Big Sur coastline, CA: 1969

On Memorial Day weekend in 1969, I had a chance to combine a business trip to California with a drive down the Big Sur coastline. Naive kid that I was, I actually thought the beautiful scenery began as soon as I got south of the urban sprawl of San Francisco ... and subsequently wasted a few rolls of film, busily snapping pictures of ho-hum beaches and coastline scenery all the way down to Monterey. Wow, I thought, now I've really found the beautiful part of California. Granted, the 17-mile drive around the Pebble Beach golf course is pretty scenic — but I hadn't even gotten to Carmel at that point, and the majesty of the Big Sur coastline still awaited me. The best part of the trip was a mile-long, totally deserted stretch, some 20-30 miles south of Carmel, known as Sand Dollar Beach — a spot to which I returned in August and November of that year, again in the summer of 1970, and perhaps a dozen times since then.

The crowds have grown slowly over the years; it's common to find half a dozen or a dozen people along the stretch of beach now ... and I keep wondering how long it will be before I return to find that the parking area at the top of the bluff is occupied by a Burger King and a Starbuck's coffee shop ... If that ever happens, I think I'll pull a Thelma-and-Louise maneuver, and drive off the top of the bluff at 90 mph. The Hertz rental car people can bloody well fish their car out of the surf; the Starbuck/Burger-King tourists will surely cheer them on.

I think this is a famous cypress tree, located near Monterey along the 17-mile drive, but I don't know what makes it so special. Actually, I think it showed up on the cover of one of Joan Baez's albums; maybe that's why it's a big deal.

This was taken just south of Carmel, along a stretch where the high grass grew right up to the edge of the steep bluffs overlooking the ocean ...

Sand Dollar beach in the middle of the day, in glaring sunlight. I came back to the spot about three hours later, and this guy was still sitting in the same spot, staring at the same stretch of water. Maybe he was dead; but I decided not to disturb him.

Sand Dollar beach in the evening, as the sun faded behind clouds.

Sand Dollar beach at dawn on the Sunday morning of Memorial Day weekend, 1969. The seagulls pretty much had the beach to themselves for several hours, until one or two fishermen or joggers would appear out of the mist ...

Looking north from the bluff atop Sand Dollar Beach, in November 1969.

Sand Dollar beach at mid-day, in a heavy pounding surf ...

The view from the bluff atop Sand Dollar beach, looking south, during Thanksgiving Day weekend of 1969.

Sand Dollar beach at sunset. Humans, seagulls, and everyone/everything else had gone home for the day; I was the last one there.