Ft Bragg to Big Sur; 8/20-22/19

August 20-22 

Traveling through Wine Country to Monterey & Big Sur

We woke up to a glorious sun filled morning. Before leaving our Oceanview Lodge we sat on our tiny patio and watched the waves and seagulls while drinking our first cup of coffee. Nirvana! 

Great walking/biking around us; just like our last two places. 

Since we have previously covered so much of the 101 or 1, we are just picking the fastest route to get through San Fran down to Monterey. 

We took 128 through the Redwoods again. It’s so crazy because one minute you are enjoying the coastal views and the next, a glorious canopy of trees! As we crossed into Navarro, the vineyards started. In the early morning sun, they look very picturesque, but I couldn't get a good photo.

The California One

Love old barns like this one. They have such charm!

It’s always a thrill to cross the Golden Gate Bridge by San Francisco especially in this brilliant sunshine. So many great memories of our times here when Catherine and Mike lived here! 

Golden Gate...it always takes my breath away...

Trying to get through San Fransisco traffic

As we got closer to Monterey, we went by many produce fields with migrants picking whatever was ripe? Periodically, we would see the Pacific again too; especially at Moss Landing by Monterey Bay. 

Trying to figure out Monterey's fancy parking system

We arrived at the Navy Lodge at the Naval Postgraduate School of Monterey. We had a beautiful newly refurbished room at half the price we have been paying commercially for much less. It’s good to be retired military!

This is a beautiful base with all the old architecture and landscaping. Can't believe we forgot to photograph it.

https://my.nps.edu/photo-gallery  Here's a link in case you want to see the base.

It’s funny to think we almost came here 43 or so years ago. Mike was offered a slot at the naval postgraduate school to get his Masters degree here. For a variety of reasons, he turned it down. 

Talking about those days now, we realize how different our life could have been with that one choice…

Big Sur

Unfortunately we have a thick marine layer as we start our trip today. We were able to see some of the Carmel by the Sea’s spectacular homes that cling to the hillsides. Their views must be incredible but given the earthquakes & mudslides, I’m not sure how safe I would feel?  Needless to say, this road is another very curvy one. Thank Goodness Mike is up for the challenge! Even with the mists the views still were stunning and a bit scary as you look down over these heights. 

...And Rolling plains that touch the ocean in spots

The mists are breaking up and we can see more of the spectacular views but the winds are incredibly strong! What trees & bushes grow here are all sideways to the wind. When we can see the Pacific, it’s pretty obvious there are some serious waves and no sign of surfers. 

It’s a very rugged country with a mixture of grasslands & dunes on the lower ranges with more forests and rock outcropping as you travel higher. Part of Big Sur is in a Boreal Forest with charming old cabins, restaurants and hotels. While other areas are more coastal which is what I expected. 

                                        Another ranch that ran right to the Pacific

Even the cows become hidden in the mist. We were amazed how many ranches ran right down to the ocean.

What I didn’t expect to see were cow ranches along here? You see clusters of mailboxes but often times it’s hard to figure out where the roads to these homes were? I can easily see why the rich and famous would love these homes. It’s very private and remote up here. 

A sign for Esalen Institute by Appointment Only? https://www.esalen.org/page/esalen-history

The Pfeiffers were very influential in getting two parks dedicated along this route.   ...”Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park is named after John Pfeiffer, who lived in a cabin on the property beginning in 1884. He was the son of Michael Pfeiffer and Barbara Laquet. The Pfeiffer family immigrated from France and were among the first European settlers in the area.[2] Many features in Big Sur are named for the descendants of the Pfeiffers.

In 1930, John Pfeiffer had the opportunity to sell his land to a Los Angeles developer for $210,000. The developer wanted to build a subdivision on the land. Instead, Pfeiffer sold 700 acres (2.8 km2) to the state of California in 1933.” 

One side of the road was the ocean the other side looked like this...

