Continued from Cali Coast Day 3 Part 2.

Woke up this morning and found the ocean covered in fog again. We packed up, checked out, and hit the road. We will be driving through the famous central coast of California today.

Hopefully the fog will clear up later today as the day heats up.

The olallieberry(similar to a blackberry) muffin from Linn’s for breakfast. Yum.

One side of the luggage is convex and one side is concave. Guess who has which side.

I love how our car is just parked right outside the door. Makes loading and unloading super easy.

Hitting the road. I am a bit concerned about the heavy fog. I hope it clears up at some point.

Please don’t spill the hot coffee. Made a quick stop back in Cambria for some gas and coffee. There are not many gas stations along the central coast.

What a nice temperature!

Just right down the road from Hearst Castle.

I close my eyes while biting down on the dried apricot-just as a great white shark would.

Elephant seals!

They made all sorts of funny burping noises the entire time.

There were some out in the water getting all up on each other roughing it out. There was a guide in the area, and she said that these are all juvenile elephant seals. All the adults are out at sea feeding. She said that the ones in the water are the young males who are already preparing for their future fighting to be the alpha.

Apparently, elephant seals molt.

There’s a nice trail…we didn’t walk very far before deciding to turn back around.

So cute. Reminds me of my dog.

The fog lifts a bit just for a second for me to take a more clear shot.

Rock, white by the color of bird shit.

I am just going to go ahead and say that everything along this stretch of coast looks stunning. It is truly beautiful. We also have been seeing a lot of foreigners here. Also, there are tons of Mustang convertible rental cars over here. The great majority of convertibles have their tops up, and not down. There are lots of turnouts for cars to pull over to enjoy the views.

Zebra!!!! This is a legacy of Hearst’s private zoo.

Lots of group rides.

still very foggy out. It’s kind of disappointing, really. It’s so foggy, we can’t see much ocean. The fog is nice to look at, but I really want to see some deep blue water.

Ragged Point Inn. We saw a big parking lot and lots of people, so we stopped by to see what’s happening…and to use their restroom. Oh, they’ve got cafe. We’ll get some more coffee too.

I saw a lot of old people taking photographs of this one bird…so I decided to take photos of the old people taking photos of the bird.

Cyclists biking on highway 1 with luggage is a pretty common sight. I wonder how many days it takes them on average to bike across this region.

Coffee, yes please. There is no cell reception in this area, so I am unable to pinpoint the places that I want to visit. We were looking for this famous waterfall, so we asked the him where we could find it. The barista said that there was a waterfall here, but no water, so no water fall right now. There is, however, a puddle of where the waterfall used to be. Really? I am pretty sure I read that this famous waterfall ran year round….Hmmm. Are we talking about the same thing? Anyhow, we decided to go and check out this waterfall puddle, just in case it was the one I am looking for.

We got our coffee, and followed the trail out back to look for the waterfall.

Hmmm…

Too bad this photo is just slightly out of focus.

Saw this trail, this has to be the way to the waterfall, right?

We saw two hikers walk up the trail, both in hiking gear. We asked if this was the way to the waterfall, they said yes, but that we’ll need to get to the very bottom to see the puddle. There is, however, beach access if we can make it down to the bottom. Sure, why not.

Coffee in hand. This trail was deceiving. It went from manicured trail with stairs to goat trail in about 20 feet. We are literally the only two people on this trail, and it’s quite a hike, and I mean it. This is literally a hike, and not a trail. It’s steep enough that there are sections with switchbacks.

Cardigan, check. Purse, check. Ballet flats, check. Coffee, check. We are totally not dressed for this hike. I will say, I am very impressed by how well RH climbs down this mountain in her flats. It’s actually kind of incredible.

Haven’t dropped my coffee yet. Come close a few times though.

You see the weird shaped tree right behind me? The angle of that tree canopy is the angle of this mountain that we are climbing down.

The beach at the bottom. Yeah, I am not joking. This hike is really steep!!! We thought about turning back around a few times, but……No!!! Must power through!!

KL points. RH likes to take photos of me pointing at things.

How are those flats climbing over steep loose dirt and rocks?

Still have my coffee!

We started out at the top there.

OK, about half way down to the beach.

Contemplating how to make the rest of the hike down.

Getting closer.

Easy, easy now.

I can taste it!

We climbed down a long way!

The puddle where the waterfall would have been if there was water. We figured out pretty quickly that this was not the waterfall that we were originally looking for. But we had made it far enough down the hike that we decided we will go to the beach and dip our feet in it.

I’ll hold that empty cup while RH scales the last of the boulders between us and the beach.

Almost to the beach!

Victory shall be mine!!!

In a moment of ecstasy from finally making it to the beach, I decided to grab a giant piece of washed up seaweed.

And start swinging it around…don’t ask why I decided to celebrate this way.

OK….that was enough.

We started out way up top there. Took us a full 20 minutes to climb down.

Shoes off, I am going to stand in the water.

Others who had made the climb down before had made stacks of rocks.

Still have my coffee in hand!!

KL points. RH loves these.

Ahhhh, so cold and refreshing.

We are the only two people down on this secluded beach, and it makes sense. Not many people would have been willing/able to make the climb down here.

Enjoying life.

Panoramic of our private beach. It is amazing here.

We tried to trick the panoramic function on my camera by having RH run in the photo.

The marbled stones weather away at different rates.

After relaxing on this small hidden beach for 15 minutes, it’s time to get back up to the car and get going. Clean off my feet of as much sand as possible, then the shoes go back on.

One last look at the beach before we leave.

While putting on my shoes, I found this little air filled pocket from some sort of sea plant.

Decided to take a marbled pebble from this beach as a memento.

How did she get up there so fast?

As we were about to leave, two other hikers made their way down.

RH decides to take off her flats, and hike up barefoot. She’s like a little mountain goat.

Spying on the other couple who just made it to the beach. I think this photo shows how steep it is.

By flats, I literally mean flats. How was RH about to get any grip in these shoes on the way down? Crazy.

Go little mountain goat, go.

Made it to the top. Hah, how naive for us to think that it was going to be an easy trail for the whole way.

Washing off her feet.

Cool custom motorcycle.

This unexpected tough hike down into a secluded beach was the best thing ever. We had so much fun getting dirty!! Well, it was fun because, luckily, neither of us got injured…Seriously though, potentially the best experience of this whole trip.

To be continued at Cali Coast Day 4 Part 2.