The clarity of light in the cold months of California and the desert Southwest epitomizes the phrase ‘on a clear day you can see forever’. Plus, California looks slightly green in places after days of November rain. These were nice days for a 1,000+ miles road trip from Monterey to Vegas over Thanksgiving week. Point…
Monterey County
Tag Archives for Monterey County.
Highway 1 Big Sur Coast Drive Detour
Three reasons I wanted to make a road trip yesterday around Monterey County and a drive south on Highway 1 along the Big Sur coast. First, the desire to drive a paved road I did not know existed until a couple years ago called the Nacimiento-Fergusson Road linking Highway 1 on the Monterey County coast…
No Place Like Home in Monterey County
Yesterday I drove some back roads in Monterey County on the long way home. Since I have written about back roads across other western states this past month, I’ll share a few photos of Monterey County’s alternate route to Carmel/Monterey. Coming from the south the distance is a little shorter than Highway 101/Highway 68 to…
Pinnacles National Park west side entrance
Pinnacles National Park is 60 miles southeast of where I live in Monterey, California. Pinnacles refer to the massive rock spires and crags dotting the landscape of the park in the Gabilan Range. This is condor bird country and there are talus caves; large boulder ceiling caves in narrow canyons filled with bat colonies of…
Monterey County Wineries and Hotels: Carmel Valley Road
There has been a buzz these past few weeks about Monterey County listed as a Top Ten Wine Travel Destination 2013 in the February 2013 issue of Wine Enthusiast. Three items over the internet got me thinking about Monterey County wineries this week. First was Points, Miles & Martini blog where I saw this Top…
Driving over the largest underground river in the U.S.
The Salinas River in Monterey County is the largest underground river in the United States as it travels 170 miles from its southern source in the coast range mountains of San Luis Obispo County to the Pacific Ocean at Monterey Bay. At least this is what the local area informational display claims at the California…
This is Monterey County: Sand, Sea & Artichokes
Artichokes? Yeah, we have a festival for those! Castroville Artichoke Festival happens the weekend of May 19-20, 2012 in the little town of Castroville about 16 miles north of Monterey. This is the 53rd festival. Looks to me like the festival started in 1960, the year I was born not too many miles away from…