Day 11 - Big Sur, CA

Our night at the Red Roof Inn in Lompoc was our first disappointing motel stay of the trip.  What a bummer!  I won't relive all of the details here, except to say that at approximately 11:30 p.m., we woke to a large group of foreign tourists trying to enter our locked room.  They even yelled and banged on the door when their key wouldn't work!  When I called the main desk, they gave a short, annoyed apology - they had made a wrong room assignment.  Ugh!

Suffice it to say, we were anxious to get out of there and head up the Central Coast!  We were headed to Big Sur and we couldn't wait!

One of our first stops was Montana de Oro State Park.  We hiked down to Sandspit Beach.  It was awesome!

The view from the top.

The beach path heading down.

We couldn't believe how empty this area was.  It was amazing!

We walked the beach and enjoyed the views.  We found sand crabs and kelp.  We EVEN found a sting ray carcass!

Look what we found!!!

This was a little boys' dream beach hike!  

Next, we hopped back in the Suburban and headed to the Elephant Seal Rookery! On the way, we stopped at a beach on the roadside to search for beautiful rocks with some other rockhounds.  

It was very cool to see the elephant seals at the Rookery!  They are in a protected place, so we couldn't get on the beach, but we were close enough to see their cute faces and hear them "talking!"  They didn't seem fazed by the people checking them out and taking photographs.  They just relaxed on the beach, sleeping, talking, and periodically throwing sand onto their own back and bellies to cool down.  

After the brief stop to check out the wildlife, we headed north, again, on Highway 1.  Next stop: Big Sur Campground! 

We couldn't believe our eyes when we pulled into the Big Sur Campground (www.bigsurcamp.com/).   This is a privately-owned campground between Highway 1 and the Pacific Ocean...and right on the Big Sur River!  It was gorgeous!  

This family-friendly campground has great campsites, the coolest forest campground EVER, free coffee and tea every day, and nightly quiet time that is actually observed!  It was BEAUTIFUL, AMAZING, LOVELY!  We can't wait to go back!  

Big Sur was our first real introduction to the redwoods....and they were AWESOME!

And, how's this for a playground in the forest?!

The playground had a REAL treehouse too!  All natural!

We ended our first evening here by dipping our toes in the Big Sur River which meandered its way through the campground.  It was shallow and cold and felt refreshing after a long day of adventures!