Highway to Heaven

Highway 1 or SR 1 runs along most of the Pacific Coastline in California, just over 650 mi or 1.000 km. It's an All-Americana Road from Legget in Northern CA to Dana Point in Orange County, closeby L.A. The road was built in stages, first - and still one of the most spectacular today- was the section in the Big Sur region, constructed in the 1930s. The most spectacular stretch runs along California’s Central Coast from Monterey to Santa Barbara, in our opinion, the most unspoiled and fantastic section is the stretch from Carmel to the border of SLO County.   

We started after a stop at Carmel Mission (left photo), in the morning, and drive was slow at the beginning because quite some roadwork (or rather bridge work) was going on and speed was restricted by many curves. Nevertheless, thanks to many outlets and viewpoints, the drive was beautiful, especially on such a sunny, nice day. 

 Lots of State Parks, wildlife and huge trees on one side, cliffs and water on the other. We stopped many times to take photos and enjoy the views, especially around Big Sur - famous thanks to Henry Miller -, but, also further South around Lucia and San Simeon. The latter is famous for Hearst Castle, the 1947 completed mansion of the publisher, art collector and philanthropist Wiliam Randolph Hearst. Unfortunately, the sight is closed since spring 2020, first due to COVID, then due to road damage. Glad, we've seen that before!

One of the highlights on the way was - closeby San Simeon - Piedras Blancas with its Elephant Seal Rookery (pics below). Never seen so many elephant seals (See-Elefanten) in one place! The number on the beach ranges from hundreds in July/August to thousands from Jan. through May. It's said that about 25,000 of the estimated total population of 250,000 use these 7 mi. of beach here! 

On to Morro Bay, where we stayed during our first trip to CA in the 80ies. Rock is still there as well as this ugly generation plant. The town itself is a quaint coastside town, not too hectic, only slightly touristic, pretty nice in total. We walked the promenade, along the marina, before we drove on to our final destination, San Luis Obispo.