Big Sur, California: May 2006

Part III: Wednesday - Saturday May 10-13

Wednesday May 10: We had breakfast at the Loma Vista Bakery this morning. They have baked goods and a large assortment of teas. I had fritatta which was huge; John had some muffins and buns. We picked up lunch at the Deli next door and headed south to Limekiln State Park. There was some roadwork along the highway - they were clearing slide areas - but the delays were brief.

We started out on Hare Trail (which follows Hare Creek) - lots of nice little falls (left) and large redwoods (right). Do you see in the picture at the left that a tree has fallen across the stream? And as it rotted, many little trees (and other vegetation) were growing out of it? We saw a lot of those along the way and in some places could see where the original log completely rotted away, but the new trees had taken root and were growing along the banks.

We branched off when we came to the intersection with Falls Trail and immediately came to a halt where the trail ended at a stream (below left). We could see that it did continue on the other side so completely ignoring our recent experience with crossing streams - there was a promise of a spectacular waterfall at the end, after all - we crossed over on rocks and logs THREE different times. And didn't get wet. (See me balancing precariously in the center below. Actually that was one of the larger logs and wasn't so scary which is why I let John take that picture!) And the 100-foot waterfall was indeed awesome (below right).

  

We stopped and had some of lunch at the falls then headed back down, crossing the stream again in the absence of the "narrow wooden footbridges" the guide had promised. I will confess that some of the pride in this great accomplishment was dashed when, on the way back down, we passed a field trip of a couple dozen 4th, 5th and 6th graders with 4 adults making the same trek. Only they cheated - they brought towels and "wading shoes" and just walked across! That was safe since the water here was only ankle high - nowhere near as deep as we had encountered at Andrew Molera. We then took Kiln Trail up to the old kilns. This used to be a limestone mining area and the kilns were used to fire the limestone and turn it into quick lime that was then, apparently, sent in barrels down to the coast where it was shipped to Monterey and San Francisco for making concrete. One of the old kilns is at left, and we are at right posing at the kiln site by Limekiln Creek.

Next on our agenda was Jade Beach. The trails start at Sand Dollar Beach access which was closed for maintenance. That just meant that everybody parked along the highway and walked in. There is a trail along the bluff that goes through a lovely meadow (left) and eventually you pick a place to "scramble down" to the beach. No real trails going down. That's okay - we've scrambled before. We spent about an hour there - John collecting (below the "mean high tide line" which is the law) and me enjoying the views and sounds and reading. The first set of pictures below show where we had to "scramble" down (and then go back up). It was really higher than it looks in that picture. The center is just a view sitting in the cove and the right is what the cliff looks like close up - see how green it is from the jade?

  

Next, some of the rocks that are available (these are right at the edge of the water and legal for collecting) and John sorting which rocks to keep before we climbed back up!

         

       

We walked over to Sand Dollar Beach (left) after we left the Jade Cove but it was getting late and the tide was rather high by then so we just took a short walk. There were, however, stairs down to the beach there (right) which made it relatively easy!

We had browsed at Heart Beat - an art gallery/gift shop next to River Inn - the other night just as they were closing but wanted to get back earlier this evening to buy some prints and one photo on canvas that I liked. We suddenly recognized how late it was and so headed there before going back to the motel. After making our purchases, we decided it had been a long day and to just eat leftovers in the room and spend time in the hot tub. But, gasp! - there was no hot water. However, my husband is a genius and figured out that the circuit breaker for the on-demand hot water had been tripped. He reset it and all was well. I have to admit that after all the hiking we did we did really appreciate the hot soaks in the evenings!

Thursday May 11: We ate oatmeal and rolls in the room this morning and checked out around 9 AM, heading back north to Point Lobos again. This time we drove to the far end and took the Bird Island Trail (left - the birds in question seem to be mostly Brandt's Cormorants, but also some swallows and 2 types of gull). There is a closer picture below center. (Can you see the 2 gulls in amongst all the cormorants?) China Beach was blocked off because of what looked like (we obviously couldn't get too close) an elephant seal resting there. Beautiful flowers and a nice walk.

  

We then walked over to Sea Lion Point which was short on sea lions, though there were a few (right), but we enjoyed the various rock formations (below) and Barb once again captured some nice waves! (left) After that, we headed into Carmel, had a good Chinese lunch at the Crossroads shopping area and then visited a few galleries we had missed the first time through; John particularly wanted to visit Gallery 21 and see some of Eyvind Earle's works.

     

The afternoon we spent at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. This is a very expensive proposition but everybody said it was a "must do" if you were in the area. And it was lots of fun. We enjoyed the "jellies" (below), the penguins and the otters the most I think. We found a motel room out near Highway 1 for a quick escape in the morning then had dinner at the Blue Moon Bistro on Cannery Row, followed by the sunset and the moon rising along Sunset Drive.

          

Friday May 12: We headed north on Highway 1 in dense fog. There were some twisty parts but they were nothing compared to Highway 9! That was 20-30 mph, more and tighter curves than any we had encountered so far. We stopped in Felton at the New Leaf, a delightful natural foods market, and got some great sandwiches at their deli for lunch, some local honey and tomorrow's breakfast! Then we continued on up 9 to Hwy 236 and into Big Basin Redwoods State Park (the first California State Park). That trip took about 2 hours. Once in Big Basin, we first took the short nature walk where we saw the "Mother" (tallest) tree, left, and the "Father" tree (oldest - approximately 2000 years old), right, of the forest.

We collected lunch and backpacks and headed to Sempervirens Falls (right), planning to do the 4 mile loop. We started on Sequoia Trail, but at the Bob Kirsch Trail cutover, there was a sign pointing us to Shadowbrook Trail with a "Wrong Way" sign on Sequoia. So we obediently went the "right" way. Eventually, as we kept coming on these signs, we figured out they were for an event coming up over the weekend and did not apply to us! So after we got to the falls, we went back down Sequoia Trail - just doing the loop in reverse of what we had planned. It was interesting how different this redwood forest was from the coastal ones - no poison oak (in the Big Sur area it was everywhere), no wildflowers. Mostly lots of redwoods, tanbark oak and Douglas fir; also some madrone and wax myrtle trees, lots of huckleberry. We saw an acorn woodpecker and a different type of lizard: "scalier" and larger than the ones further south.

These pictures are just a couple of interesting things. On the left is a "circle." We saw a lot of these - sometimes the center, original tree, was gone but the younger ones were in the circle format. Here you can see the parent tree is still there. On the right is a tree whose bark is very gnarly. Spiders have used the indentations and it's covered with cobwebs!

          

After leaving Big Basin, we continued on 236 to Castle Rock State Park. We stopped and took a very short walk through a meadow that provided very different views than any other area we've been in all week! (pictures left and right) But other than this, there didn't seem to be anything here we hadn't already seen. So we continued on the way towards San Jose. We stopped in Saratoga - a delightful little "village" - similar to Carmel in some ways. Lots of shops, antiques, an appear of wealth (the cars tended to be Audis, BMS's and even Rolls!) We had some snacks (gelato and smoothie) and continued on to Los Gatos, where we stopped at a Whole Foods Market (got food for the plane tomorrow) and Trade Joe's (just to look). We spent the night in Campbell at a Motel 6 just off the interstate. Ate at an Indian restaurant just a block or so away.

The trip home was relatively uneventful. For some odd reason we were routed through Salt Lake City, so the last two pictures are of the snow-capped rockies at the Salt Lake City airport and then in the air above the city. We had a good week - got lots of exercise but also some relaxation and saw an area of the country that was new to us.