Join Rte. 1 in Monterey (Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce +1 408 649 1770. Closed weekends). The town
served as California’s capital under Spanish, Mexican, and American flags, and by the early 1900s boasted an important sardine industry.
Surviving sites include the Royal Presidio Chapel, Monterey State Historic Park, Custom House, Casa Soberanes, Larkin
House, and other adobe buildings, as well as touristy Fisherman’s Wharf and Cannery Row, home of the
celebrated Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Drive 3 miles [4.8 kilometers] south on Rte. 1 to Carmel-by-the-Sea (Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce +1 408 649 1770. Closed
weekends), an upscale village of quaint cottages, restaurants, inns, shops, and art galleries fronted by a broad beach fringed with
Monterey pines. Among the highlights are Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo, second of the California missions,
founded by Padre Junipero Serra in 1770; Tor House, the 1919 home of poet Robinson Jeffers; and mile-long [1.6-kilometer-long] Carmel
River State Beach, with its pelicans and kingfishers.
From Carmel drive 3.5 miles [5.6 kilometers] south to Point Lobos State Reserve (+1 831 624 4909. Adm. fee), a 456-acre [184.5-hectare] park
encompassing coves, headlands, meadows, tide pools, and the nation’s first undersea ecological reserve, covering 750 acres [303.5 hectares], with kelp
forests 80 feet [24.4 meters] high. Trails lead past gnarled Monterey cypresses, which grow naturally only here and on the 17-Mile Drive.
The park’s 250 species of birds and mammals include black-tailed deer, gray foxes, sea otters, and sea lions. From December through
April, migrating gray whales pass by.
After driving through Carmel Highlands, where impressive houses perch on granite cliffs above the sea, you reach the start of
Big Sur, which extends 90 miles [144.8 kilometers] south to San Sim eon. On this fabled coastline, redwood groves reach skyward, the
Santa Lucia Range plunges into the sea, and waves are beaten to froth on ragged rocks. It’s a place of elemental power that
can make human affairs seem inconsequential.
Rte. 1, opened in 1937, climbs as high as a thousand feet [304.8 meters] above the sea. One of the few easy-to-reach beaches is at Garrapata State
Park (+1 831 624 4909), about 2 miles [3.2 kilometers] south of Carmel Highlands. From Soberanes Point watch for sea otters,
which are protected along the entire coast.
En route to Bixby Creek Bridge, 7 miles [11.3 kilometers] farther, you can choose to leave Rte. 1 and drive the 12-mile [19.3-kilometer] old Coast Road, which climbs
through remote forests and canyons and offers silent ocean views before ending at Andrew Molera State Park (see below). The unpaved
road is tortuous and impassable when it rains.
Much-photographed Bixby Creek Bridge is a single-span concrete arch more than 260 feet [79.3 meters] high and 700 feet [213.4 meters] long. Park at
turnouts near either end to gawk or take pictures. Ahead, the highway passes Hurricane Point, a place of big winds and big
views, and the mouth of the Little Sur River. Looking inland, you’ll see 3,710-foot-high [1,130.8-meter-high] Pico Blanco,
distinguishable by its lime deposits. Toward the sea, sand dunes soon appear, rolling toward the 1889 Point Sur Light Station
(+1 408 625 4419. Tours Sat.-Sun.; Adm. fee), a state historic park. In 3 miles [4.8 kilometers] you reach 4,800-acre [1,942.5-hectare] Andrew Molera State
Park (+1 408 667 2315. Adm. fee), whose broad beach, oak and redwood forests, and stretch of the Big Sur River are
accessible only by foot.
Pass through the settlement of Big Sur, which offers food and lodging, and head for Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park
(+1 408 667 2315. Adm. fee), where the Big Sur River runs through 800 acres [323.8 hectares] of redwoods, maples, sycamores, bay
laurel, and ferns. Then go 1.5 miles [2.4 kilometers] south and turn right on the 2-mile [3.2-kilometer] road down Sycamore Canyon to the white sands of
Pfeiffer Beach, where the surf roars through arched rocks.
Nearly 2 miles [3.2 kilometers] farther on the highway you come to Nepenthe (+1 408 667 2345), an indoor-outdoor restaurant
perched 800 feet [243.8 meters] above the sea and famous for its jaw-dropping view of mountains and coast. About half a mile [1.6 kilometers] south, on the left, look for
the Henry Miller Memorial Library (+1 408 667 2574), perched among towering redwoods. It displays books and
memorabilia of the novelist who spent 18 years in Big Sur. Also stop 8 miles [12.9 kilometers] farther at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park
(+1 323 298 3660. Adm. fee), whose terrain ranges from 3,000-foot-high [914.4-meter-high] ridges to an underwater preserve. Do walk the short trail
along the seaside bluff to see McWay Falls pour 80 feet [24.4 meters] into a picturesque cove.
Ahead of you lies the southern stretch of Big Sur, wild and lonely. The road clings to a precipitous coastline, and the only settlements in the
next 35 miles [56.3 kilometers] are Lucia, Pacific Valley, Gorda, and Ragged Point. From here onward, the landscape settles down to hills and pastureland.
You’ll spy the Piedras Blancas Light Station on a point supposedly named in 1542 by Spanish explorer Juan Rodríguez
Cabrillo for its white rocks (so tinted by bird droppings).
After a spell away from the Pacific, the road reaches the town of San Simeon, a staging area for the 5-mile [8-kilometer] bus ride to
Hearst Castle (Tours only; reservations 800 444 4445. Adm. fee), begun in 1919 by newspaperman William
Randolph Hearst. Perched in the Santa Lucia Range, the 127-acre [51.4- hectare] estate looks as if a piece of Europe had wafted to the Wild West. The
115-room main house and guesthouses mix classical and Mediterranean Revival styles, using European architectural elements, antiques, and
artwork collected by Hearst.
Continue about 7 miles [11.3 kilometers] to Cambria, an arty town nestled against hills where Monterey pines thrive in porous soil of
decomposed sandstone. On the ocean side of the highway, at Moonstone Beach, look for moonstones and California jade. Drive on 6 miles [9.7 kilometers]
to the microscopic colony of Harmony (population 18), where you can watch artists at work. Ahead on Estero
Bay, small Cayucos dates from the coastal schooner era of the 1860s; the pier has good fishing for rockfish and perch,
plus views of pelicans and cormorants.
The end of your route is Morro Bay (Morro Bay Chamber of Commerce +1 805 772 4467), easily identified by its
landmark Morro Rock. A turban-shaped, extinct volcanic cone perhaps 50 million years old, it is 576 feet [175.6 meters] high and linked to
the mainland by a 2,000-foot-long [610-meter-long] sandbar. Peregrine falcons live here. To learn about local wildlife, visit the Morro Bay State Park
Museum of Natural History (+1 805 772 2694. $3 adults, $1 child). Around Morro Bay you’ll also see great blue herons and, from
October to March, monarch butterflies in eucalyptus trees. Like you, they’re passing through.
