Driving up the Pacific Coast - Day 3

As luck would have it, the threatening clouds of the evening before turned into blue skies in the morning.  A short drive south of Morro Bay is the beautiful Montana de Oro State Park with its many trails and diverse landscape, including even a mountain. We had a lovely hike along the coastal trail with its dramatic ocean views, Pacific waves crashing on the many rocky outcrops along the shore, rugged cliffs, shore birds, including pelicans and the occasional hawk.

It was an easy flat trail and we could have gone on for much longer, enticed by one vista after another.  We kept saying to ourselves, we'll turn back after the next view!   In the end we have to turn back because we wanted to make it to Hearst Castle and see the elephant seals before sunset.  

There was a high surf warning, which made it a great day for us surf watchers...

Wave after wave rolling in, possibly a precursor of the storm coming down the coast 

A surprise rainbow in the clouds

Lots of these outcrops can be seen along the trail

Before we left Morro Bay, we paid another visit to the sea otter families and saw them in much better light.

Mom and pup

Sea otter family

Happily basking in the sun

We made it to San Simeon for lunch and was hoping to enjoy some good food at the vineyard there, but was surprised there was no restaurant!  We had to settle for cafeteria food at the Castle (yes, not even a bakery, because it's a State Park!).

The pier at San Simeon

You can see the castle all the way up the hill

The outdoor terraces 

The outdoor pool - but wait till you see the one inside!

A pretty niche in the garden

The front entrance

The cavernous "living room"

Dining room

In my opinion, the indoor pool was the most striking feature in the castle.  

The view of the ocean from the castle

We managed to find the elephant seal rookery just up the road from the castle, thanks to our bumping into a volunteer in the parking lot (we went in the wrong direction up the beach and couldn't find the seals. We spent a whole hour there as there were a lot of action going on.  Two bulls were fighting "till death do us part".  They were all bloodied but still battling from the beach all the way into the water.  This is the perfect time to visit with some moms still nursing pups, while some continue to mate, and bulls fighting over their territory (apparently testosterone surged to 60 times the normal level at this time).

Nursing elephant seal

Mating - the female looked really excited...;-)

Two bulls fighting to the bitter end (we didn't stay to see who won as they had been fighting for an hour or more by sunset)

            

Adorable pup

Another Pacific sunset - drama in the skies, jacob's ladders galore

This wraps up our south to north Pacific Coast trip.  The following morning, the rain finally caught up with us.  It was pouring rain so we thought it safest to go up 101 instead of the PCH.  Having driven up this way before, I remembered how treacherous it was in the rain, not to mention parts of it were still closed from the winter rains.  Our original itinerary was to visit Big Sur and the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park with its magical waterfall.  A good excuse for another trip down this beautiful stretch of coast.

Thanks for coming along for the ride.

Driving up the Pacific Coast - Day 2

A friend in L.A asked us how much time we are allowing to drive back to the Bay Area.  Four days, I said.  His eyes widened in shock, "What?!  It's only 6 hrs and a bit to drive from L.A. to San Francisco!"  (He forgot about the two hours it takes to drive out of L.A. alone.)  Still, he was incredulous we are taking such a long time.  Clearly, he is one of those engineers who only goes in a straight line from point A to point B.  

Yes, we were taking our time, always keeping an eye on the weather which had rain forecasted every day that week.  As it turned out though, we were lucky.  There may be the odd shower when we were driving, but nothing that would stop us from our enjoying the scenery.

We woke up in Port Hueneme to a sunny day and we found out there is a lot more to the town than what we encountered at the waterfront the night before.  Oxnard State Beach Park has a long beach and sand dunes and it was just around the corner.  Since it was not on our itinerary and we had to make it to our next stop before sunset, we did not stop to explore.  This is just a snapshot from the parking lot of the State Park.  Something to be saved for another trip.

Oxnard Beach State Park

As we wanted to revisit Solvang and have lunch there, we took a detour off the PCH from Santa Barbara taking Hwy 154 inland through the San Marcos pass crossing the Santa Ynez mountains.  The scenic stops along the way gave us panoramic views of Lake Cachuma and the surrounding mountains.  There were occasional showers as we drove through but the sun came out quickly before the rain had a chance to puddle.

View of Lake Cachuma from San Marcos Pass Road

We were right on time for lunch when we got to Solvang.  I still remember the windmill from my visit decades ago when we stopped on our way to Yosemite.  As we parked right in front of the bakery, we popped in to soak in the sugar.  There were lots of "Danish" pastries but possibly Americanized, as evidenced by their size and the thick layer of icing sugar all round.  They look too big to tempt me so I didn't buy anything, keeping in mind the Aebleskiver we're going to try after lunch.

The bakery on main street 

It took us a while to find the Solvang Restaurant we were looking for but it gave us a chance to walk through the town.  Of course, the restaurant offered the required fried chicken on waffle and Aebleskiver for dessert.

The famous Aebleskiver, basically a glorified donut

There were some very nice buildings in Solvang but this is one I especially liked.  It houses Solvang Fine Art with beautiful detail on the walls.  But I can't find anything on the building itself online.

Then there is this one copper-topped turret that I liked

Our next stop was the Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove for which we had timed our visit in February.  The monarchs are here in coastal California only from November to February migrating from as far north as Canada.  The ones east of the Rockies could migrate up to 2000  miles to Mexico.  We were disappointed that the Grove was closed because of high winds.  Fortunately we were able to see the monarch clusters from outside the fence.  What a phenomenon to behold!  Hundreds of monarchs one on top of another clinging to the leaves of the eucalyptus and cypress trees, which provided thermal stability.

Monarch butterflies at the Monarch Grove 

We made it to Morro Bay for the golden hour.  The concierge at the inn warned us that rain is forecasted for the next few days, basically telling us to make the most of the still dry evening, which we did.  We drove around to Morro Bay State Park but didn't have enough time to really look around although I have been there before.  But sunset was early this time of year and we didn't want to miss it at the waterfront.  We did see a bank of eucalyptus trees hit by golden light and a row of parked boats hit by gold on the water.  We were lucky to get another spectacular sunset before we headed to the new restaurant for dinner.  And just before it got really dark, a local told us about where the sea otters hang out near the shore, within shooting distance of my 200mm lens!

Eucalyptus trees in the golden hour

Boats parked at the waterfront

One of several piers at Morro Bay

 

"Every cloud has a silver lining" - a good omen for the morning

Sea otter cuddling the baby

This must be dad - lounging around 

Much better photos the following morning! Watch out in the next post.

Sunset at Morro Bay