to stay at as well, and even a
monastery that I'd give a try.
There's so many ways to do Big Sur that you can't go wrong. Don't do even a simple hike in jeans and flip flops, though (which I saw at Andrew Molera and which puzzled me). If you're thinking about a Big Sur trip, there's a lot on the web to help you plan, but I like how
this article sums it up.
