Central California is a favorite place for my wife and I to visit. The landscape is remarkably untouched and will remain so. Here are five images from our trip there in late July.
The first image is from Montana de Oro state park, taken from the bluffs trail.
Next is an image taken shortly before sunset at Moonstone Beach in Cambria. The wind was blowing so hard, it nearly unbalanced me a couple of times. But look at the gulls. Although the photo was taken at 1/8 second, none of them is blurred. They oriented themselves like weather vanes right into the stiff breeze and never flinched.
Below we see the blanket of cold fog, known as the marine layer, brushing up against the mountains in Big Sur. The thin ribbon of white just under the clouds is US 1.
Right across the road from Hearst Castle you’ll find the San Simeon peninsula, a great place for an easy hike. I took both of these images from near the point, looking back.
In the first shot, you can see the vast kelp forest peeking up from below. Hearst Castle is visible in both as a speck along the ridge.
