back to about my design

 

pacific coastal highway | carmel | napa 1 | napa 2 | san francisco

Photos from my trip to California, Summer 2007. I used to live on the West Coast, so going back there again to see the
beautiful natural scenery was a lot of fun for me. The photos cover about 500 miles of territory. The trip started in LA,
where we went to a real estate conference, then progressed up the Coast, stopping along the way at all the best places: Montecito/Santa Barbara, Carmel, Monterey, then up to Napa Valley, and coming back to to spend the last weekend in San Francisco.
The best part for me however, was the Pacific Coastal highway!

 

Montecito - Santa Barbara

A gallery in Montecito; right, a wildfire burning on other side of Santa Ynez mountains coming from Montecito
on the way up to Santa Barbara. The wildfire was a controlled burn.

 

Santa Barbara beach


An Iraq war memorial set up on the beach, identifying each battle location
and a cross for every soldier that has died.

 

 

 


The Santa Barbara Mission

Inside of the Mission, and street artwork in front of mission steps.

The Botanical Gardens

 

leaving Santa Barbara heading north on 101 with the Santa Ynez mountain range in view ahead,
in route to San Luis Obispo, to pick up Route 1 again at Morro Bay.

 

Along the Big Sur portion of the Pacific Coastal Highway,
also commonly known as Route 1 on the West Coast.


beginning of higher coastal elevations along Big Sur route.
bend in the road with mist.
Scultped gateway with cypress trees -- an entrance to one of the ocean ranch properties along Big Sur.

Hang gliders dropping into the ocean.

Elephant Seals at Seal Point:


A lazy day at the beach.

pink flowers with Pacific ocean on the horizon.
looking back at ocean cliffs through pine boughs.

 

yellow wildflowers along the Big Sur coastline.

one of the landmark bridges along the Big Sur's Gamboa Ranch portion of the highway.

 

Fog rolling in along the upper portion of Big Sur.

To learn more about the 72-mile Big Sur portion of the Pacific Coastal Highway, you can visit The Big Sur Land Trust website, which has some beautiful photographs of the highway, and also details facts and photos on each of the six ocean ranch properties that make much of the 30,000 acres of land that
the Big Sur Land Trust protects along the coast of California.

The Big Sur Land Trust also publishes a book, "Big Sur and Beyond" in connection with photographer Douglas Steakley, which can be ordered from the photographer's own website: www.douglassteakley.com, under the "books" link.

 

Zebras on the San Simeon ranch:

 

© 2007, all photos by j.apel

 

Carmel pictures