From Costonoa KOA to Avila/Pismo Beach KOA

Saturday, December 6, 2014
Some photos from our drive along Highway #1 from Pescadero to Avila Beach.

Crossing off another "that's a first", we saw a boar and piglet crossing sign in Carmel.
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM3Z5C_Boar_and_Piglet_Crossing_Carmel_California
And here's the reason: http://www.pineconearchive.com/090403-3.htm

Close to our approach to Big Sur, we saw a sign that cautioned: Hills and Curves Next 63 Miles.
Our already curvy drive was going to get much more curvy!

                                      In the water, we saw bobbing heads of sea otters.

McWay Falls in Julia Pfeiffer-Burns State Park: It is said to be the only place on the California coast where a waterfall falls drops directly into the Pacific Ocean http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=578

One of the oceanside homes we drove by has the name: Bien Sur.

The Esalen Institute is also in Big Sur-- a retreat center founded by Michael Murphy and Dick Price in 1962 to fully realize what Aldous Huxley called the "human potentialities" http://www.esalen.org

                           
Some photos I took to show the twists and turns of our drive. Notice how narrow the rock wall is between our road and the drop off to the ocean!

We drove by two seal colonies in San Simeon. "No stopping" and "no parking" signs on the right side of the road alerted me to watch out for something. Out of our windows, we saw a huge colony of elephant seals, and amidst the lounging seals, two male elephant seals were chest thumping each other. Like we observed at the Año Nuevo State Park, seals have "hauled out" for the mating and 
birthing season. http://www.elephantseal.org

We just recovered from the excitement of the chest thumping seals, when we approached an unicyclist on a giant wheel traveling along Highway #1.

Then a sign for the "California Men's Colony"...  a day spa?  No... a men's prison.

Road Rave drives are seldom boring. But this one definitely set a new bar!