I Left My Heart in Big Sur

I’m always amazed by Big Sur and in awe of its beauty.  You look to the west and the ocean goes on forever and ever. North and south are views of the coast as far as the eye can see and from the east the mountains come down and meet the water.  It’s huge-the sky is just miles and miles of bright azure blue and the sea is a mix of steel blue, teal green, dark blue and foamy white caps.  I fall in love with Big Sur all over again with each visit.

 

 Fell in love with the waves of Big Sur-they were awesome the entire time we were here

And the road, how it hugs the coast and each curve in the road opens to a vista more beautiful than the last.  I feel so small in such an awe inspiring corner of the world.  And at night, when it’s clear –the sky opens up with thousands of stars-no city lights here to distract you.  Just dark dark skies and twinkling shining stars.  It’s a place that makes me feel so grateful to be alive and so blessed to be a witness to the beauty that is Big Sur.

When Jim and I first bought Ruby we followed Highway 1 up through Big Sur with her.  On that trip we discovered Kirk Creek Campground.  It was full when we drove through but we vowed to someday return.  What a gorgeous campground-perched on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean and the mountains of Big Sur.  There isn’t a bad site in the campground.  Its bare basics, no hook ups, no water, just pit toilets. But the view-that is so gorgeous it takes your breath away.

Our first spot at the campground was space 13, up on the hill and out in the open-we stayed for 3 days.  And when it was time to leave and head south, we just couldn't.  We weren't ready to leave this little corner of our universe.  We watched the spouts of migrating whales; dolphins playing in the surf; condors flying overhead; hummingbirds flitting from flower to flower and all the while songbirds celebrating the joyous beauty of this place with their own songs.  How could we leave-so we decided to stay 4 more days.  No cell phone, no internet, no electric, no water-just one of the unbelievably beautiful spots in the world.  So we settled into space 15, got out the coffee and binoculars and watched for water spouts from the whales while the sun warmed our faces.

My favorite spots for camping here are space 15, 17, 19 and 22.  22 is perfect if you don’t have solar and enjoy settling in under the shade of huge pine tree.  I loved the smell of wild fennel when I brushed up against it while hiking the trail down to the rocky beach.  And the smell of the campfires at night was something I won’t ever forget.  Laying down to sleep and looking up at the stars through Ruby’s windows was my favorite part of the day-the sound of the waves crashing on the shore and nothing else-perfection.  We both thank God every day for the blessings we have and this life we are living.

 This is Pete Hufford, a unicyclist who came into our camp looking for water. He didn't know he had 6 more miles to go before the next campground where there was water so we gave him a half gallon of ours.  So far he cycled from Washington DC to Iowa; took a plane from Iowa to Seattle and then unicycled down the coast where we ran into him at Big Sur-AMAZING. Check out his blog: http://petehufford.com/

 

 The waves continued on the entire time-too bad we missed a huge surf competition just down the coast-The Mavericks-check it out !

Tonight, January 24th was a night of one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen.  The entire coastline lit up all purple, pink and blue-you couldn't have painted a more beautiful scene.  It was the perfect ending to a lovely day.

 The view from our hike up Nacimiento Road

 

On Saturday, the 25th we hiked up the Nacimiento Road-it’s a paved road and eventually ends in Paso Robles-we didn't walk that far!  Only a few miles.  The road parallels Highway 1, and it’s just across the bridge from the campground- the view is spectacular.  At the first crest there is a fantastic boon docking spot-currently occupied by a couple who appear to have settled in for quite some time.  I would too-its level, in full sun and with views as far as the eye can see.  I will definitely keep that spot in mind for some serious boon docking.

It was a hot sunny day but by the time we hiked back to the campground a little bit of cloud cover had moved in and pretty much stayed that way the rest of the day.  It’s Saturday night and the campground is full.  There is a Sports mobile couple here from Reno and a Roadtrek couple from Colorado.  There was an Adventurous that pulled in late last night but left early this morning.  This is a perfect campground for our self-sufficient small class B’s!  But it’s big enough for the A’s and C’s too-although the B’s definitely outnumber them and the tents outnumber all of us!

View of our campground coming back down the Nacimiento Road

We’ll be heading south from here on Tuesday.  We plan on stopping at Hearst Castle for one of the tours and then probably camping at San Simeone State Park-they have showers (which we are in desperate need of); a Sani dump (also in desperate need of) and hook ups-so we can charge everything to the max!  We still have Ruby winterized and we will be changing that shortly so we can fill up on water and not have to look for campground showers!  We are also in desperate need of a Laundromat-so we will be busy little campers when we take off from Kirk Creek-and that is going to be difficult to do.
Enjoy my scenes of Big Sur and Happy Trails to you and your loved ones. And much love to our families who we wish could be physically on this journey with us-you are in our hearts all the time.