Big Sur

Driving up the California coast to see Big Sur has to be one of our favorite road trips. The views are incredible and the drive is pretty spectacular as the landscape is constantly changing. 

These photos were taken at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park at sunset in January. 

 

There is a parking lot once you turn into the state park or you can park along the road if you want a quick picture. There were a few photographers taking pictures here during the golden hour to get a shot of the waterfall flowing into the ocean. It was pretty cool seeing this in person and great to take in some fresh ocean air after driving the winding roads along the coast.

After visiting the State Park for a short while, we continued north to get to our camp site that Pops had been to before. It was somewhat of a hidden spot so we were pretty excited to get there. We finally found the road to turn on but found that it was gated shut and we couldn't go any further. With Covid running rampant and with local fires in nearby areas, we found out that all campsites had been closed. Since it is illegal to park on the side of the road and sleep/camp, we decided to continue driving north, eventually making our way to Carmel, still with no plan of where we were going to stay the night. The rest of the drive we were frantically googling available campsites.

After spending hours searching the web on unreliable service and driving into Carmel, we started looping our way back home. We finally came upon some BLM land on our google search that was close to where we were headed. There was no knowing if the campsites were going to be closed or not, but we decided to take the risk and try for it anyway. 

We drove for a while on some offshoot roads and were pretty skeptical about our decision to reach this campsite. The drive felt so long and we were getting tired. Finally, we came upon the entrance to the park and saw cars and RV's camped out in open spaces. We were so relieved after we found an open spot to stay the night. We were able to start a fire and enjoy some food before calling it a night. 

When we woke up, this was our view during sunrise. It was a wonderful surprise to have found such a great place to camp with not having known where we were.

We highly recommend Williams Hill Campground for anyone traveling near the Big Sur area and need a free place to stay. Open areas to camp and great views.

On our way home, we made a little bit of a detour to check out Solvang, a danish town that has been somewhat of a tourist attraction for a while. There was some pretty cool buildings and fun bakeries, but some of the shops were closed since it was a holiday weekend and not much else to see. 

The ostrich farm on the way into town was pretty cool though!

Despite some hiccups, we had a great time and glad we could get away for the holiday weekend!  

Thanks for reading!

Bonus tip: If you have time, check out the Hearst Castle in San Simeon (along Highway 1 in San Luis Obispo County). If you are passing through, you may spot some Zebras on the East side of the road, which are in connection to the museum.