The Big Sur Coast Highway on Cali- fornia’s Route 1 is the country’s quintes- sential coastal drive, a twisting, turn- ing, cliff-topping 72 miles of unrelenting beauty and elemental power. It is the northern segment of California’s two- part All-American Road and adjoins the 57-mile San Luis Obispo North Coast Byway at Ragged Point Vista, just north of San Simeon and the fabled Hearst Castle. Both byways are spectacular, and many visitors combine them. Heading north from Ragged Point Vista, you’ll meander across broad grassy bluffs where cattle graze lands originally deeded by Spanish grants in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Entering the Ventana Wilderness, curves tighten, shoulders narrow and drop-offs become more precipitous. This is a tough and trying drive, especially tricky for RVs, and demands your full attention. So save any serious gawking for the scenic overlooks. Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park offers your first real opportunity to park and
do some leg stretching. This little park, which also poses your first and only chance to witness a California waterfall tumble into the Pacific, is not to be con- fused with the larger and better know Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, 10 miles to the north. The Pfeiffers behind the naming of these parks, Julia and John, were sibling descendants of a German immigrant who developed a ranch here in 1869. Follow a trail along McWay Creek through a tunnel beneath the byway to an overlook where you can observe slender McWay Falls tumbling a hundred feet from a granite cliff into McWay Cove. Straddling a clifftop just across the road is Nepenthe, Big Sur’s restaurant of renown, a striking complex built in the 1940s by Orson Wells as a retreat for himself and his young bride Rita Hayworth. Today it’s an eclectic hodge- podge of bar, restaurant and art gallery. Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park is tucked away in a valley formed by the Big Sur River and boasts an impressive stand of redwoods. Hike a fern-filled canyon to
Pfeiffer Falls or hook up at the trailhead here for a longer trek into the Ventana Wilderness. The park has a rustic lodge and restaurant, grocery store, cottages and a campground with sites for self-con- tained RVs, but only for one-night stays. You’ll find one of Big Sur’s best and most accessible beaches a little more than a mile from the park. Follow Sycamore Canyon Road 2 miles down to Pfeiffer Beach, an idyllic strand bisected by a bubbling brook and embraced by giant boulders and sea stacks. The next park you’ll encounter is Andrew Molera State Park, which offers a pleasant picnic area in a grove of alders, 4 miles of beachfront and 16 miles of hiking trails. As you approach the byway terminus in Carmel, don’t pass by Point Lobos State Natural Reserve. This is a marvel- ous conservancy, occupying a pristine 1,225-acre peninsula. The cliffs, coves and meadows of Point Lobos are home to nearly 300 species of plants and almost as many kinds of birds and animals, includ- ing seals, sea otters and sea lions.
18 COAST TO COAST spring 2014
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