Visitors come from all over the world to drive the PCH along the Big Sur coast. No question that it is a beautiful drive. But the drive from Point Dume to Point Hueneme is equally beautiful for my money. And it's a road less traveled.
I drove it yesterday for the first time in a while and marveled again at the breathtaking vistas of sea and cliffs. The road hugs rugged cliffs on one side and drops off to rocky beaches on the other. Even though there were bursts of rain, indomitable surfers were undeterred at County Line Beach. But Neptune's Net, normally overrun with bikers and others at noon, had only a few people sitting on its patio.
Unlike most other weekends, Pt. Mugu State Park was empty. The rock climbers were not out at Mugu Rock, the huge rock on the ocean side that was created when the PCH was cut through the rocky cliffs. No one was sliding down the Great Sand Dune on the land side.
The coreopsis plants were blooming in fits and starts all along the highway. Sometimes there was a broad swath of yellow blooms but, more often, there was a solitary plant or two popping out of the hillsides.
Right before Pt. Mugu Naval Base, I turned off on Los Posas Road and entered a different world of green fields stretching for miles in either direction. The green hills that run along the southeast looked soft and inviting. When it rains in Southern California, beauty explodes.
It is always surprising to see signs for Tractor Crossing less than 30 minutes from my house. Since it was Sunday and raining off and on, no farmers were out on tractors and no pickers were in the fields. I drove slowly admiring the neat rows of fields where the luscious strawberries and green veggies sprout and find their way to homes all over the US. It was good to breathe the rainswept air and the clean fragrance of the fields.
It's seven miles or so from the PCH to Highway 101 when you are hard hit by civilization again.
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