Coastal California - Big Sur, Carmel-By-The-Sea And The Pacific Coast Highway

Have you ever had the opportunity to behold the stunning views of coastal California, including Big Sur, Carmel-By-The-Sea and The Pacific Coast Highway?

Before you go on your amazing journey to this absolutely gorgeous stretch of California click here to make sure your car is ready for the road trip.

2022 Cross Country Road Trip Stop 15

When we first started planning our cross country road trip, one of the top things on Sandie's bucket list was traveling on the Pacific Coast Highway (Hwy 1). I thought it sounded fun and a little scary knowing that the road is very narrow in spots and has lots of sharp curves around high cliffs with no guard rails. But taking it slow is all you have to do to be safe and we definitely wanted to take it slow and enjoy the beautiful sights.

We drove this picturesque road to get to Big Sur Campground & Cabins. This would be our home for the next four days. We were more than happy when we got to our campsite in the middle of the giant Redwoods.

We grilled pizza for a quick dinner.

Then went to Saturday evening mass at St. Francis of the Redwoods. We were early so there was no one else around. We started to wonder if we were in the right place on the right day.

We looked around the grounds of the tiny church as we waited to see if anyone was going to show up. We wondered who the talented sculptor was that carved these beautiful wood statues.

Finally the priest and a handful of parishioners showed up. There were only about 20 parishioners who were probably the same people that come to this church on the first and third Saturday of each month. We stuck out like sore thumbs in this Spanish-speaking community. The pastor realized that we didn't understand a word of Spanish and  it was so nice and thoughful of him to translate his homily in English for us.

The church was unlike any we have ever been in and the whole experience was wonderful and will be one of our favorite memories of this road trip.

Our plan for our first full day of this stop was Point Lobos State Natural Preserve located off of Hwy 1 in Carmel.

We combined several different trails to make a loop.

We made sure our hike included the trail with the incredible views of the coast along the Pacific Ocean.

We hiked the South Plateau Trail to get to Bird Island. 

We would find Pelican Point on Bird Island. We never saw pelicans in the wild before. And to see so many was incredible!

And we also made sure to we hiked Sea Lion Point Trail to possibly see dolphins, sea lions and otters. We saw sea lions but we couldn't get a good picture of them. They were too far away. Sandie took a video which showed movement but you would only know they were sea lions if she told you. But the scenery was incredible so worth the hike here.

After our hike in Point Lobos we made our way to the city of Carmel-By-The-Sea which was only 4 miles north of us. We parked on Torres St. where three of the over 20 Fairy-Tale Cottages are. This one is the Hansel Cottage.

GOOD TO KNOW: Be sure to pick up the guide to the Fairy-Tale Cottages at the Visitor Center. Inside the guide you will find a map to use on your cottage tour.

Then we walked around the city.

We shopped in a few stores before heading back to the campground and calling it a day, a really beautiful day!

The plan for day three was to find a beach to relax at. The beach closest to our campground was at Andrew Molera State Park. .

The beach was a little disappointing because it wasn't as beautiful as we thought it would be after everything else we saw on this stop so far. We were intrigued, though, by the wooden huts people made for shade and for hanging their clothes and other things on. 

The bathrooms were at the parking lot which was about a mile hike away from the beach, so we weren't able to stay on the beach for long. But everyone, except me, wanted to get back to the campground to do some tubing. I volunteered to take their pictures.

After dinner we went on a search down Hwy 1 to find the best spot to see the sunset. We parked where we saw the largest crowd. We noticed that a lot of people were taking pictures where we parked. We turned around to see the Bixby Creek Bridge, one of the most photographed locations in California.

Then we followed them across the highway and waited for the sunset. It was beautiful!

We took care of laundry and cleaning the trailer on our last morning in Big Sur. After lunch we sat in front of the County Library for about an hour and used their wi-fi to catch up with email and messages. We spent the rest of the day relaxing at the river and sitting around a campfire. It was nice to have an easy day before we hit the road again in the morning.

The little bird we made friends with at the campground came by to say good-bye. This little guy visited us every day. Even though we were not feeding him we must have left enough crumbs around us after every meal for him to keep coming back!

2022 Cross Country Road Trip Stop 16

We started off on the Pacific Coast Highway as we made our way to our hotel stop in Santa Maria, CA.

We made a couple of stops on our way there. The first stop was Point Piedras Blancas off Hwy 1. We stopped to see the elephant seals, we were not at all expecting to see this many!

The next stop was Hearst Castle.

We decided we were fine with just seeing it from a distance when we found out that it would cost us $30 each to go on a tour.

By that time we were starting to get anxious to get to the hotel where we planned to swim in the pool, relax in the hot tub and use the hotel wi-fi!

And that's exactly how we spent our short stop-over in Santa Maria.

Read about our Stop 15.

Visiting Napa, California With A Day Trip To San Francisco

This post was featured:

Have you taken a drive down the Pacific Coast Highway and enjoyed all the sights of Coastal California? We would love to hear where you stopped to take pictures!