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Near Big Sur
The beautiful coast of California stretches 800 miles along the stormy, often foggy Pacific. My first exposure to it came when my family returned to the U.S. from our year living in Japan and unexpectedly docked in L.A. due to a longshoreman's strike. Since our car and camping gear were in storage in San Francisco, we drove up Highway One by rented car. I can still remember the impression that tawny coastline made, unspooling mile after mile, with occasional high arched bridges, islets and haystacks bathed in the misty surf, and the cliffs thickly covered with California poppies.
Undoubtedly the most dramatic part of the coastline our family visited in 1967 is the stretch from Big Sur up to Carmel and Monterey. Since moving to the West Coast I have returned several times to photograph the surf, scenery, and wildlife there; this shot was made on a 1994 winter jaunt. Driving down from Washington State, of course I have explored the long coastline of Humboldt County and Trinidad Bay, which is just as spectacular in its own right, though sunshine is even more of a rare commodity there.
Photo copyright © 1995 by Larry Neilson