Our luck at snagging campsites ran out in Big Sur. I guess we couldn’t expect to have perfect luck on a mid-summer road trip for which we had booked absolutely nothing in advance. I suppose we ran up a debt in camping karma points in Yosemite, and apparently it was time to pay up.
We spent our entire first day in Big Sur driving from campground to campground looking for a vacancy to no avail. After trying every site along the coast – literally-- we headed inland to find a small campground Greg had read about. It was 11 miles inland, which given the amount of driving we (and by we I mean he) had been doing, another 11 miles seemed like no big deal. What we forgot to factor in is that it was 11 miles of winding mountain roads. This little detour ended up eating up a couple of hours and yielded no campsite.
By the time we were half way through the journey back to the coast, we were hungry and kind of cranky. Just at the point that bickering was about to take over the afternoon, my sometimes genius husband made a brilliant move. He found a lookout with a turnoff and pulled over. He popped open the trunk and got out all the treats we had leftover from Point Reyes the day before, and we had a made a picnic and enjoyed the view. After some cheese, salumi, bread and a little wine (only half a glass each, the remnants of the previous day’s bottle – we still had to drive down another half a mountain after all) we felt a lot better.
Lesson learned – a food and wine break will make a lot of situations a whole lot better. I think it’s a similar to why the British want tea whenever there’s a problem – with the added benefit of a hint of alcohol lubrication to smooth the kinks out. A breather and a little sustenance provide a good deal of clarity. (A side benefit – it turns out that a little wine also goes a long way in easing a fear of heights. The rest of the curvy road back was a lot easier on me.) After we’d eaten, we felt a lot better, and decided to just enjoy the rest of the day and get a room for the night. The only motel room we could find ended up being all the way down in San Simeon and there might have been a little more bickering before the day was out, but whatever, we found a place to sleep and everything worked out. Moreover, if we hadn’t gone down this little detour we would never have seen some of the spectacular views we discovered along the way. The little spot we turned off at felt like a little perch at the top of the world and we had all to ourselves.
Which brings me to the number one rule to remember on a spontaneous, unplanned trip. You’ll end where you’re supposed to end up, and you’ll see whatever your supposed to see. The road will take you where you’re supposed to be. The blips and inconveniences are fodder for stories to be laughed at later.
Purple sunset in San Simeon
The next day, we retraced our steps and did a Big Sur retake. We hiked some beautiful trails at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park and at McWay Falls in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and took a billion pictures.
Then we had a wonderful lunch at Nepenthe Restaurant – another little perch at the top of the world, but with table service.
We never did get to camp in Big Sur. For our second night in the area, we found a room at a shockingly adorable YHA in Cambria. I was sad to not get to stay in Big Sur, but by now we’d spent the majority of our nights camping, and the hot, indoor showers with no time limit felt AMAZING.
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