We moved north up Highway 101 to Salinas for a couple of days (the salad capital of the US, supplying nearly 80% of the country’s lettuce!! And also where John Steinbeck, the author, was born). From here, we drove the north end of the Big Sur (Highway 1) as far as the closure at Lucia.
It started off with the infamous marine layer covering everything but soon the sun burnt through and we had blue skies again. Whilst the Big Sur is supposed to be one of the main road trips I must admit, whilst it was scenic, I think we’ve seen just as spectacular, if not better, on other stretches of Highway 1 (Depoe to Cape Perpetua and Fort Bragg to Jenner). There were 31 bridges built, most of which have been replaced, with the exceptions of the 7 concrete bridges known as the Big Sur Arches like Big Creek Bridge and the iconic Bixby Bridge (didn’t stop for this one as too many tourists!!).
We stopped off to see the McWay falls – an 80 ft waterfall that drops directly into the Pacific (well, it does when the tide is in and is then known as a tidefall).
We did also manage to watch a group of huge magnificent Californian Condors soar overhead – they were on the brink of extinction but in 1987, scientists captured the last 27 and started a breeding programme before releasing back to the wild – it seems to have worked.
The next day, we visited Carmel Mission, one of the more important of the 20 plus missions on the El Camino Real. It was the home and final resting place of Junipero Serra, the Franciscan priest who established a lot of the missions (and according to a gravestone, the final resting place of Old Gabriel at 151 years old!!). The gardens here are beautiful.
From here we drove around Carmel (not the 17 mile toll road as it was so foggy it wasn’t worth it). Sadly, the 1855 Point Pinos lighthouse in Pacific Grove was closed but we did have a wander around the local cemetery (all the gravestones are laid flat to the ground) along with a small herd of deer!!!
We then parked up in Pacific Grove and walked the sea trail along into Monterey. During the Spanish and Mexican regimes, Monterey was the Capitol of California. In later days it became the hub of sardine fishing and canning. The old cannery row is now rather commercial but you can still see the old cannery buildings either side of the row and there are still three of the original 16 bridges that vaulted the street – they were used to shuttle unfilled cans to the cannery and packed tins of sardines back to the warehouse for shipping out by rail.
There are plenty of information boards around explaining a lot of the history and canning process, and not to forget, the links with author John Steinbeck.
We had a lovely seafood lunch at the Coast Guard pier, listening to Californian Sealions barking away from their resting places under the pier.
Whilst walking back, we spotted a sea otter playing in the sea kelp and a group of harbour seals lazing in a cove.