california road trippin': big sur

"I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move."

~Robert Louis Stevenson

California Love by Paint Me A Picture

I began a series about California road trips last week, starting with Mendocino County. I should say that the draw for me isn't so much about posting a travel guide, it is more about eliciting the spirit of adventure and exploration.....two things that keep me full of vitality. And the beautiful thing is, you don't have to have a travel fund or loads of vacation days off of work in order to infuse your life with road trips. Living in California surely provided an endless supply of road trip opportunities, but there is something to see where ever you live. Just get on the road!

I think what I loved most about Big Sur was the winding drive down Highway 1. I have a great appreciation for the journey part of any trip rather than holding out all my excitement for the destination. But, when Highway 1 is your journey it's pretty impossible not to enjoy it! When I think of California, I think of that drive....something I never tired of. The supreme beauty of never ending rocky cliffs, violent Pacific waves thrashing into endless stretches of sandy shores, sometimes terrifyingly narrow and perilous roads.....the grandeur of it all is almost too intense to fully digest that it drops you into a meditative state. That's another story entirely.....

To get to Big Sur from San Francisco you pass through Santa Cruz (one of my big hangouts), Monterey, and Carmel so there is a lot to see along the way. My final destination was Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park for a long hike through the redwoods to see some beautiful waterfalls, and a hike down to the beach to catch of a glimpse of that famous coastline. I wasn't able to snap any pictures of the really intense views you usually think of when thinking of Big Sur, for fear of falling over cliffs while cars whizzed by on the winding roads of Highway 1. But, here are some of the shots I did manage to take (back in my film camera phase):