To Sur with love

Big Sur: Stunning scenery

10 April 2012

Natural disasters are not unusual at Big Sur. Mudslides can shut the area down for months. In June last year fires ravaged one of California's most spectacular areas of natural beauty, homes were evacuated and it was catastrophic for local businesses. Fortunately things are now back to normal.

Henry Miller referred to Big Sur as "a state of mind" and, driving south from Carmel, I knew what he meant. It's a place of inhospitable beauty which inspired artists, writers and musicians who have settled in the area since the early 20th century. Jack Kerouac cruised around and other writers and artists such as Brautigan and Ferlighetti called it home. Orson Welles bought Nepenthe, a stunning property with beautiful views, for his wife Rita Hayworth and later sold it to the Fassett family, who still run it as a restaurant full of tourists enjoying their famous Ambrosia-burgers.

For those nostalgic for the Sixties, Big Sur evokes wistful memories. Gift shops heady with the smell of incense sell love beads, wind chimes and tie-dye garments.

Walking along Pfeiffer Beach, watch middle-aged men with plaited beards sculpt artistic sand creations..

The Esalen Institute, where burnt-out "creatives" went on retreat, has undergone a revival and now has a spa where you can stay or enjoy a therapeutic day soaking in hot sulphur baths.

Big Sur has 1,000 full-time residents but in high season numbers swell to around a million. The sinuous stretch of road extends for 75 miles, around 150 miles south of San Francisco and 300 miles north of LA. Mountains rise to around 5,000 feet to one side and the Pacific laps the edges of cliffs on the other. Rocks rise out of the sea like sculpted arches and the surf pounds the shore. One moment fog hovers like a moody grey curtain, the next it lifts to reveal bright blue sky..

Like everything in Big Sur, beauty has a menacing underside and parks are full of warnings. One of the commonest is the poison oak leaf, which looks innocent but produces an itchy, contagious rash that can last for weeks if you touch it.

Residents guard their territory jealously — I was told they often remove signs to famous public beauty spots to prevent tourists from intruding. One Big Sur grandee told me how he felt about this "grand, unique and special place, and how passionate we who live here are about preserving it for the future".

Driveways are hidden from view and trespassing is punishable. Electricity did not arrive until the Fifties and still does not extend into the more remote mountainous areas.

Big Sur offers accommodation to suit all tastes and pockets, from $20 a night in one of many well-equipped campsites to luxury hotels such as the Ventana Inn and The Post Ranch Inn.

We enjoyed four days of bliss at the Post Ranch Inn, without doubt one of the most romantic places on earth. Local architect Mickey Muenich's organic architecture respects and blends in with the setting and environment. Our room was a treehouse perched on stilts set high amid a forest of giant redwood, madrone and oak trees — like living at the top of the world. Even taking a bath in the sunken slate bathtub gazing at the ocean through the trees was a decadent way of communing with nature.

The hotel's resident shaman claims to "retrieve energies from the past and future in order to be fully present in the now". But my "now" was more concerned with trying to locate the swimming pool, something of a trek through a lovely meadow full of deer and wild turkeys.

Nearby is The Bakery, a simple roadside restaurant owned by chefs Michelle and Philip Wojtowicz, who moved to Big Sur from New Jersey in 2001. They serve delicious, fresh local produce at breakfast and lunch, and dinner from Tuesday to Saturday. A couple from Texas liked it so much they went two nights in a row taking their own $2,000 bottle of wine (a 1997 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, we were told) but for those on a more modest budget, the store sells pastries, jelly donuts, chocolate chip cookies straight and a legendary breakfast pizza.

Although it rains, winters in Big Sur are mild and March is the time for whale spotting. Visitors need to be flexible with their plans and check all is well before going. There is no predicting what might happen because in Big Sur, nature rules.