If you have read books or articles about the most scenic or iconic roads in the United States, you know the highway running along California’s coastline always makes the cut.
With my sister here from Europe for the summer we hopped in the car for a quick trip up north recently. The scenery delighted us beyond our expectations! The prettiest parts are from Ventura to the Santa Ynez Valley and then, after a somewhat boring stretch up till Morro Bay, be ready to feast your eyes on an absolutely sweeping landscape.
We stopped at Hearst Castle, unfortunately for my sister all tickets were sold out except the evening ones but we didn’t have time to wait that long. We had a great surprise though, just a few miles from Hearst Castle we saw zebras grazing along with the cows!
After a few stops to better take in the view and photo ops we arrived at McWay Falls. It is every bit as gorgeous as the well polished photos of it. The waterfall itself is thin, but it is the composition of the lagoon that brings all the beauty of the area into harmony, white sand, giant rocks sticking out of the turquoise shallow water which turns into cerulean out in the deep, lush vegetation and palm trees on the cliffs surrounding it.
It is forbidden to climb down to the waterfall, however while we walked around up above, there were 3 brave souls who did go down, deftly made a three person hand chain and got across to the waterfall and out onto the sand. Along with the risk of getting fined and arrested there is also the danger of being swept off your feet and thrown against the rocks. It’s not enough to be a good swimmer, one needs to be strong enough to not get knocked over by the waves which are very strong in the cove. Still, I felt madly jealous of them, and getting down there is now on my bucket-list.
Up on the cliffs was once a house, on what was then Saddle Rock Ranch; the owners moved to Florida and left it abandoned with everything in it, including famous art. I wonder what they were running from to leave so much beauty behind?! Eventually they donated the property to the state of California however the house had to be demolished as it was not permitted to be used as public property.
Next on our schedule was a hike up in Julia Pfeiffer Burns Park, a nice refresher after hours of driving. It was a pretty hike in the redwoods and chaparral and we spotted a beautiful blue bird along the way. To our surprise a couple of people were just starting their hike when we arrived back, even though the denser part of the forest was already pretty dark.
There is camping here if you are planning to stay longer.
After crossing two or three other bridges we made it just in time for sunset to Bixby Bridge.
