We move to San Lorenzo County Park in King City for a week.  It’s only about 50 miles from the home place, but there are things here I want to explore.  The park is nice!  With discounts for being old and off season, I pay $27 a night and 5 nights for the price of 7.  The dogs cost $10 for the week.

March 31

Directly across the mountains from King City on a little traveled road, is Kirk Creek Campground, right on the ocean.  It’s small and reservations must be made, but I just want to check it out, and I want to drive the road across the mountains, then come back the same way.  The short of it is that we take the Jolon Road exit off 101, and end up on Nacimiento-Ferguson Road, which takes us to Hwy 1 and the campground. When I turn onto Nacimiento-Ferguson Road I see that it is narrow, and oh my gosh, it twists and turns all over the place.  One hundred blind curves would not be an exaggeration!   But almost NO traffic….maybe 5 cars traveling.  More on the side of the road, just looking.

Spring gives us green hills and loads of wildflowers.

A stream….and Joy and Shiloh play in it….

I pull over so many times to look…in awe….at the beautiful mountains and hills, green expanses, and wildflowers blowing in the wind….

And then finally we make another curve and FAR below and ahead of us is the Pacific ocean…I gasp at the beauty of it.

thank you Great Spirit, for allowing me this…

Down, down we wind….I don’t know, maybe 2000 feet.   On we go and then we are at Hwy 1 and Kirk Creek Campground is literally right there.  It’s a lovely campground!  I drive through and it is indeed, full, and feels crowded, but the beautiful views would be worth it.

So the thought was to go back the way I came…but I’m at Big Sur!  The urge to drive the coast is suddenly The Most Important Thing.  I need the Magic of Big Sur and I’m right here…

And it IS magic.

This is the true Magical Mystery Tour.

If there are fairies, they are here.  If there are Dryades and Nymphs and ghosts, they are here.

Great Spirit is certainly here, in the view around every bend in the road, in the wind, and in the crashing waves. In the rocks and the hawks and the startling colors of blue.  It is truly “A Wild Coast And Lonely” (title of a wonderful little book by Rosalind Sharpe Wall).

If I could only recommend one place to you, that I have been to, I’d say “go to Big Sur.”  And it’s not really a place, it’s an area.  There is no town called Big Sur, but there is a tiny post office.  It’s the area from south of Carmel to….oh….I don’t know….as far south as you feel the magic.

Before you go, read the above mentioned book.  It will put you in the right frame of mind to be receptive to the magic.

Spend time.  Walk some enchanted trails.  Have breakfast at Deetjens Big Sur Inn, and spend the night there too. (reservations needed!) If you are camping try Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park (reservations!)  Or Kirk Creek of course, if your rig isn’t too big. Spend an evening at Napenthe with a South Coast Margarita.  Go to Andrew Molera State Park and walk the 1 mile path to the beach and see where the Big Sur River meets the ocean.  Go out on the headlands and look back at the beach.  Take a tour of the Big Sur Lighthouse. (Hi Patty!) Check out the Henry Miller Library. Have lunch at Ventana out on the patio overlooking the ocean at 1000 feet, and the mountains.  Go behind the River Inn, take off your shoes in the grass, and have a seat in one of the chairs placed in the river….look up at the green leaves overhead.  Find one of the many secret benches along the coast and sit in your private hideaway and watch the drama of the coast…waves spraying off the rocks, the various sea birds, maybe a whale passing by.  Smell the ocean mixed with sage, and if you walk in the Redwoods…pretend your not looking….but DO look for the fairies…

I’ve done all those things over the years…

Oh!  Back to today!  Today there is a crystal blue sky and a sparkling diamond ocean.  The wildflowers are everywhere and the hills are still green.

There are many people here enjoying the day.  Maybe because of Spring Break?  I wonder if they all feel the magic…?

I do.  I sure do.