This past weekend, some friends and I decided to go (albeit spontaneously) to Big Sur! I had been wanting to go to this beautiful place for over a year now and I cannot believe I had not already been! We experienced so much during this trip so I am splitting this up into multiple posts.. sorry not sorry.

Let’s start out with what happened on day one: I drove us up I-5 to Carmel, where we were staying for the trip. From Los Angeles, it was supposed to be a six hour drive.. but, of course, LA traffic and a stop at In-N-Out made our travels about two hours longer. We blasted some sweet tunes (I’ll share this playlist later) and arrived at around 9PM, crashing into deep sleeps after we arrived at our place in Carmel.

Now, day two is where all of the adventure happened. For post length’s sake, I’ll be sharing the first part of day two in this post!

Bixby Creek Bridge

Our first stop for the day was Bixby Creek Bridge! If you’re coming from the northern side, from Monterey or Carmel (like us), then you’ll be welcomed by this bridge at the very beginning of the Big Sur region. We pulled along the turnout right before to take pictures. The water is insanely blue and the bridge is just wonderful. If you end up coming from the southern side, from Santa Barbara or  San Luis Obispo, then this bridge is on the very opposite end of the region. If you have a lot of time to spare, make the drive. Route 1 is beautiful anyways, so if you are going to drive far to get to the bridge, the view itself will be worth it. (Plus, you’ll drive through ALL of Big Sur!)

Big Sur Bakery

After driving through Andrew Molera State Park, we stopped at the famous Big Sur Bakery! Tip: the bakery (and restaurant) is a little on the pricey side, but very worth the stop. I ordered a iced berry tea with a “cop donut” from the bakery side. I think it’s safe to say that we demolished the donut.

Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park

At the end of Pfeiffer State Park (yes, it’s different), we parked in JPB and walked the trail to McWay Falls. I’ll be sharing my better McWay pictures in another post.. but when we went it was still beautiful to look at despite the lighting and cast shadows. Tip: Go to McWay Falls further into the day, chances are that you can see the falls better in afternoon sunlight than in high noon light. After we took in the McWay beauty, we took the opposite trail into a campground and snuck into a spot, roped off of course, in between some trees, looking out over the cliffs. (If you come through the tunnel, instead of turning right to go to McWay, turn left!)

There are so many textures and color schemes around JPB State Park and I had the chance to capture some: the two on the left are different trees and the right is a cool boulder I sat on at our cliff lookout!

As I said earlier, I’ll share our Big Sur playlist later, but for now, imagine wandering around these cliffs listening to Lord Huron (favorite songs here).

I can’t wait to share more about my experience in Big Sur; this isn’t even half of the adventure! Have a happy Monday!

UPDATE: Check out part two and part three of my Big Sur adventure!