A sunny spring morning along the Big Sur Coast at Soberanes Creek, with fog above the coastal mountains.
This is a spot that is probably familiar to many who have driven down this section of the Big Sur coastline south of Monterey and Carmel, California. To the right, and out of the photograph, is Soberanes Canyon which ascends steeply toward the ridges above Pacific Ocean. A creek flows down the canyon, underneath the coast highway, and then into the ocean.
The foreground bluff looks inviting with its green color and spring flowers. However, I picked up one of the worst cases of poison oak I’ve had on one occasion when I walked across this meadow to photograph the sea stacks and coastline at dusk!
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.
The blue Pacific Ocean and rugged fog-topped coastal hills meet along the Big Sur coastline at Bixby Creek.
On a nearly perfect spring morning – despite the ominous sounding Friday the 13th date! – I spent a morning along the upper Big Sur coast below Monterey, California. The brilliant sun was modulated a bit by some atmospheric haze over the ocean and occasional fog clouds clustered around the tops of the coastal hills. Since I made quite a few stops along the way, I only went as far south as the iconic Bixby Bridge. This photograph was made from very near the spot where thousands (including me!) have photographed the bridge itself – it is out of the frame to the left. On this morning, the bridge didn’t interest me much at all, so I instead photographed the wild and steep coastline, with its spring green contrasting with the brilliant blues of the coastal waters below the rugged cliffs. At the very lower left corner, Bixby Creek flows across the beach and into the Pacific Ocean. Above, the coast highway rises across the top of the coastal bluffs on its way south.
Sea stacks line the rugged California Big Sur coastline below the Pacific Coast Highway.
I had some free time on Friday morning, so I decided to head over to the coast below Monterey. I had some discussions with someone earlier this week about photographs featuring coastal fog and hills, and I think that may be what planted the idea in my mind, though it turned out that conditions were not quite ideal for that particular sort of thing. However, it was a beautiful spring morning along the Big Sur coast, with the bright sun somewhat modulated by some atmospheric haze and a bit of fog here and there along ridge tops.
For those who may not have heard, driving this section of the Coast Highway is a bit tricky right now due to washouts and closures. I had to wait for a pilot vehicle to lead scores of us through one large section, and in another spot the road was reduced to a single lane by a large landslide. I understand that further south the road is actually closed completely, necessitating an inland detour.
The unusual traffic situation did create one advantage for me, however. Usually there is enough traffic on this famous route that driving along at very slow speeds annoys other drivers – so I sometimes have to keep going right past places I might otherwise want to stop and investigate. However, yesterday I quickly figured out that with 20-30 minutes between waves of traffic as the road opened and closed, all I had to do was pull over after passing one of the blockages, wait for the other cars to pass, and then drive in a more leisurely way with plenty of opportunities to stop.
So as I drove past this area that I had not really looked at closely in the past – it is between a couple of other spots that I know well – I was able to drive slowly, pull over to look more carefully, backtrack, and generally get to see it more than in the past. I first pulled off near this spot simply to turn around to go back and check a spot I had just passed. As I did so I noticed a painter packing up his gear. I did my “turn around,” looked at the spot I had passed, decided it wasn’t promising after all… and came right back to the spot where I had seen the painter. A short trail led down to the edge of the bluff and provided this view along the coast to the south.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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