Galleries and Memorials

Henry Miller was an artist and writer who lived in Big Sur in the 50s and 60s. He expressly wanted no memorials after he died, so one of his friends immediately turned his own home into one anyway, the Henry Miller Memorial Library. Located among the quirky lodges, galleries and restaurants that cluster in the tiny village called Big Sur proper, the HML is kind of like that house on the cover of the first Crosby, Stills and Nash album, the one with the old couch on the porch. “Free” coffee (with a suggested $3 donation), lots of books and dusty vinyl records for sale (Donovan and the Byrds and Joan Baez), a falling-apart piano and a bored-looking hippy girl behind the counter, all under towering redwood trees. It was actually a really cool place to hang out for a while and try to imagine being Henry Miller (I couldn’t). But they had a wonderful persimmon tree.

Nepenthe is one of the oldest restaurants in Big Sur, started back in the 40s. It still has a reputation of great food, great views and bountiful quirkiness. We stopped here for lunch and it was right on all counts.

The view from our table at Nepenthe, looking south

 

Highway 1

The main “attraction” of the Big Sur country is actually Hyw 1 itself, designated a National Scenic Byway. For 80+ miles it winds around the rocks and bluffs of the coast with sheer dropoffs, sublime views and dozens of scenic bridges that seem to have been created back when the rocks and beaches were formed. We travelled back north from our campground about 25 miles to visit the village of Big Sur and a couple of the state parks that dot the coastline. We never got tired of the views from this road and made sure we took turns driving so one could gawk while the other white-knuckled the driving.
 

We stopped at a few of the more noteworthy sites along the highway. Pfeiffer State Beach is a bleak and rocky spot with windswept cypress trees and purplish sand.  We walked to the northern rocks on the cove and were surprised to see that people had been building rock piles down there, so we added a few of our own.

 McWay falls is one of the iconic sights along the coast (just try Googling "McWay Falls" for images to see about a million that people have taken before me.  I couldn't resist trying my hand because it is just too picturesque!

Big Sur!

Traveling south from Santa Cruz, we follow the curve of Monterey Bay along the seaside towns and agricultural fields spilling out of the Salinas Valley. Truly a cornucopia, this valley produces lettuce, strawberries, artichokes and other foods that ship to the entire country. We stop at a veggie stand in Watsonville and buy artichokes (5 for $1!!), berries, squash, kiwis and avocados to take with us into the hinterland for we know there are no stores where we are going.

Big Sur (El grande pais de la Sur) is not a town or a county or a peninsula or a state. It is a vast, ill-defined land where rugged mountains meet the sea and where artists and writers have been drawn for more than 70 years. The road is California Hwy 1, the Pacific Coast Highway, and runs roughly 90 miles from Carmel, just below Monterey, to San Simeon where William Randolph Hearst built his castle. Highway 101 runs parallel to 1 about 30-50 miles to the East and in between is a roadless, rugged, steep and hostile wilderness. Hwy 1 was built using convict labor and was completed in 1937. Dozens of towering bridges span the frequent canyons that meander out of the coastal mountains. Electric service didn’t reach into Big Sur until the 50s. Even today, the few hardy souls who live there must have a burning drive for isolation, inconvenience and extremes of all kind... but the beauty of the scenery makes all that seem insignificant.

 

Big Sur coastline with the Bixby Creek bridge in view

We’ve had reservations at Kirk Creek campground for months. Landing one of the edge-of-the-bluff campsites was an obsession with me once I first read about this campground. So here we were, finally arrived at site #21 for a week. No electricity, no showers, no drinking water, pit toilets, no cell service, no internet, no stores, just this view from our site:

 

 

Moonset and the milky way from our campsite

So my next few posts will make up for a week off the grid with pictures of some of the unique places of this special area.

Saying Goodbye to Santa Cruz

We had one more full day in Santa Cruz before leaving for Big Sur, so we packed a lot in.  We spent the morning at the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park and walked among the beautiful redwoods just a short hop from the village of Aptos.  This forest, like so many others, was clearcut in the late 1800s but thanks to the tremendously fast growth of redwood trees, it is now quite a nice forest.

