Big Sur

Friends of mine were visiting so we decided to drive down to Big Sur to see if we could see the Bridge being replaced at Pfeiffer Bridge. We found we were not allowed to go there by Caltrans. We also found out that Pfeiffer Beach with the Big rock with a hole in it where you can see out to sea and sometimes the sunset through it was also closed. Then we went to the Ranger Station right there where they make you turn around and asked if the trail was to the waterfall was open on the river and the ranger said that trail was closed ever since it had flooded out recently and hadn't been reopened. So, we returned to the north up Highway 1 to Garrapata Beach up past Bixby Bridge (the famous one you see in all the photos of the area up the coast from Big Sur that was build by the CCC during the 1930s.)

So, Garrapata Beach was open but it was sunny but very windy with white caps on the ocean so I was glad I brought my heavy ski jacket to the beach, my friend who has a girlfriend about 15 years younger than him had her go back to the car and get his jacket because he was cold from the wind. I was okay with my ski jacket and  wool hat but even I had to finlly zip up my jacket for a few minutes to warm up my belly and chest from the cold wind. we three had shorts on so we walked barefoot through the surf but most people there had shoes and socks on and didn't do this but two of us were Southern Californians who grew up barefoot a lot on beaches then to which going barefoot (at least along beaches winter or summer) is pretty normal for us. So, if you grow up toughening your feet to do this regularly often you never completely give up this way of life. Also, wearing shorts and walking through the surf up to your ankles or above really makes you feel a part of the ocean and the shore in a very special way too.

So, it seems like you won't be able to drive to Pfeiffer Beach unless you are a local who lives there maybe and even then by a strange route tourists can't go at least until the new bridge is completed sometime between September and December 2017 and by then the road likely will already be closed by the next rains or flooding somewhere else between Big Sur and Morro Bay where the rains will bring more rocks and mud down upon the Highway which pretty much happens every year now.