A Weekend in Big Sur

Living in the city can sometimes make us forget about the “natural” setting our built environment is situated on and around. It can be so easy to ignore the special place in the world that is our California coastline along with its many inhabitants and intricacies of interrelationship. Redwood, Bay, and Oak trees, rocky sea stacks, waterfalls, rivers, bobcats, pelicans, seagulls, coastal scrub and poison oak are just some of what you’d expect to see in one of our local reserves, conservation minded parks or other open spaces, and you can see them all in fine form on the Big Sur coastline.
Big Sur is one of the most dazzling sections of the famous Hwy. 1, with rolling hills, rugged coastline and remarkably clear, turquoise water. To get there by car, you can take 1 all the way through Santa Cruz and Monterey and it takes about 4 hours and 40 minutes to drive the 165 curvy miles. An alternative route is to take 101 through San Jose and past Gilroy to Hwy. 156, which links up with Hwy 1 near Monterey. That way is 148 less picturesque miles but it only takes 2 hours and 40 minutes to get there. We recently took a trip down Highway 1 to check out Big Sur and do some visioning and planning for ECOSF. Check out what we saw along the way:

The first stop off along the way was at Bean Hollow State Beach, a small, beach, good for exploring the rocky intertidal marine ecosystem and the species that dwell in it. It consists of mat algae flats, exposed and protected rocks, and tidepools. Some of the species we came across were the giant green anemone, Pacific sea stars, giant-knobbed stars, hermit crabs, chitons, mussels, and a large variety of green, red, and brown algae, including dead man’s fingers, surfgrass, and bull-whip kelp. The beach has some amazing rock formations as well as you can see below. Definitely worth a stop off along the way. We also couldn’t help but pass miles of artichoke farms along the coast near Santa Cruz.

As we continued down the road, we came across the Swanson Berry Farm just outside of the small town of Davenport. They have a lovely self-serve cafe with a preserves and jams from their blackberry, strawberry, and lingonberry patches, along with hot soup and other refreshments. We couldn’t help but illustrate the way they do business, check it out:

After a little lunch there, we continued down Hwy 1, now heading out sights for the Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz. Once there we made our way to their Monarch Trail, which is a small all-access trail to where the Monarch butterflies roost during their migration south that begins in October and ends around January. On some seasons, the numbers have been in the several thousand, but this year, when we arrived there were only about 800 or so huddled together in the branches of towering Eucalyptus trees. If you look closely in the picture below, you can see their golden yellow patterns against the browns and greens of the trees. The photo on the left is of one of the many types of milkweed (Asclepias sp.) that the Monarchs rely on as their only source of food. Be sure to plant some in your garden!

The Natural Bridges, world-famous for their namesake’s geologic phenomena, doesn’t have the 3 natural arches that resembled bridges that it once had, but it still is a beautiful beach to stroll and look at the shaping of the rocks and surrounding cliffs covered with pelicans and other sea birds. The day was getting on so we had to as well. The rest of our drive consisted of viewing the beautiful coastline as it whipped past us, catching the moon rising over the hills to the east.

Once you arrive in the Big Sur area there are opportunities abound for camping, backpacking, hiking or any other nature observing experience in the redwood forests, river canyons, peaks, beaches and meadows of several State Parks and a National Forest as well as private campgrounds and lodgings.

The first State Park you come to is Andrew Molera State Park, which offers slightly more remote camping amenities (no lodge) in an open meadow with large Sycamores, Coast Live Oak, lots of birds and a river that meets the ocean less than a mile away. The campsites ($10/car) are nice and the campground is less crowded because of the 1/3 mile trail that separates the campground and the parking lot. The trail is excellent, however, and the massive oaks and sycamores along with various herbs and singing birds make the walk uplifting despite being weighed down by your supplies.

Another bright spot is the short walk to the beach where the Big Sur River meets the Pacific Ocean and many creatures come to find their next meal in these estuarine waters. The path follows the Willows lining the river, passes the historic Cooper Cabin that outdates the eucalyptus grove grown up around it and proceeds through a dune scrub community with Artemisia douglasiana (Mugwort), Lupinus arboreus (Yellow Bush Lupine), Artemisia californica (California Sagebrush), and Baccharis pilularis (Coyote Brush) to finally end up at the mouth of the river. Sea birds flock along the small estuary and other birds scavenge the massive piles of seaweed and other organic material washed up on the mini beach. The bio-diversity hotspot created by the meeting of beach, river, and coastal scrub habitats makes for more types of plants like Mimulus aurantiacus (Sticky Monkeyflower), and even some evidence of bigger critters . Andrew Molera is a great place to stay and enjoy the California Coast in all its beauty, and if you’re lucky you may even catch a glimpse of the California Condor circling high above (we did!)

The next one down the road is Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park which provides drive up campsites ($20/car) with full amenities (water, bathroom, table, fire ring) as well as a lodge and cabins all situated amidst a towering redwood forest and river canyon. The campground was a balance between development and Lithocarpus densiflorus (Tanbark Oak), and RV’s and Redwood Trees, but the sites are beautiful and there are some nice trails like the short hike to Pfeiffer Falls or the longer hike to the Oak Grove. Despite the encroachment of modern machinery and human development this park was lush and alive with lots of mushrooms and other fungi, Bay Laurel (Umbellularia californica) nuts by the bushel, understory shade berries like Ribes speciosum (Fuchsia Flowered Gooseberry) and even an occasional Bobcat strolling down the road (we actually saw one doing just that!).

Traveling south down the road brings you to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, named for a local frontierswoman, and boasting a spectacular waterfall onto the beach in a picture perfect cove with shining turquoise water. The park offers only two primitive eco-sites for camping and they are usually reserved well in advance, especially during the warmer months. Nonetheless, there are exciting trails from the waterfall and ruins of an old beach estate all the way up through redwood forests to oak and Madrone covered peaks overlooking the ocean. The ocean cliffs are sprouting coastal herbs like Salvia melifera (Black Sage), California Sagebrush, Mugwort, and the infamous Toxicodendron diversilobum (Poison Oak). A short detour from the main waterfall trail takes you to the wheel house where the original Pelton Wheel, an efficient small scale hydro power generator, that powered the former homestead resides.

These parks are only a taste of the Big Sur coastline’s many wonderful and accessible ways to experience and reconnect with the natural world. For the more adventurous right down the road from Pfeifer Big Sur is the Big Sur Station and a trailhead for the Ventana Wilderness which has numerous backcountry campsites and stretches from the Big Sur Coast into the approx. 2 million acres of the Las Padres National Forest. These open spaces can invigorate and inspire our jaded city minds as well as provide a vital land-based context to our over consumptive urban lives. Sometimes we forget how lucky we are to live in a place so bustling with life and culture whether it’s downtown San Francisco or Beautiful Big Sur.