We left the wonderful world of
Elephant seals and
headed north on the
Pacific Coast
Highway with the sun shining down on us to make
this another wonderful day. Our visits to the
Big Sur
region in the past had given us better opportunities to stop along the roadside as
we had parked the RV and driven south with the truck only. When driving north pulling a big RV, that
changes the parking opportunities for sightseeing.
 |
| Big Sur California coastline |
Big Sur follows about a 90 mile (140 km) stretch of road along the coast and the
Santa Lucia Range on the Pacific Ocean south of the
Monterey
Peninsula. The steep grade and rocky terrain offers very
little flat land so there is not a lot of residential or commercial development
through here
 |
| Gorda, Big Sur, California |
We do see a few small settlements that offer
accommodations or restaurants and the popular tourist gift stores. There are three villages offering amenities
but no big hotels there. Any homes that are here are out of view of the highway
but I understand there are not a lot of those, either.
 |
| Private driveway on Big Sur |
The Big Sur Marathon is held yearly and sounds like a very
popular marathon to participate in for those so inclined and that is not
surprising, it is gorgeous along there. The
road is closed to traffic while the marathon is on and the views are amazing!
 |
| Bixby Bridge, Pacific Coast Highway |
The
Bixby
Bridge was constructed in
1932 and was part of eighteen years of construction to build the road in this
area. It wasn’t until this time that there was much traffic using this route,
at all but that changed drastically when the road opened in 1937 and it was
then closed down during winter months.
 |
| Rocky shoreline of Big Sur |
The road has some hills and lots of curves, it is a winding
road which makes it very popular for car and bicycle tours but can be a bit
challenging for the big RV’s in some parts of this road. I don’t recall seeing any big semi trucks on
here and the traffic is fairly light considering the location so not a difficult
drive.
 |
| Mesh safety netting |
Some of the banks along the roadside have loose rock and
gravel, there has been occasion to close the road due to slides in the past but
the netting used helps to hold some of the small rock contained, preventing it
from falling and creating problems on the road.
 |
| Big Sur, California |
Now there are millions of visitors a year as it is a big
tourist attraction along this part of the
Pacific Coast Highway. The views are amazing. It is an easy drive
from either end of Big Sur so can easily become a day trip from the
Monterey Peninsula
or locations south of Big
Sur.
 |
| Colorful fauna |
The camping facilities are there but the ones we could see
on our travels look limited to tents and small RV’s. We might find it difficult to get a place to park
our big RV but there are some campgrounds and cabins available along the
Big Sur coastline. I would suggest they might have to be booked
well in advance with the limited numbers available.
 |
| Blue waters of Big Sur |
There are nine state parks on Big Sur
but with very limited access to the beach.
This is to preserve the natural habitat and there are some conservation
areas offshore to preserve the marine life.
It was a great drive even with the big RV’s and taking photos
out the window. We were on our way to
our next stop for an overnight stay where we watched the sunset from the
beach.
See more of our travels on the Pacific Coast Highway here.
