At 11:15 a.m. on 26 Sep 2019, we left Ben Ries Campground and drove into Santa Cruz for a day of errands: grocery shopping in a huge and well-stocked Safeway, haircuts, etc. We spent one night at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Sadly, I took no photographs and wrote no notes about specifics of our overnight there.
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| Pescadero State Beach. Photo by Virginia. |
We departed at 11:00 a.m. the following day and headed back to Highway
1 where we drove to Monterey. We were able to attain two nights at Veterans Memorial Park. It was a very nice facility with wonderful amenities. At 6:00 each evening a recording of the bugle call of "To the Colors" was played over the loudspeaker and at 7:00 a.m. a short clip of "Reveille" was played. (For the raising and lowering of the U.S. Flag.) Both days we had deer (a doe and her fawn) grazing in the campground very near us!
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| The Roadtrek at Veterans Memorial Campground. Photo by Virginia. |
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| Veterans Memorial Campground; Monterey. Photo by Virginia. |
After checking out of Veterans Memorial Park, we drove to Cannery Row for an afternoon stroll through this amazing historical district. (I was so intrigued that I ended up reading the John Steinbeck novel, Cannery Row, after returning home.) Margaret did the most impressive job parallel parking the Roadtrek on a super busy curved side street in town. The fact that it took her only one attempt made it even more notable!
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| The Roadtrek in Monterey. Photo by Virginia. |
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| A Cannery Row overhead walkway in Monterey. Photo by Virginia. |
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| Near Cannery Row in Monterey. Photo by Margaret. |
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| Cannery Divers Memorial in Monterey. Photo by Margaret. |
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| Cannery Row in Monterey. Photo by Virginia. |
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| Historic Cannery Row sign. Photo by Margaret. |
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| San Carlos Beach on Cannery Row. Photo by Virginia. |
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| Cannery Row Company overhead walkway in Monterey. Photo by Margaret. |
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| Monterey Canning Company on Cannery Row. Photo by Margaret. |
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| Pier businesses on Cannery Row in Monterey. Photo by Virginia. |
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| The Cannery Row Monument. Photo by Virginia. |
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| The Clement Monterey Hotel overhead walkway. Photo by Margaret. |
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| A trolley in front of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Photo by Margaret. |
After leaving Cannery Row, we drove through the affluent town of Carmel-by-the-Sea and back to the coast. Pretty much the entire coastline of the West Coast is lovely, but I had never seen anything like the Pacific views we saw that day from Monterey to Carmel-by-the-Sea to Big Sur to San Simeon. The rugged coastline, the trees, the ocean rock formations, and the brilliant blue hues of the ocean were breathtaking!
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| Carmel-by-the-Sea in Monterey County. Photo by Virginia. |
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| Carmel-by-the-Sea in Monterey County. Photo by Virginia. |
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| Bixby Bridge and the Big Sur Coast. Photo by Margaret. |
We parked and walked the paths at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park in Big Sur, where there were rushing creeks and the most phenomenally situated McWay Falls.
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| McWay Falls at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. Photo by Margaret. |
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| On Pitkins Curve Bridge and Rain Rock Shelter. Photo by Virginia. |
Our last brief stop during our drive was at Point Piedras Blancas near San Simeon where there is an impressive colony of elephant seals.
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| Elephant seals at Point Piedras Blancas in San Simeon. Photo by Virginia. |
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| Elephant seals at Point Piedras Blancas in San Simeon. Photo by Virginia. |
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| Point Piedras Blancas informational sign. Photo by Margaret. |
After a long day on the road and several sightseeing stops, we headed for a campground that Margaret knew of and where, fortunately, we were able to stay to recuperate.
Note: Clicking on the photos in the post will open them in a larger view (recommended!). If you want to see more photos of the beautiful places we've shared, we have them in this Flickr Collection:
Over the Hill Sisters Photo Collection.
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