Rocky Creek Bridge, Big Sur Coastline. South of Monterey, California. May 13, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Bluff, cliffs, seastacks, and fog-shrouded coastal hills along the Big Sur coastline of California.
The bridge in the distance beneath the rounded, fog-topped hill is the Rocky Creek Bridge. (It is sometimes mistaken for the famous Bixby Bridge, which is a bit further south along the coast highway.) I’m very familiar with this area, having photographed from here many times. In fact, later on this morning I was up in the hills beyond the hilltop home while investigating a gravel road that heads back up into the mountains here.
I wanted to juxtapose a range of near and far bits of the bluffs above the shoreline cliffs in this scene. While the coastal meadows will turn brown very soon, on this mid-May date and in this relatively wet year they were still green. The coast highway travels along the upper part of the bluffs, often between the cliffs and the hills rising above. Beyond the bridge you can see the roadway rise to pass around another hill before descending toward the next creek to the south.
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Mark, it is a powerful land and seascape in so many ways: the rugged meeting between the edges of North America and the Pacific Ocean, the weather that can include everything from sun through fog to powerful Pacific storms, the soaring birds, redwoods, steep coastal hills, and more.
Dan
You have me yearning to go back Dan. I only visited Big Sur once, and certainly did not spend enough time there. But just the one time made an incredibly powerful impact on me.
Thanks, Russ. I know you do beautiful work here, too. I consider myself fortunate to live so close to the area and to have been able to learn this region over the many decades I’ve lived in this part of California.
Dan
Beautiful Dan. This is one of my favorite stretches of the CA coast.