Lucia

I quickly found better weather just south of Cupertino. Cupertino was gorgeous, but the further south I went, there were fewer clouds and it was much warmer at night. I continued to follow route 1 south with the ocean to my right and mountains to my left. I soon came to Big Sur state park. Unfortunately a recent fire had kept all the campgrounds in the park closed. Luckily there are a bunch of campgrounds along the way. I travel a few more miles south and come to Limekiln state park, which consists of about 15 maybe 20 sites. My site put me right next to a stream in the shade of a few redwoods and steep cliffs on either side. The steam flowed straight in to the ocean which was a few hundred feet away. On the way to a modestly sized yet beautiful beach I crossed under route 1, which was high overhead. The bridge was like a giant doorway between the camping area and the beach and ocean. The beach was walled in on both sides by step cliffs. it almost felt like I was in an auditorium and the sky and ocean was on stage.

I arrived fairly early in the afternoon and still had an hour or so to bask in the sun as it set over the water. This was the first sunset on the west coast I've had that's felt warm while wearing shorts and a tee shirt. I got to put my feet in warm beach sand one more time this year, and it felt great!

Pictures: California Central coast. The left hand wall at the Pacific ocean theater. A cool rock. A gorgeous sunset. More cool rocks.Read more