DAYS 10-11: Big Sur, Big Trees, Really Big Mammals

Christmas Day, Day 10, we awake to the warm Big Sur air, waves, and mating elephant seals on the beach where we had spend the night. For a failed marine biolgist, happening upon these gargantuan, enormous, elephant-sized elephant seals on Christmas morning was quite meaningful. It was their biggest day of the year. That morning most of the years young were being born, (we got to see it happen!!) sows were stealing eachothers babes, bulls were attempting to mate with the unwilling and no longer pregnant sows, and the dominant bulls were masquerading their unbelievable size and sounds. They were a wild clan of seals, and we were fortunate enough to have a naturalist there to let us in on the details of what was going on. He was there to monitor the births of the new seals.




We spent the rest of the day driving the coast of Big Sur, without a doubt the most stunning place on Earth. I begged Leigh to turn around, "Portland is so rainy, and you can surf here, please we can live on the beach in a tent!"... but onward we went.





We stayed in upper wine country that night, and proceeded throught he enormous redwood forests along the coast the next day, making it, FINALLY, to Portland, OR around midnight!

DAY 9: California, Adventure of the Insane Mtn Road

Day 9 was certainly one to remember. We drove north through desert tree farms and palms towards the Sierras and the southern Sequoia National Monument. Not really knowing what we were doing, we decided to take the old Volvo 240 to the top. There we ascended the world's narrowest, sharpest, guardrail-less road that I have ever had the terror of experiencing. At any given time you had the pleasure of driving off the cliff edge, with a guaranteed 1,000ft drop. Not to mention the ice and snow that covered the "road" near the top.



To our amazement, we discovered a town at the top of the mountain - Pierpoint Springs, elevation 4,700ft, population 50. We were served coffee by a jovial little lady in the cafe/bar/post office/realty/store before attempting the descent down Earth's most outrageously terrifying road. Inevitably, Ali spend the whole descent paralyzed in fear, and Leigh was probably rationalizing when to throw her out of the car.

Amazingly, no cliff did they drive off, no mortal fate did they meet. Leigh safely navigated down to Earth, and they drove through tree farms and oil fields to the Pacific Ocean.

DAYS 7-9: New Mexico, Arizona, California & Acute Viral Rhinopharyngitis

Sorry for the drop off in communication folks. We were seized by a terrible case of acute viral rhinopharyngitis, also know as the common cold. By the time we finished our adventures I had no energy to edit photos and write quaint entries. So where did we leave off... ah, yes, New Mexico!

After the Carlsbad Caverns we traveled back into Texas through the Guadalupe Mountains and down into the salt plains.. a whole day through the desert with no signs of life. We passed through El Paso, back into New Mexico where we stayed in Truth or Consequences! We spent the next day (Day 8) soaking in Hot Springs, and then up north through Albuquerque (scary town) into Arizona where we were blindsided by a blizzard and forced off the road.

Due to the snow (Day 9), our next day plans to visit Sedona were botched, but we did spend some time in Flagstaff, which looked nothing like Arizona and seemed very hip. From there we drove down into the Mojave desert and into darkness through southern California.