Big Sur Vacation - Day 2

We slept in and got a late start on the second day. After we got up, we decided to go out for breakfast. The resort provides a do-it-yourself waffle breakfast, but we decided that we wanted something more substantial. The breakfast wasn't too bad, just ridiculously overpriced. However there was plenty of food and we felt well nourished for our adventures.

As we were researching the trip, we came across Jade Cove Recreation Area. It sounded pretty interesting. As the name implies, it is known as a good place to collect Jade. Later in the fall, they have a Jade festival and collectors gather from all around the country. According to State laws, you are allowed to take out pieces of Jade that you can carry. The cove is also a popular dive spot, which is a good place to search for Jade. It sounded pretty interesting to us and we put it on our list of places to explore.

The first evening, we were exploring the gift shop at the resort. We found a basket of Jade stones that were for sale. It was kind of disappointing. They were brown stones that have streaks of green. If I came across one of these stones on the beach, I am not sure that I would recognize it as Jade. Then we found out that the best time to find Jade is just after a storm, otherwise it is pretty hard to find along the beach. It is easier to find when diving, but that was no good for us.

Anyway, we headed for Jade Cove. It was a short hike to the rim of the bluffs. The cove was pretty, but we decided not to hike down to the beach. The path down was pretty steep and pretty sketchy in some places. Plus the beach was pretty rocky without much sand. We planned to go to some other beaches later in the day and we were not too optimistic about finding any Jade, so we decided to head on.

We drove on to Pacific Valley State Park. We took a short hike to the bluffs overlooking the coast. There did not seem to be any trails down to the ocean, so we just wandered up and down the bluffs enjoying the scenic views. We came across different coves and rock formations in the water. It was pleasant to watch the waves crashing on the rocks. This area reminds me of the bluffs overlooking the ocean just north of Santa Cruz.

Next we headed to Sand Dollar Beach. This is a long sandy beach that is easy to get to. The path has stairs wherever it gets steep. We got down to the beach and watched the surfers. I am not sure what the official name is, but these surfers stood on the their boards and paddled with long paddles. I had seen people surfing this way before, but I had never spent much time watching them. It seems that they move slower, but more gracefully. Then a pod of porpoises came along and swam up and down the beach. In one of my pictures, I capture a fin in one of my pictures of the surfers. The fin is from a porpoise not a shark. It was very pleasant watching the porpoises and surfers frolicking in the waves.

Then we drove to the Ragged Point Inn. As an aside, it probably sounds like we covered a lot of ground this day, but all of the areas are pretty close together. The three state parks were all within 5 miles north of the resort and the Inn was about 10 miles south. You would not want to walk to each of the areas, but they were only a few minutes apart by car. Anyway, we got the the Ragged Point Inn and decided that we would have a late lunch/early dinner. We got out of the car and decided to walk around for a few minutes before getting dinner. As we walked along, we kept seeing another scenic view of the ocean or the grounds. Before we knew it, the few minutes stretched to about an hour wandering the grounds. It was very pretty. Finally, we got to our early dinner. The food was good and the view of the grounds was very scenic. A very nice meal.

Then we headed back to the resort, bought a half-bottle of wine and sat on our deck. Sipping wine, reading and watching the sunset. Not a bad way to end the day.