SeeCalifornia.com

This picture was taken at a road stop along the Big Sur coast (Highway 1) in Central California. Though European travelers seek train rides and public transportation to explore this treasured landscape, you basically have to drive it by car. The road is incredibly windy, the drive is slow, and sometimes there can be rock slides, detours and even road closures. However, the scenery as you wind your way through California’s coastal Santa Lucia mountain range, which separates the California coast from the inland salad bowl of Salinas Valley, is some of the most spectacular on the Planet!  Coast redwoods grow in a very narrow strip along the coast of California from the extreme southwestern corner of Oregon to 150 miles south of San Francisco in the Soda Springs drainage of Big Sur.

Favorite stopping points on this road trip between the cities of San Simeon and Carmel by the Sea include Gorda Springs, Nepenthe, Lucia and Ragged Point, though there are several resorts and many state beaches to see along the way. Among them are Garrapata State Park, Point Sur State Historic Park (with a turn of the century light station open to the public,) Andrew Molera State Park (where you can ride horseback along trails–call: 831- 667-2315,) Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and Limekiln State Park.