Driving on the edge

Pruneland, CA – We are settled in a hillside site at this RV park, just outside Monterey, about 120 miles south of San Francisco.  Our stayover at the previous site was worth it, in that we had a lovely clear day today for our drive up the coast, with beautiful vistas the whole way.

The first leg of the trip was familiar territory, past Hearst Castle that we saw last Thursday.  We caught sight of the castle, and the cattle that still belong to the family, grazing peacefully on the hillsides.  We had learned that descendants of some of the Hearst zoo animals still graze on the grounds too – and today I actually saw more than a dozen zebras amongst the cows!

A few miles further north, we passed the elephant seals again.  What surprised us was that, beyond the vista point, we saw dozens more seals up on other beaches, and even right by the highway!  It must have been hard to galumph all that way – and why would you want to??

The highway began to twist and turn with the shoreline contours, and rise into the mountains at the same time.  In several places, we passed warning signs that said “flooded”, but never did encounter any washed-out sections.  We did, however, come to one point where the two-lane highway was reduced to one, and traffic was regulated by a temporary-looking traffic light.  When it came our turn to go, we realized that the narrowing was because the lane on the ocean side had simply fallen away!  It was hard to tell when this might have happened, but we were very glad it wasn’t at the time of our passing.

 

Falling rocks were also a hazard of this route, and again, we were spared that drama.  As one travels through the Big Sur, the Pacific Coast Highway provides many opportunities to pull over and admire the view.  Of course most of them favour the south-bound drivers, but we had turnouts in our direction as well, not only to allow a moment of contemplation at the magnificent scenery, but also so that slower vehicles such as ours could pull aside and let the faster ones clustered behind get on their way.

When we reached the small towns of Gorda and Lucia, we began to see taller evergreen trees.  On the way through Carmel-by-the-Sea, the road was overshadowed by towering redwoods in places, and we saw expensive stone walls and wrought-iron gates leading to secluded mansions that must have had breathtaking views over the cliffs below. 

A serene adobe mission church stood on a green knoll at Carmel, one of a string of Spanish missions along the coast dating back hundreds of years. Our guidebook said it would be the best one to see, but it’s not easy to pull over on a dime, nor could we be sure there would be room for an RV and towed vehicle to get in, let alone turn around and get out again.  We enjoyed the pretty sight and continued on our way.

We did find a stopping point to view the Bixby Creek Bridge that we had just crossed, with its impressive curved arches.  At the time it was built in 1932, it was the largest concrete bridge in the world.  Way down below was the crashing surf, and by the roadside there were delicate wildflowers scattered in the grass.  If you looked far enough out to sea, you could practically see Japan!