Solo night and day in Big Sur
My first blog post will be about my solo trip to Big Sur, particularly because this is the trip that I decided to overcome my fears of traveling alone. I chose Big Sur to be my first solo trip because I have been wanting to return since my first time visiting there a few years ago, besides it’s a pretty easy trip, being able to get there by car, which took about 7 hours. On my first trip I fell in love with the place even though I wasn’t even able to actually go through the mountain due to landslides, this had my curiosity running wild, if it was this beautiful before entering what would it be like actually being there? After years of sporadic thoughts of going back, along with motivation from picking up a film camera and wanting inspiration for photos, I decided to just go.
It was my day off and I had no plans for the next couple of days, so that afternoon I packed up and set my mind on the intention of making the solo trek happen, my plan was to go for the night, sleep, wake up and spend the morning there, which I would not recommend for photos at least for the time that I spent there because the lighting wasn’t my favorite, I think that the best time to take photos would be closer to sunset in my opinion. I packed my blow-up single person mattress, a sleeping bag, a cooler, a pocket knife, sweatpants, undergarments(always haha), a bikini, a headlamp, a tool set, and my three cameras which are a Nikon action touch underwater camera, a polaroid camera, and a Sears TLS with a 300mm lens; all of which I thrifted, besides the polaroid camera. I brought the underwater camera just in case I went swimming, and the sears TLS is the most recent camera I thrifted just messing around with it, I’m also just messing around with the polaroid camera too.
I didn’t arrive in Big Sur until around 11:00pm so it was very dark and driving through the mountain’s swerving roads was a bit intimidating, but at the same time road tripping alone for the first time was liberating and gave me the sense of freedom. I was on those mountain roads for what seemed like forever. When I reached my destination I pulled over to the next turnout, it was pitch black and felt eerie. I sat there in my truck for a few minutes letting my eyes get adjusted to the dark then I started to get situated. I locked the back of my camper shell, opened the back windows creating sort of a portal from the camper to the inside on my truck. Inside my camper, I started blowing up my mattress when I heard some rustling in the woods next to me, all of those scary movie flashbacks started running through my mind, I stopped to listen, still I kept hearing noises that’s when I said to myself “screw this I can find another spot” then this weird car bumping loud music sped past and aggressively pulled into the turnout diagonal from me. This made me a bit suspicious and on my guard, I went to search for my pocket knife and I couldn’t find it anywhere, (I think I dropped in outside in the dark, because I still haven’t found it to this day) luckily I remembered about the switch blade in my glove compartment. I laid there for a while, pretty much snuggling my knife, until I noticed that not only was there a weird car diagonal from me but I was laying at a awkward tilt which made it very uncomfortable, thus again I got back into the drivers seat, this time I found a parking lot with several other cars parked, at this point I was so tired that I decided to just sleep there, so I got into the camper and fell asleep. I missed camping so much, theres something so refreshing and calming about sleeping outside even if it was just in my camper shell.
I woke up at 5am the next morning hoping to see the sunrise, unfortunately it was overcast, so I decided to drive more north to check out the scenes, I drove over the bixby bridge; I learned that it is the highest bridge of its kind.
I continued making my way along side the most beautiful sweeping coast
where I felt immersed in nature and it’s wildlife; like sea birds, deers, cows, and buffalos etc. on the vast open plains that met the oceans shores, this is one of the reasons I fell in love with this place, it gave me the feeling of being in harmony with the nature. I kept driving until I got to Carmel by the sea then I started slowly driving back south. Keep in my mind this was a spur of the moment road trip so I was totally playing it by ear. I pulled over at “Point Lobos State Natural Reserve” and took a stroll on the trail along the ocean and went up a stair case leading up to a lookout.
It was nice to walk around and get the blood flowing and get some fresh crisp morning ocean air in my lungs. Next I drove past “Little Sur River” where I saw a river running from the mountains into the ocean. In between these two bolders a tiny a-frame wave formed. I was persuaded to pull over to snap a quick photo, I hung out here for a while, this is the place that I imagined myself living off the land grabbing a drink of water from the river.
