I’ve lived in California almost my entire life. I frequently head down to and beyond Monterey and Carmel to photograph the upper portion of the Big Sur Coastline. But I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that I’ve never driven the entire Big Sur coast, much less photographed it. I was finally able to rectify that situation last week.

I had some family business in Southern California over the weekend, and I decided to take an extra day on the way back to the SF Bay Area and devote it to driving – slowly – along Highway 1 between San Luis Obispo and Monterey. I won’t recount the whole thing here, nor will I post photographs as part of this story. (Some are already available in the gallery if you are inclined to check them out, and most will appear here in a month or so.) But a brief overview, along with a report on post-fire (or almost post-fire, more accurately speaking) conditions can’t hurt.

Since the southern section of the route was largely a mystery to me, I took a few detours down there. The oddest story actually began the evening before. Being familiar (who isn’t?) with Weston photos from “Oceano,” I have always wondered where this might be. Turns out it is just south of Morro Bay. So on the evening before my Big Sur drive I left the hotel in the late afternoon to make a pilgrimage to this mysterious place where one of the masters had made important photographs… only to arrive and find that it is now more or less an off-road vehicle park. Yikes!

The next morning I started up Highway 101 to San Luis Obispo, but first made a detour to Port San Luis and some surrounding areas. Again, newbie to the area that I am, I did not realize that this is where the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant is located – but it is apparently up a canyon from the coastal area when I did a bit of shooting, so this discovery was not as jarring as that of the previous evening. Port San Luis was fogged in when I arrived, but the fog began to lift a bit later while I grabbed some coffee at Joe Mamma’s – so there were some good photographic opportunities here with vistas down the coast and many boats and piers nearby.

Back on the main road again, I eventually turned coastward at SLO and headed out to Morro Bay. I had been there once before on a college band trip – on which I and a couple friends made the mistake of climbing Morro Rock. Locals and probably many others know that this is illegal, as we found out when the authorities were waiting for us at the end of our hike. Ahem. This time I limited myself to legal activities, primarily photographic.

Moving up the coast – and skipping many of the details – I eventually came to Piedras Blancas where there is an Elephant Seal breeding area. I have seen – and heard! – elephant seals before in northern California, but always in locations where one is kept a very, very long ways away from the beasts. But here there are overlooks that place you mere feet away from these giant, interesting – and a bit gross – creatures. Watching them from this close perspective is an amazing thing, and I spent some serious time photographing with the long lens here.

Passing by a number of other interesting places, I eventually entered what I regard as the more classic Big Sur coastline – extremely rugged and high hills that plunge directly down to the waterline with a few civilized outposts often perched precariously above the cliffs. In the right light it is hard to drive more than a few minutes without stopping, and as I drove and the afternoon wore on the light got better and better. After I passed by the village of Big Sur shortly before sunset, I entered a fog bank that continued most of the rest of the way.

For those who wonder, it is still very much worth visiting Big Sur even with the fire situation there. A few weeks ago when the fires were burning right down to the roadway in the northern portion you not only would have wanted to stay away, but you couldn’t go since the road was closed. By last weekend, the situation had improved considerably. Since the area where the fire reached the road is confined to the northern Big Sur, there was no direct sign of the fires – not even any smoke – in most of the area. There are some burned areas once you get further north, where there are some places with burned forest on one side of the road and unburned forest on the other. All campgrounds and trails on the east side of the road were still closed. But if photography is your goal, it is a fine time to visit.