After lunch we headed over to the Wilder Ranch State Park near the UC campus.  When I went to school there, the Wilder ranch was still a ranch, but in the 90s was donated to the state and now is over 10,000 acres of protected coastal bluff, forest and beaches.  Santa Cruz is really quite well-endowed, with parks nearly circling the town for miles around.  The park was having a big celebration with period-costumed docents and kids events going on all afternoon.  We hung around for a bit of that and then headed off to walk the bluffs.

Horse-drawn wagon rides

Blacksmiths demonstrated their skills

Of course, fields full of pumpkins

The bluffs protected by the new state park are still used for agriculture, preserving the character that this area has had for over 100 years.  Apparently a housing development was proposed for this land but it was preserved through the efforts of Santa Cruz area citizens.  It is a very beautiful place!

Field of rosemary, with scarecrow

Dog Beach!

Santa Cruz has probably the nicest dog park/beach we have seen anywhere.  The one in Bonita Springs is very nice, but I think Santa Cruz edges it out.  Closed on either end by rocky points and with access down the cliff only on one stairway, the dogs can't leave.  And, these California dogs are very mellow.  Plus the beach is gorgeous, with the lighthouse at one end and Monterey Cypress trees around the perimeter.  We had a blast and tired Tucker out thoroughly, which was good since we were planning to go to lecture that night and he would be left home.

The sky was filling with clouds and there was almost no color on the beach or in the water so I tried processing some pictures I took on beach in black and white.  They came out striking, I think!

More Exploring Around Santa Cruz

This is such a beautiful area--the beaches and coastline, the forests, the cool vibe of the town (people in the grocery checkout line talk about surf spots and the current wave conditions).  We took Tucker to the dog beach and visited the butterfly's at Natrual Bridges State Park.  I got up before sunrise one day and went to world-renowned surf spot, Steamer Lane, and took some shots of the surfers waiting for waves.  Then we visited with my old work buddy, Dave Thomas, and went to a mountain winery for some tasting during the solar eclipse.  Having a great week!

Every year the monarch butterfly's return to the same grotto in Natural Bridges SP for the winter. These insects are the fourth generation descendents of the prior years' butterflies whose offpring traveled all the way to Idaho and back, with each generation only living a few weeks or months.  By December there will be many times more of them here in Santa Cruz, as they have just started to arrive.  My neck was sore from looking up at them hanging from the eucalyptus trees!

Burrell School Winery is located way up in the mountains between Santa Cruz and San Jose.  The views were beautiful (and the wine was good!)

We didn't know it, but a partial solar eclipse was going on when we arrived at the winery. Conveniently, they had a welder's mask to look through and I got this shot by awkwardly shooting through the mask.  Notice the sunspots.

The vineyards were gorgeous and the last of the grapes were still hanging on the vines while the leaves are starting to change color.

Santa Cruz

I lived in Santa Cruz from 1969 to 1972 while in college and loved the town.  It has certainly grown (and gotten more expensive!) since then, but it still has this funky, laid back, beach town 60's feel to it that is very nice.  We are camped at Henry Cowell Redwoods state park, just 5 miles from downtown and we'll be here a week.  Yesterday, our friends Jim and Bobby came to hang out with us, had lunch and we went for a hike in the redwoods.  Most of this area was logged in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  The magnificent redwood trees went into building homes (many of these 100-year-old victorians are still scattered around Santa Cruz) and for fueling limestone kilns.  After the 1906 earthquake, more buildings were being built of brick and mortar and 75% of the lime for the mortar came from the kilns now within this park.  By 1920, all the redwoods were cut down except a few small groves, but due to the redwood tree's extremely fast growth, the second-growth redwood forests here are quite nice.

Lynnae and Bobby

This old narrow-gauge railroad still runs through the park.