Californivacation: Big Sur (Finally!)

This is the moment you've been waiting for...on this never ending journey from Orange County to San Francisco, we've finally come to the pinnacle, the wondrous Big Sur! 

A hangout of beatniks and nature lovers, Big Sur is a stretch of beautiful cliffs jutting into the ocean. Along the hairpin turns is a jade cove where hobos used to find and carve pieces of sea jade to sell, a beach of purple sand, and hidden trails lined with redwoods. Majestic doesn't begin to describe this striking landscape.

I arrived at Ragged Point, the first stop of Big Sur, as the sun was beginning to set (of course). Made for good pictures but also that I missed the cool jade cove (boo) and had to drive to the middle of the Big Sur area in the dark (marrrr).

(There are tons of pics on this one so be sure to see all of them after the jump!)

 Ragged point

 Majestic

 Another photographer alerted me to the humming birds about 2 minutes from the previous picture. Wouldn't you like to hold this little thing in your hand and tweet at it?

Not a great picture, but an important one. They are not joking when they say to load up on gas before you drive into Big Sur. There was one other place about 10 miles from here which I passed thinking my gas was fine. However the gas gage on my little rental suddenly started blinking at me. It was very dark by this point, my heart started pounding to the rhythm of the blinking, and I turned around to buy some extremely expensive gas. I probably would have been ok getting to my hotel, but I definitely did not want to be wrong and spend the night on the side of the road in the dark, sparsely populated extremely scary Big Sur.

My little cabin in the woods. I'm not going to lie, it was a little disconcerting to arrive here in the middle of the night knowing Big Sur central has all of 100 people there. I could have broken the lock on this door with my pinky finger, but I was told Big Sur is extremely safe. Of course, most places are safe until a psychopath moves into the neighborhood.

 

 Whoa.

 I was mesmerized by the way the water whirled around these rocks.

 Then I stepped back into time.

 If you look carefully on the left you can see a tiny waterfall. This place was touted (sp?) as having a cool waterfall. It wasn't that cool. It was almost invisible, but only a small disappointment considering the rest of the scenery.

There are a bunch of turnouts along the road in Big Sur where cars can stop and take pictures and sometimes hike down closer to the water. I wanted to stop at every single one.

More in a day or two...