I was low-key looking for the Pfeffier place (where I’ve seen photos of a beach with the waterfall [I should’ve done more research prior]) which is why my next stop was Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park I walked around a bit but it didn’t seem like the place, so I left and resumed my drive south, until I saw a bunch of cars pulled off the to side of the road influencing me go to check out what all the ruckus was about, turns out that it was a hike called Partington Cove. I walked down the dirt path, on the way I saw a very strange man heavily dressed in hiking gear, anyway, the path led me to a bridge that took me over a stream onto a trail that was densely shadowed by trees. I enjoyed this area a lot, it made me feel like a forest fairy dancing through the woods.
Am I weird or does everyone else get giddy while going through tunnels? This one was especially cool, it led me through mountain to the cliffs edge almost touching the crashing ocean below, I shimmied my way over to a wide open area, with one tree strategically placed to sit under, it seemed like a nice place to hang out.
After wandering my way back through the tunnel, past the dense trees, I saw that hiker guy again, he mumbled something under his breath while pointing at a sock on the ground , I responded apathetically “ I don’t know, those are not mine” and he walked away. As I was hiking back up the dirt trail I heard crackling noises so I looked over and there he was again climbing up the jagged rocky cliff side that was covered in pokey dried up bushes, what was he doing? I do not know the answer to, but what I do know is that it was extremely comical! I make it back up to my truck and within a very close proximity down the road I pull up to a campground called “Julia Pfeiffer Burns Park”
Still i didn’t think it was the place, later after some much needed research I found out that it was exactly the place, now I know where I’m going the next time I make trip back to Big Sur. It was getting later in the day and with the aim of getting home at a decent hour of the night I decided to start concluding my road trip and head south more quickly, expect my stomach started rumbling and I remembered I had a coconut in my cooler, so I pulled off into this desolate black sand zone with a beautiful view of the ocean. Sitting in back of my camper I grab the coconut, using my screw driver and hammer I make holes and drink all of the water, then I crack it open with the hammer. As I’m scraping the coconut flesh with my switch blade I’m thinking do not cut yourself Melissa, moments after that thought wham! I stabbed myself in the palm, the blood gushed immediately filling my hand I frantically jumped up and grabbed the first thing I could without getting everything bloody which was a paper towel from my side door panel, I used it to soak up the blood, then, I grabbed my first aid kit, found some gauze, a sock and wrapped it tight to prevent more bleeding. In a frenzy I pack up my stuff, this is when I got super light headed, so I got into my driver seat, blast the AC and begin to take long deep breaths talking myself out of fainting, finally I slightly come to so I steadily make my way down the road which helped me to gradually regain my composure, I pretty much lost the function of my left hand which I needed to take photos, not only was I in pain but this obviously made me bummed. I came to the conclusion that this incident was the demise of my trip and that I wouldn’t make any more stops, I got tempted to stop when I was driving past San Simeon pier where there is a eucalyptus tree forest and a nice hike along the coast surrounded by towering trees, I even debated on going to the Hearst castle, auspiciously it was closed which guided my decision of getting my wounds sorted out first plus I was in so much pain I realized that if I had 6 more hours until I get home I should properly dress my wounds, so I head out towards a town that I know called Cambria.
Ok, I couldn’t help myself I stopped at a beach called Washburn so I whimperingly bust out my camera and snap a few photos and admire how dreamy it was here. After that I stopped at Cambria’s local grocery store bought some bactine, gauze and tape then wrapped my wound, it was remarkable how much better it felt afterwards. I made one last stop at this place unintentionally so I could throw away a few things that I had accumulated, it was a very beachy town called Cayucos, it kind of reminded me of Ocean Beach another beachy town near where I live. I coincidentally pulled up right next to this surf shop and I heard skateboards so I look over to see that they had a mini ramp right behind it, I wanted to go skate it so badly but unfortunately I only had my cruiser board plus I was injured, so I just walked straight down the road leading to a pier feeling the sun on my face and ocean wind on my skin, that pretty much concluded my trip after that I headed straight home through the LA traffic, I got home around 9pm that night, with tired eyes, a new scar, some interesting experiences, memories and a new road trip under my belt.
