We’ve been traveling in California for two weeks now, and we’ve covered a lot of ground. We drove through Death Valley National Park and made our way down to the Mexican border just south of San Diego, California. Day 30 saw us drive down past San Diego and wave to Mexico before following our compass north toward Canada. A few miles north of the border we stopped at Imperial Beach and walked around on the pier, as seen above.

Southern California is known for it’s sun and waves and fantastic beaches. I have to admit - I have not been disappointed driving through southern California. There has been lots of sun and plenty of great beaches. We spent the night in Cardiff-By-The-Sea, California at San Elijo State Beach on day 30 where I captured this sunset photo, complete with the requisite southern California surfer, of course.

Speaking of surfers… There are lots of them. No really, tons of them. I’m amazed. People talk about how surfing is a passion, a lifestyle - and it truly is a way of life for so many people here. On day 31 I woke up and went for a run by the beach where I witnessed car after car full of surfers pull up, grab their board off their roof rack and head for the waves. Every beach that we drove past in southern California that had halfway decent surf was dotted with at least a dozen or two surfers at any time of day - even on the week days. 

Our chosen road was the one closest to the Pacific ocean. Most of the time in California this means Route 1, but in San Diego County it was following along Historic Route 101 through small surfing towns like Encinitas and Carlsbad. In some places along the coast we’ve seen signs for ‘El Camino Real’ (’The Royal Road’ in Spanish) which indicates that the road we are currently on was used by the Spanish to send messages up and down the Pacific coast line. Some of these outposts were established by Spanish missions as far back as the late 1600’s (quick history lesson: Mexico was a Spanish colony and California was part of Mexico until 1846, so there are heavy Spanish influences throughout California) and were used as a means to pass messages from the throne in Spain all the way to the missions in California. It’s pretty interesting to think that some of the roads we are driving on were used by horses nearly 400 years ago.

Day 34 had us driving through Morro Bay, Cambria and Big Sur. We found a beach where there were lots of elephant seals relaxing. The photograph above captures two of the elephant seals having a discussion about who gets to be on that corner of the beach. Pretty amusing to hear them all making lots of interesting sounds while sunning themselves. This beach is a popular hangout for the seals and tourists driving by, definitely worth a stop.

We have discovered the many joys of the California State Beaches - quality campgrounds with great facilities. The only problem is that demand outstrips supply quite often and so we’ve found that if you want to get a camp site - even on a week day - you have to show up in the early afternoon. Don’t have reservations on a weekend? Forget about it. Some campsites are reserved months in advance. They are very popular.

There have also been a few light houses that we have discovered along the way. The one above we stopped at on day 35 - Pigeon Point Light Station State Historic Park - is located along Route 1 just south of Pescadero. The State Historic Park is free to the public, and there is a good deal of information about the light house on display. You can get pretty close to it and I was able to get a few decent photographs, including the one above.

Now we’re officially in the central coast region of California (although I couldn’t tell you exactly where southern California ends and central California begins… I asked three different people and got three different answers). Looking forward to San Francisco!