It all starts looking the same, but OH so beautiful!!!

What a vista!!!

Yep, those brown windy looking lines are roads of sorts...

The road got backed up here; as they are trying repair the road from rock slides or the road sliding away

it’s seems there was roadwork every few miles, as the roads crumble and the occasional rock slide causes problems. 

Mike loves to find waterfalls

These water colors are so glorious!

Limekiln Park and Las Padres are state parks along here. What’s amazing to us are the various arrays of blue greens the ocean displays along here. Some of  the oceanic colors rival the Caribbean! The other hazard along this road besides the toad itself are the tourists and bicyclists, particularly the Asians. Yikes. They are running everywhere!!! 

The marine layer disappears for miles than we are right back in the middle of it; but if you look over the mountains away from the coast you can see blue skies once again. 

Treebones Resort has the cutest signage and logo. http://www.treebonesresort.com/ It turns out it has Glamping Yurts...

At points on CA1, they have big gates to just shutdown this road. There has been an abundance of yellow yarrow, Queen’s Anne Lace, sea oats, wild grasses and succulent ground covers of all varieties clinging to the rocks and outcroppings.  Thankfully, Some evergreens and sage brushes manage to root themselves to these steep sides holding the soul in place when they aren’t pulled out by the strong and violent storms that must come through here on occasion. We haven’t seen any boats along this part of the coast. Like Mike said, there’s probably no safe harbor. There are miles of coastline that unless you are a really expert hiker would be hard to access. It’s also hard to know sometimes what is private and public out here. 

Really steep hills here with loads of private beach are along the way...

Civilization arrives at Vista Del Mar, then we are back in the wilds of San Simeon State Park. 

                 I borrowed this image from Yelp for a Vista del Mar park

The closer we got to the Hearst Castle, (we have been to it before so didn't stop this time)

Aerial view off the Hearst Castle website

http://hearstcastle.org/

the grasslands appeared along with goats and sheep ranches. Lonely and remote here but beautiful with its wide open stretches of beach and mountains.  

Cambria is the biggest town around. We went through here a few years ago when we visited Paso Robles wine country and the Hearst Castle. Both were well worth that trip!

We had gotten a late start this morning, so we left CA 1 to pick up 101 South in San Luis Obispo.  We wanted to get to our Gateway Inn at Port Hueneme by dinner time. 

Still lovely views even from this highway. Pismo Beach with its white sands is pretty sublime.

Pismo Beach off their website

 We are seeing the pretty tidy vineyards again, as we get closer to Santa Barbara. 

https://santabarbaraca.com/plan-your-trip/shopping/

Getting through Santa Barbara is always a challenge! The pretty landscaping down the middle of the freeway and looking at the neighborhoods and beaches are nice distractions. At Sea Cliff, north of Ventura, we could see lots of RV’s along the coastal roadway. Another CA wine area we have to visit. 

By Eugene Zelenko - Own work, 

The old El Camino Rd is part of 101 now and this mission can be found there.

Channel Islands National Park is close to the Port Hueneme Naval base we are staying at tonight. Since this base is mainly Seabees instead of having airplanes sitting on display it’s bulldozers. Gotta love that!!! Go Navy! 

Borrowed these photos from their website

We stayed right by their Officers Club which is the old Bard historic mansion. Beautiful! It's for rent...pretty cool!

https://ventura.navylifesw.com/programs/21e02f3c-848f-414b-9669-2310bee96cc6

Our suite at the Gateway Inn & Suites was spacious enough we could enjoy our Commissary picnic dinner in comfort and style. 

We haven’t watched much TV in months, but we caught an interesting show about President Roosevelt’s Presidential Yacht, the Potomac is in Oakland, CA. You can go out on her for a cruise/tour to Angel Island, which we would love. 

Another image off Yelp

http://usspotomac.org/

Also, caught the 40th Anniversary Show of PBS’s This Old House. Fascinating to look back at a show we have followed for that long.