We have truly enjoyed our time on the West Coast, as you can probably tell by my many posts about our adventures this last year. However, there were still a few places that we wanted to see before leaving the area...
- Point Reyes National Seashore (We hope to get there before the end of the month.)
- Big Sur...specifically the purple sands and CA condors sites
- Lassen Volcano National Park (We think we will be doing this on our trip home.)
- Channel Islands (We have tried twice but weather will not allow but have one more trip scheduled with the cruise company.)
- 17 Mile Drive...iconic views of the area along a road within a gated community on the coast
Of all of these spots, Big Sur and 17-mile Drive were not fitting into our schedule. The funny thing is that of all our bucket list of places these two places were the closest to us!
March 12, 2016
Well, after several attempts to enter the gated community filled with golf courses and luxury homes, we finally were able to beat the weather...the golf tournaments...and our own busy schedules...in order to pay the minimal fee to enter the road to adventure...mainly the adventure came in the form of hunting down several caches along the route...LOL! Here are a few of my favorite views and interesting things we saw that day, including some of the caches we discovered...
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| Moving a tree off the trail? |
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| View along the rocky shore line |
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| Is this a puddle into another world? |
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| Or just to a geocache? |
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The flowers were so blue!
We could see how the bees could not resist! |
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| Lone goose on the Lone Cypress! |
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| Up close and personal! |
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| Fancy modern house with an old world tower! |
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| Just laying around taking in the sun...but where's the sun? |
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| Finding flowers on the boardwalk! |
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| We think there is a cache around here! |
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| A surfer doing well on this wave! |
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| The boys creating a rock tower! |
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| Do you think he knows what is going to hit him? |
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A castle made of pebbles instead of sand!
Pebble Beach was wonderful! |
We had a great time but I will tell you...we have now been up and down the coast twice and it was not necessary to pay a fee to see the beautiful coast line. I guess I was a little disappointed and wondering what the hype was all about. However, if you are like a lot of people and never leave your town...it was an easy way to see a lot of beautiful sites and see some wildlife as well. AND...we sure did not mind seeing this type of scenery again...in the end we decided we paid about 50 cents per cache which is small change for the adventure that we for the day!
April 3, 2016
THEN...we finally made our long overdue trip to Big Sur this weekend. Well, most of us made it! Our brave leader became violently sick (food poisoning?) in the middle of the night. He had to stay home but encouraged us to go on as he knows we will not have another opportunity.
We woke up early and were out the door before sun rise. We knew that in order to get into the limited beach access area we would need to beat the crowds. The fog was in our favor...thick and gloomy...as most people stayed home. I carefully drove down the winding southern route to the beach.
We arrived to find the beach to ourselves...we have renamed this beach...Aggie Beach as the purple sands seemed more maroon to us! We had a great time building purple sand castles and watching the waves come in through the holes in the massive rock formation in front of us!
We then drove up the coastal road looking for caches along the way. One of the reasons we love caching is because of the interesting places this hobby takes us! We were able to discover this purple beach...lighthouses...albino redwoods...iconic bridge (I doubt we would have missed it but it made us stop for pictures instead of taking a picture from the van) and amazing views! Here are a few of the places along the way...
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| The leaves were so SOFT! |
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| Bixby Bridge built in 1932! |
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| Posing ground squirrel |
We ended our day at this little beach that has a simple stair case down the hill from the road. We made the stop to discover a geocache for the San Gregorio Fault Line. We did not realize it was going to be such an adventure!
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| It looks like a simple step down... |
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But it was actually a ten foot drop to the beach!
A staircase built on a fault line...not so smart! |
THEN...we finally made our long overdue trip to Big Sur this weekend. Well, most of us made it! Our brave leader became violently sick (food poisoning?) in the middle of the night. He had to stay home but encouraged us to go on as he knows we will not have another opportunity. 
Love this area, we lived in Northern California and used to go down to Pebble Beach, Monteray and over to Pt Reyes Lighthouse all the time <3 Glad you guys are able to take the time to see all of it!
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