One of my favorite places is up in Central California by Monterey and is a small little park on the ocean called Point Lobos. I’ve visited Point Lobos probably a good 7-8 times since I’ve moved out to California and every time it’s always a great treat- especially at sunset.

Point Lobos State Reserve

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Point Lobos State Reserve commonly referred to as simply Point Lobos is a sea side state reserve south of Monterey, California, north of Big Sur. The very precipitous drop in the ocean floor off Point Lobos (reaching levels characteristic of the mid Pacific within a few kilometres of shore) gives rise to strange tidal effects, with unusual levels of oxygen being injected into the ocean water. This in turn has attracted an unusual collection of plant and animal life, ranging from high plankton concentrations, moving up the food chain to large mammals.

We just got back from the little photo trip up north- I got a total of 3 hours of sleep over Fri/Sat and we drove a bit over 900 miles in total. Because of time constraints [and me *cough* placing our campgrounds 3 hours away from where we were exploring] we ended up not getting to hit up Big Basin. On Sat but we did spend a decent amount of time at Año Nuevo State Park and the Pigeon Point Lighthouse and Sun. we spent it mostly at San Simeon State Park and Morro Bay. It was a pretty tiring trip for everyone, so we’re happy to be home and have lots of great photos to share hopefully within the next week or so!

This weekend we’re off to Big Sur again, as Tanya and I have been seriously needing a little get out of LA time [that and our lungs have filled to capacity with air pollution]. We’re going to be camping at San Simeon State Park but probably going up north around the Monterey / Santa Cruz areas. I think we’re going to stop by Big Basin Redwoods State Park as well as a quick stop at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse [which is a hostel I want to stay at]. We’ll see…plenty to be explored!

Location: Big Sur, CA [and Limekiln State Park] // Google Maps
See the Stock Photo Gallery / See The Rest of the Big Sur Photo Galleries

Tanya and I made our yearly [and sometimes multi-year] trip up north to Big Sur, a coastline region of big cliffs and small roads. It turned out to be a great time to go up there as everything was in bloom and it wasn’t too overly packed with tourists. We went camping up in Limekiln State Park which is a beach and redwood area right off one of the cliff bridges. We had a beach campground which was fantastic and saw a nice fog sunset complete with gulls and roaring waves. If you’re yet to go to Big Sur, its a fantastic drive and always a great time.

via wikipedia.org;
Big Sur is a thinly-settled region of the central California coast where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. This geology produces stunning views and has become a magnet for global tourism. Big Sur’s Cone Peak is the highest coastal mountain in the lower 48 states, ascending nearly a mile (5,155 feet/1.6km) above sea level, only 3 miles (4.8 km) from the ocean.[1] Although Big Sur has no specific boundaries, many definitions of the area include the 90 miles (145km) of coastline between the Carmel River and San Carpoforo Creek, and extend about 20 miles (32km) inland to the eastern foothills of the Santa Lucias, while other sources limit the eastern border to the coastal flanks of these mountains, only 3 to 12 miles (4.8-19km) inland. The northern end of Big Sur is about 120 miles (193km) south of San Francisco, and the southern end is approximately 245 miles (394km) north of Los Angeles.