Big Sur August 15, 1998

Big Sur, California

Camping trip the weekend of August 15, 1998

This shot is Rocky Point looking south. While this does look pretty nice, it was much more beautiful in person. Though you can see the vivid color here, like looking at the Grand Canyon vs. looking at a picture. The picture does not portray what is really there, it was more intense in person.	This is just another shot looking a little closer. There is a REALLY nice restaurant that is located here. You can dine either on the deck or dine inside the restaurant. I highly suggest the sampler plate that feeds two people for $75.

You can get an idea of where Big Sur is relative to San Jose or San Francisco. The star it where Big Sur is located. We were at the Pfeiffer-Big Sur campground which has laundry facilities, the usual hot showers, a lodge with a small general store to buy small items and firewood. The shop was a great place to stop for a Starbuck's Ice Cream Bar (I like one's with nuts) for a nice walk and an tasty evening snack before bed.	While this Bridge is pretty famous, sorry that I can't remember the name. It was under construction and going through this area was kind of a headache due to the traffic. Only one line of traffic could go at a time. The river this spans is the Carmel River (I believe).

This was just good spot for a photo op. As you can see, as far as Redwoods go, this certainly wasn't one of the larger ones and was more unique because you can see that it survived a fire.	It's not quite as dark as it looks here. Of all the falls I've ever been to, I don't know why, but it is hand down the most peaceful one I've been to even though it certainly was not the most beautiful. You could have a million stressful deadlines facing you, yet standing here for 5 minutes would melt them all away. A great place to stop on a weekend trip. Oh, I should mention that this is Pfeiffer Falls.


JARS (just another rock shot). Pretty typical coast (Northern) for California in general. It's starting to get quite misty here. You can see the gray forming.	Here's a shot of my French Canadian buddy Yves closing his Explorer tailgate.

This was one of those spots that you shouldn't think about how you were going to get back up once you got down to it. When someone asked me how I was going to get back up now that I was down there, I told them: "I don't know, I figured that I worry about that when the time came."	More coastline. Again, you can see the fog starting to roll in a little. Obviously, this is looking south.

Okay, more coastline looking North. I don't think there was anything in particular here. That indentation on the right and up a little way was where the bridge is at.	More Bay shots. Got a little bit of the flowers here.

If you really squint hard here you can see a lighthouse on that peninsula flashing. In person it's quite bright. I actually have the light when it's flashing but it's very slight compared to what I was really looking at. I'm really surprised that you can barely see it here. It took three shot to get it when the light was flashing. It's hard to push the button just when the light is coming around.	This i just a view of the valley on the back side of Big Sur. Quite green, but unremarkable.

This is pretty wet. It's surprising the camera lens didn't pick up water in the time to just take this shot.	The cornball to the right wearing the white shirt and shorts with his hand on his waist is me. Just to give you a perspective of the falls. It's quite refreshing here, but if it wasn't summer, I think it would be a little cold. After a long time it would be miserable because you'd be soaking wet! This was a bridal veil falls.

No, you won't see this along the coast. This is actually mono lake. It's too bad I ran out of film. These geological shapes are awesome. This was all formed under water from springs. The springs flow upward and force the minerals into stalagmite type formations. The minerals hardened to form these shapes. Then Los Angeles stole the water to leave this which was previously buried under the water. Note the snow in the background on the mountains. This is mid-August so you can imagine that we're pretty darn high up. All that snow is glacier and never actually disappears - ever.	There are a lot of these formations around. The water here is much, much salter than the ocean (several times) and is very slippery due to high concentrations of borax. You can swim in here, but you need to dry off well when getting out to avoid a salt film. We ran into a foreign couple that was swimming in here. You need to dry off well or else you have the salt film on you you.