I have such great memories of Pfeiffer State Beach. We were dropped off hitching from SF to LA and walked down the long winding dirt track down from the highway (now tarmacked). It was about two miles and we had heavy rucksacks. We arrived as the sun was setting and found a line of freaks sitting on the sand watching the sun go down out to sea turning the sea crimson and purple and the breaking surf strangely blue with a backdrop of an orange sky. The waves were crashing over the big rock in the middle of the bay and spraying through the hole in the centre. It was magical. We dropped our rucksacks and joined them as jays were passed along.
When it had disappeared we all unrolled our sleeping bags among the trees. We got a campfire going and shared some food. Someone got a guitar out and it was so cool.
Then the police came down and bust us all, shipped us back up to the highway and dumped us at the side of the highway.
We lay in our sleeping bags and looked up at the sky. Our friend Jack knew all the constellations. The stars were out in such numbers, like salt spread over black velvet, and the Milky Way was like a band of smoke, mountain lions roared around us. We laughed and talked all night, talking about Henry Miller and Kerouac and what a special place Big Sur was.
Such a magical night.
Did you ever go to Point Lobos – wonderful woods and little beaches?
No I don’t think we did. We were merely hitching through and had one magical evening and night.
To be honest, it was our single stop driving up the Big Sur – at the north end near Carmel, the town whose mayor was Clint Eastwood. The beaches were very white and we were told they’d imported the sand from Spain. Bit like Randolph Hearst pinching all that history from Europe for his California palace!
Oh we might have stopped there on our nostalgic jaunt back in 2013 when I retired. We flew into San Fran, hired a car and drove down the coast road to LA. We spent a few days reliving our past and lapping up the scenery. I think we stopped there because the waves were smashing on the beach and there were some rocks further out with seals on them. Very beautiful. I took a lot of photos. I’ll see if I can dig them out and put up a post. I didn’t know it was called that though.