May 4, 2008

Big Sur's best campgrounds

There are plenty of lists out there of campgrounds, but they're just lists - no one ever tells you what's good and what to avoid. I'm nothing if not opinionated, so I'll tell you exactly where you should go and you'll thank me because, well, I've got good taste. In evaluating campgrounds, I don't care about showers, RV hookups, playgrounds, camp stores etc ..., I'm into simple wilderness style camping and so my only criteria are privacy, beauty, quietness and access to wilderness/hiking. So if you are into rustic, simple, non-RV camping in the most beautiful campgrounds in the West, you're going to love my reviews of different regions of California and the West, starting with this look at the Big Sur area ...

The best campgrounds on the Big Sur coast in order of preference are as follows ...

1. Kirk Creek State Park
2. Andrew Molera State Park
3. Limekiln State Park
4. Plaskett Creek Campground
5. Pfeiffer-Big Sur State Park

1. Kirk Creek State Park

Kirk Creek takes the prize because, well, the picture sorta says it all ...

There are places up the road where you'd pay a minimum of $2,000 for the same view, here it's $22 a night - God bless America! (are liberal, environmental hippie freaks like me allowed to use that phrase?). Plus, there's no beach access at the Post Ranch and Ventana Inns (oops, did I mention the name of the overpriced celebrity fests up the road?) - so while Brangelina and Gyllenspoon are enjoying their redwood soaks, you can take some satisfaction in knowing you've got the best seats in the house for the price of dinner at Denny's.

There are 34 sites here plus these five "hike-in" spots - and when I say "hike-in" I mean walk 30 yards down a path and sit your lazy, cheap butt down in one of the most beautiful spots you've ever been. But even if you don't want to be more than 20 feet from your car, you just can't go wrong here. Every spot has the gorgeous forever views that define the Big Sur experience in a pleasant, small scale family style camping venue.

Stats: 34 sites, $22 per night; both walk-in and reserved sites (reservations at http://www.parksman.com/). This campground is extremely popular, so during the peak summer season either reserve early or show up on Friday morning to get a spot.

2. Andrew Molera State Park.

I love Andrew Molera state park. Although it doesn't have the glamorous views of Kirk Creek, this 5000 acre state park stradles the Big Sur river and is a hikers/kayakers/sufers dream with the best beach in the whole area and endless access to the most fabled hiking trails of the Big Sur region. You have to hike in about 1/2 mile to get to the campsites which is why all the RV's and lacksidasical car campers roll right on by and check in at Pfeiffer-Big Sur State Park 200+ internal combusion engine friendly campsites. But if you can manage to drag your tent and sleeping bags and food a half a mile, you'll treat yourself to one of the best easy camping experiences in northern California.

The first time I went to Andrew Molera was about ten years ago when my new girlfriend (now wife) and I went for a backpack up to Sykes Hot Springs (10 miles up the Little Sur river trail). We were just looking for a place to camp before our trip. We pulled into the parking lot at about nine at night, and were in the process of unloading our groceries out of the back of the car when a group of insanely fearless raccoons descended on us and tried to take our food. I don't mean that they were grabbing the food when we weren't looking, they were literally grabbing the bags out of our hands. I witnessed my wife in a back and forth tug-of-war over a Berkeley Bowl bag of camping goodies with overly-empowered raccoon - she'd pull the bag towards her and yell, and then he pull it and hiss. We survived the mugging with our food mostly intact, and stumbled through the dark down the path to the campground area where we were met with the most pleasant little hippie scenario. It was UC Santa Cruz's Spring break, and the campground was packed with stoner college kids, bonfires and acoustic guitars. Now I'm not the drum circle, jam band type, but I was just so charmed by the whole scenario - the warm evening, the laughter, it was really sweet. We set up camp and went to sleep with the distant sound and singing and laughing.

Now I understand that I'm not painting the most appealing scenario with the woodstock-like campground and rabid raccoons - you'll be happy to know that the State Park cracked down on the open camping scenario that used to be in place in the meadow area. Now there are 24 official campsites with a limit of four people per campsite - so while the marauding raccoons are a constant, the campsite is very quiet these days. This is such a gorgeous state park with great access to the heart of the Ventana wilderness, hippie jam sessions or not, you just can't go wrong here.

Stats: 24 campsites; $12 per night; no reservations/walk in only.

3. Limekiln State Park

I've never stayed here but I took some pictures recently when I was driving through. This is a really nice campground tucked away in the redwoods with access to a great little beach. Here are the pics ...

Stats: 34 campsites/$25 per night; revervations http://www.reserveamerica.com

4. Plaskett Creek Campground.

This is a flat, grassy campground right across the highway from the best beach in the southern part of the Big Sur Coast - Sand Dollar Beach. Great family campground with good access to trails and great ocean views.

Stats: 44 campsites/$22 per night; reservations http://www.recreation.gov/

5. Pfeiffer-Big Sur State Park.

Not to be confused with Pfeiffer Burns State Park which has two great hike-to environmental campsites, this is the place where most people stay when they come to this area. 200+ campsites tucked away in the redwoods with lots of RV's, but it's still frickin' gorgeous. If none of the other campsites were available, this wouldn't be a bad option at all. As an added bonus, you can leave right from the camping area and hike up the Little Sur River trail which is one of the best trails in the region.

