USBig Sur, California, United States
Condors over Big Sur
Ninety miles of cliff road, and the largest bird in North America.
Watch it live firstWhen the light is best
July, August, June
Computed from five years of daily cloud, rain and temperature at 36.27, -121.81. Some cloud is what makes a sky burn, so this is not the same as the driest month and often disagrees with one.
- Cloud then
- 44%
- Wet days
- 0
- Daytime high
- 21°C
When to actually go
Year round. September and October are the clearest months, after the summer fog and before the winter storms close the road.
This is the window for the reason you are going, and it is a different question from the light. Where the two disagree, this one wins. An empty river under a perfect sky is still an empty river.
- Nights
- 4
- Getting in
- Monterey, or San Jose two hours north
- From, per person
- $2,400
Why here
The California condor was down to twenty two birds in the world in 1987. They fly over Big Sur again because people put them back, one by one. Driving Highway One with a real chance of a ten foot wingspan crossing above the car is a different experience from driving it for the view, and the view alone is already one of the great drives.
What you actually do
- Highway One from Carmel to Ragged Point, slowly
- Julia Pfeiffer Burns and McWay Falls at low sun
- The condor release site viewpoints near San Simeon
- Point Lobos at dawn, before anybody else is awake
However many of you
On your own
One of the great solo drives. Book the inns early, because Big Sur has very few rooms and they are not cheap.
Two to six
Two couples, one car, four nights. Stay one night in the middle of the coast rather than commuting from Monterey.
Seven or more
Big Sur cannot absorb a large group. Base a group in Carmel or Cambria and drive in, which also solves the parking problem.
Book it
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