day ten and eleven: pacific ocean

click on the photo for a closer view!

After we left the Grand Canyon, we drove and drove and drove across the Mojave Desert and spent the night in blah blah blah blah . . . and on the eleventh day of our road trip we saw the ocean! We wove our way through the mountains that divide the desert from the orange groves and there it was: the Mighty Missipific. California's coastal highway made for great views and intense sport driving as we slowly made our way toward Big Sur.

Q: Have you ever heard of Big Sur?
A: Is it a new fast food chain?
Q: No.
A: Is it the new west coast rap impresario?
Q: No.
A: Is it Paul Bunyan's lumberjack boss?
Q: No. It is a forest teetering on the undulating coast of California. Also it is a national park and hippy haven about 3 hours south of San Francisco.

We planned to spend the night at a famous old lodge inside the park. After about 2 hours driving along the magnificent coast, we witnessed a stunning sunset (see photo above) and continued making our way north in the twilight. A strange red light appeared in the distance, and as we grew nearer it grew more intense. A half hour's drive further and we halted in front of a raging fire that seemed to cascade down the mountainside to the tumultuous waves below.


A dozen or more cars were parked ahead of us, including several emergency vehicles with lights flashing. Firefighters told the gathering crowd that the fire was under control, but traffic would not be permitted for a few hours. Most people, like us, returned to their cars and settled down for a nap, although one guy had a dvd player in his dashboard, and he and his friend were watching Clerks when we walked by. We woke up 45 minutes later to see that the fire had doubled in size, consuming all of the trees that formed the dark barrier in this photograph. Many of the other cars had already turned back, and we had no choice but to carefully turn the truck around and drive, painstakingly slowly, back the three hours down to our starting point. The only other traffic we encountered were seven more firetrucks headed toward the blaze.

We learned that the fire was only three miles from our destination; when we called the lodge they said they could clearly see it and that they were overrun with travellers stranded on the other side. When we finally reached a two-stoplight town, we begged the clerk at the Motel 6 to give us a room, even though he already had his coat on and keys in hand, ready to lock up. It wasn't until the next day that we heard the cause of the fire: a car gone over the cliff.