We had a day before Ryan's family would be coming to town, so I decided to take ride down the coast. I don't recall ever driving down Highway 1 to the Big Sur area. The weather was supposed to be beautiful so we decided to make an adventure of it. My mom decided to come along as well. We left later than planned and had lunch in Monterey. There ended up being traffic in Carmel so the kids were getting antsy in the car. There were so many turnout spots along the road to see the gorgeous coast line.
Even though it was a clear day, it was still a bit windy and brisk.
The area I really wanted to see was McWay waterfall. The waterfall falls directly on the beach. The beach is unreachable by foot, so it says pristine. I wasn't counting on it being so crowded. There were cars everywhere and we had to wait until someone came out of the parking lot before being able to go in. By this point we had been in the car almost two hours so the kids were done. They were doing road construction on Highway 1 which caused a long delay. The hike to the waterfall was only 1/4 of a mile and very flat.
The water was Hawaii blue.
In the mid 1900's there was a house at this location When the wealthy family left the land to the state, they wanted the house demolished. My mom and Andrew were reading about the house and the landscape. The waterfall used to fall into the ocean, but due to a fire and landslides it now falls on a beach.
Andrew took this artistic picture with the fence - I like it!
Back near the parking lot there is another trail in the redwoods. The goal was to take a short hike to another waterfall, but we didn't find it. The trail wasn't marked very well and we didn't have a map. So we just walked through the redwoods and along the stream for a while. This is the stream that flows into the waterfall.
On the way back we stopped at Bixby Bridge for a photo op. The sun was starting to set and the sky was beautiful. You drive across this bridge on Highway 1 and again, there were a lot of people parked taking pictures. It is amazing that this bridge was built in 1932. It was a fun but long day as there was major traffic on the way home.
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