And now for part two! I hope you enjoyed part one of my Big Sur adventure (check it out if you haven’t already!). I left off on our excursion to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and McWay Falls, but I’ll be sharing my pictures of the McWay in this post. I’m already living in my nostalgia as I am going through my week.

I can’t wait to go back!

Old Coast Road

We befriended the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park employee and she told us about a dirt, gravel road that would lead along the mountains and into the oldest redwoods in Big Sur. Honestly, as I drove up onto the first dirt incline, I was scared. I had never driven through a road like that before; now I have conquered it all in my little big Element (#InMyElement). We saw a couple of cars parked out on turnouts along the beginning of the road and decided to do the same. I backed up along the turnout and we sat in my trunk to enjoy the view. The entire time down (and up!) this road I thought of the following quote:

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference. – Robert Frost

Route 1

Now I can’t speak for every single turnout and vista point along Route 1, but I will say that I wish we had more time to stop at some of them. The end of Old Coast Road spits you back out right in front of Bixby Creek Bridge so you have the chance to drive back down Big Sur all over again! It also gives you a great view of the bridge right towards the end of the road. We wanted to head back to McWay Falls in the yellow evening light, so we drove over Bixby again, heading south towards JPB. There was a turnout about one mile further down the round (I believe it’s called Hurricane Point). This was the only turnout we stopped at and the view was glorious.

McWay Falls

Now to the good part (well all of it is good but this is one of my favorites). McWay is probably the most recognizable attraction of Big Sur. We had gone earlier in the day but unfortunately came across bad lighting and decided to wait for the afternoon light to come and light up the falls. As I said earlier, go later in the day (or early in the morning) for the best light. You can either hike the short trail to a closer view or just walk down the side of Route 1. I personally thought the best view was higher up on the highway, but the closer look is safer and generally more fun to walk to.

Also, I promised that I would share our Big Sur playlist, so here it is:

1. Easy Love by Sigala
2. Try Me by Jason Derulo
3. 101 by WALLA
4. pretty much every song by Lord Huron
5. On My Way by Phil Collins (from the Disney movie Brother Bear)
6. I See Fire by Ed Sheeran (Kygo Remix)
7. Wake Me Up Before You Go Go by Wham!
8. Leon Bridges‘ album Coming Home

I can’t wait to share the last (and favorite) part of my adventure! Stay tuned for part three..

(Update: Check out part three where I go to Pfeiffer Beach!)