Stats: 204 campsites/$25 per night; revervations http://www.reserveamerica.com.

Posted by Hall at 2:28 PM | Comments (0)

April 9, 2008

Big Sur in the Spring - Part 1

The last thing the world needs is another beautiful picture like this of the Big Sur area. Yes we all know it's unbelievably scenic with its 5000+ foot peaks rolling down to the sea, and yes it's largest block of coastal wilderness on the West Coast, and yes Ferlingetti, Kerouac and all those beatish types famously hung out down laying on a patina of literary mystique to the embarassment of natural riches already present - but like one of those sumptuous Beach Boys songs that you've heard too many times and think you're sick of, the fact is, no matter how many times you may have heard about how beautiful it is, it really is all that and more. What can you do? All those car commercials and movies, it's like the Grand Canyon, you think you've seen it but you just don't know how beautiful it really is until you're there.

Sometimes you just get lucky and sometimes you make your own luck, and I did the latter when decided to ditch my plans to race back to the Bay Area after our trade show in LA and take the slow road. I wanted to bust back home, but I was pulling out of LA and it was just too beautiful. LA is unbelievably gorgeous on those early spring days after it's rained and the air is sparkly and clear. Mt. Baldy, San Gregornio, San Jacinto - everyone always talks about the mountains in Denver, Sante Fe, Salt Lake City but what about LA? It ain't all OC and Costcos people, you've got a ring of 10,000 foot + peaks surrounding this city. In fact, to get a little nerdy and geographcially confrontational here, in terms of relative elevation from city to peaks that you can actually see from downtown, there's no other city in U.S. that has this kind of visual drama - sea level to 11,500 feet with over 20 peaks in the 8000 ft+ range? Denver, Santa Fe, SLC and their ilk don't even come close. And as I drove out of the LA basin the views were practically bringing me to tears, so I decided that rather than blasting home on the I-5, I'd take my time and see something real.

So I cut over the mountains and stopped in Santa Barbara for the night so I could take my time winding up the coast the next day. I spent the night in the Motel 6 of my youth. This is the Motel 6, the very first one ever built in 1962. It's right next to the beach, and when I was a kid my parents booked a room here for 2 weeks every spring, and we'd drive all night from Portland through the rain and wake up in this sunny paradise by the sea. You have to know how much it rained in pre-global-warming-Portland to understand how magical this alchemical transformation of rain into sun was. Me and my brother would go to sleep in the backseat of the car with rain pecking against the windows, and wake up with palm trees, sunshine and the ocean - it was sheer magic in that way that things are magical when you're a little kid and I'll never forget it as long as I live. I have to say, it's kind of strange to have an emotional attachment to something as sterile and ubiquitous as a Motel 6. It looks pretty much the same as all motel 6's, but it must be a little different because every detail was reverberated in my brain - the texture of the fake stucco walls, the open outdoor stairway, the curves in the thimble sized pool. Suddenly I found myself thinking of my Dad getting ice from the ice machine, our boogie boards drying outside our room, jumping up and down on the beds.

The next day I got up and headed north. I stopped at the Salmon Creek trailhead with the intention of just walking in a mile or so to see what was there, and almost instantly I came across this beautiful swimming hole. This is all of a 1/4 mile from the road, and no one was here - what the hell? All those RV's racing by, and right next door the cool clean water, the waterfall and sun, this is heaven on earth. So I did what any semi-intelligent simian with half a brain stem would do, I stripped down and swam. And I've come down from the mountain and I'm here to tell you that it was delicious my people. There are moments in life when everything comes together and you say this is what it's really all about, well, this was one of those moments. Thank you Jehovah or Shiva or Gaia or whichever one of you deities sponsored this cathartic moment for me.

So of course after my swim I was energized and decided to follow the trail up the hill for a ways, and it was unbelievably beautiful - the wildflowers, the sunny day, it was just intoxicating. Stay tuned to part 2 to hear about the wildflowers and the rest of my hike up to the ridge of the Santa Lucias.

Posted by Hall at 8:31 PM | Comments (0)

April 6, 2008

Juniper Ridge manager checks into cheap Cabins with the most beautiful view ever - Steep Ravine cabins

These cabins are only $70.00 a night (there is camping nearby which is also beautiful) and they are right off Highway 1 about a mile up from Stinson Beach. I went with my friend Kelly. I have known her since freshman year of highschool. She knows everything about me, so I find hanging out with her very restful. I love her.

I also love her because she reserved this cabin for three nights and invited me to stay with her. We both have husbands and kids but we left them at home.

Reserving Steep Ravine cabins is practically impossible, and reserving a campsite or a cabin there is a byzantine process which defeats all but the most dedicated. The central mystery is: when you camp there or stay in a cabin, you see only about half the cabins and campsites occupied.

Something is very fishy and if I were an investigative reporter I would investigate....it seems very very odd that the cabin reservations are incredibly hard to get and yet the cabins are always half empty.

I need no words, really

At night I sat here, wineglass in hand, looking at the stars, listening to the ocean

You have to drive down to the Steep Ravine area on a little road. It is gated with a combination you get when you reserve.

Here we are, Kelly the blonde one, and I, with our wheelbarrow we used to cart our stuff to the cabin. I was so happy there.

Posted by Laura at 2:35 PM | Comments (0)