Day 14 (30 July 2016) - Monterey to Cambria

We continued our Pacific Coastal Highway journey out of Monterey bound for our next stop in Cambria. We picked up a number of leaflets on the way and picked and chose what we wanted to see. We started our morning with a picturesque 17 mile drive through the private Pebble Bay area which is home to the international golf course. The area is set between Monterey and Carmel and you have to pay a small fee to get onto its roads. The drive takes you along the rough coastline and hugs it all the way until Carmel where you can exit it and get back onto the highway.

The plan then was to visit the coastal point and primarily the Big Sur on the way down to Cambria. Around the Big Sur area be sure to take you time looking out into the Ocean its easy to spot different types of whales and sea creatures as you venture down the coast. We can across them by chance as we stopped off at a view point. Some of our pictures are below.

The 17 Mile Drive (Pebble Bay)

The homes around Pebble Bay are also amazing and expensive in equal measure. The area is worth a visit for sure especially if you are going during the autumn (fall) period when you will have less of the summer fog. We chanced it and did the drive and generally it was beautiful.

Pacific Coastal Highway and Big Sur

The Big Sur is the main part of the Pacific Coastal Highway where the road rises to a height and then falls back down. This part of the road is laden with canyons and bridges which span the chasm. During out visits there we encountered a lot of forest fires and the smoke of the hillside fires and fog didn't make for the super views. But the views we got were fantastic.

Whale watching on the Big Sur

For all the stops on the Big Sur keep a look out over the ocean. You will spot whales playing in the bays. The water spouts and their back coming out of the ocean are very visible to the eye. There are a number of whale watching companies at each of towns along the coastal highway. We did not take one given the amount of time we need to devote to each and we saw them very clearly from the Big Sur.

The photo was taken at a significant zoom but we had binoculars and long lenses so it was great viewing for us.

Our route was simple, more of of the straight line along Pacific Coastal Highway

Forest Fires

This part of the route has a lot of beauty with waterfalls into the Ocean, unfortunately our were slightly spoilt by forest fires along the coast this meant that all the national parks were closed to the public pretty much taken over by fire services. While this is a first world problem there are some excellent hikes to water falls in the region (McWay falls and others). This was our view

Elephant Seals

For the tail end of the day we stopped off in San Simeon where there is a beach that seems to be the home of the elephant seals that are found in this part of the ocean. The are a lazy lot but make for an interesting stop along the way. For most part they are sleeping but we caught a fight between two large seals no doubt of a young seal lady.