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California Highway One

We didn't want to miss any of 1 because of dark so we camped as soon as we could find a suitable place to park and sleep. We went to bed really early so we could wake early and see 1 with as much daylight as possible. The short days of the winter months really make it hard to see everything in the day light. We began our trek south at 8 am, with lots of fog still in the air. We went about 20 miles in two hours from stopping at every awesome view before we found a good beach for swimming. We hiked/slid down the slope from the road to the beach to find the waves much bigger than they had previously appeared. We stared at the six foot waves and contemplated getting in the frigid water. It couldn't have been warmer than 40. Justin took off in a dead sprint out into the calm(er) surf between the big waves. Matt and I took his lead and dove in also. We were only able to jump in and back out a couple of times before it felt like we were going to go into shock from the cold. That and the sand was so coarse that it hurt our feet to scramble in and out of the surf. We got our dry clothes on to go play on the huge rocks only to soak them in the sneaker waves. We climbed back up the road to the van and drove until two seals fighting in in the water caught our eye. We stopped and saw the two seals were all bloody from battle. They were huge, vicious, elephant seals battling for dominance. The beach was full of the giant seals. A few others were barking and play fighting while the others slept. They looked like 5000 pound inchworms flopping around whenever they could muster up the energy to move. After that, we made an attempt to see Hearst Castle but left when we saw the inflated admission rates. We stopped in Morro Bay to rent surfboards. Surfing was a great experience. It was really hard to get out into the good waves because the surf was so strong. We all got crashed up pretty good. We went to a local Chinese buffet to stuff ourselves full and then left for Sequoia National Park.