Road Trip On Route 1 - 17 Miles Drive

Continued from my previous post Road Trip On Route 1 - Big Sur Coast Highway, after a night of good rest in Monterey, we took the 17 Mile Drive, a very scenic drive along the coast of the Monterey Peninsula in California. Blue sea, blue sky, stunning views! We enjoyed another perfect weather day here in California. 

There are over 20 point of interest along this drive and most of them feature great scenic views of the Pacific Ocean. I like the colour of the sea so much, I have never seen such a handsome blue sea before.



The ocean here seems always restless, that is where the name "The Restless Sea" from. Another pretty well known spot in Pebble Beach is Bird Rock, the view point is not far away from restless sea. A huge rock literally covered with lots of  different species of birds, some seals,  sea lions and otters (?) . We can hear the unique barking sounds of sea lions from a distance. There is a row of telescopes on site for you to get an up-close view of  those lovely critters.... A lots of cormorants and seagulls are around, and some squirrels were jumping from rocks to rocks...There should have pelicans on Bird Rock but I think I came at the wrong season. 

  

 

People feed the squirrels and seagulls...but I don't think it is a right to do so.



The Lone Cypress, the most famous landmark of 17 miles scenic drive, which has been standing on the rocky perch for over 250 years. If a tree like human have feeling, I am sure he will feel super lonely across the 250 years!



Walking down from here is the Lone Cypress viewpoint on Monterey’s 17 Mile Drive. The view from here is perfect no matter the weather.

 Not far from the Lone Cypress, is my favourite Ghost Tree.

 



Seagulls and cormorants off the rocky coast

 

 

 

 



...along the 17-Miles Scenic Drive



It was fun watching this guy surfing

 



Pebble Beach Golf  Links, the most famous golf course in the US and one of the top in the world. The view here is fantastic.



Our 17 Mile Drive road trip ends when we came out from this beautiful forest and continued to Carmel.  Amazing views of 17 miles scenic drive! It will be great if we came here at sunset  time, yeah, I wish I could come back here one day.



Road Trip On Route 1 - Big Sur Coast Highway







Winter is a nice time to explore the California Coast. It was nothing but gorgeous views along the Route 1 drive,  We made plenty of stops at the scenic outlooks to capture all the beauty.


Big Sur is called "The Greatest Meeting Of  Land and Sea" !  Indeed! We started scenery drive from San Simeon,  a ninety mile stretch of scenic beauty! Visited  Hearst Castle, a beautiful castle set up on a hill. Those Elephant Seals are really cute...they are basking in the sun on the beach.



I enjoyed the Pfeiffer Beach, beautiful purple sands and rock arch.

Here are more photos taken along the road: Continuing north, we pass over the Bixby Creek Bridge. Stop at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park for McWay  waterfall...

It's a stream of water that falls from a creek onto the beach then into the ocean....

It's absolutely stunning.

 

Well, I will think 17 miles drive is the most beautiful part of our wonderful road tip on Pacific Coast Highway,  will follow a post soon, a post for all photos taken along the 17 miles scenic drive...

 

Autumn

Photos from

My Road Trip Pacific Coast Highway LA to San Francisco, Day 1

Scenery in park

Sengkang Riverside park which is located at Anchorvale Street along Sungei Punggol. It is my most favorite park, I like to walk and stroll here, a nice and quiet park for walkers, joggers and cyclists. The park consist of three open-space land parcels and is also home to a constructed wetland. The Sengkang Sports Complex is just nearby, connected by a floating wetland, one of the unique features in this park. 

Many of the aquatic plants planted on the floating wetland, the flowers attracted a lot of dragonfly and some birds. There were also several herons, kingfishers, egrets living here in the past few years, but unfortunately they all disappeared now as more and more building coming up at the nearby places.
Standing on the bridge over the constructed wetlands, you could see the nice stretch of mangrove trees on the river bank.

The Floating Island is a boardwalk with several fixtures in it and it brings direct access to the nearby Sengkang Riverside Park. (The Floating Island is not part of Sengkang Riverside Park). Just outside the boardwalk, there were some swamps and plantations around.

My favorite bare tree 

I found many Sea Hibiscus (Talipariti tiliaceum) trees here, flowers on the floor... The flowers only last for a day - starting off yellow in colour, and eventually turning orange towards the end of the day. It will usually drop off the next day.

The Sengkang Riverside Park is the one where National Parks Board has set aside one parcel of land for planting fruit trees. I like to walk around to identify those fruit trees but there are still a lot of them unknown to me, no sign indicated.

Evening sky on my birthday

Looking Down From Cape Point Light House

We took a the Flying Dutchman Funicular runs from the car park to the north up to slightly below the level of the old lighthouse,  some steps leads to a viewing platform around the base of the lighthouse.  Where I had my stunning views of Cape Point here and took some photographs of the rock formations and the ocean.   I was so exctied to be experiencing such an incredible scene!
From the end of the railway there is a second path leads to the lower peak, which I wish I would take a walk there if I ever had chance to come back here.

 

 ...the waves crashing on the rocks

 

Fabulous! Helicopter Flight In Cape Town

Our tour package has included the helicopter flight in Cape Town, it was quite exhilarating, especially this was my first flight in helicopter. If you are planing to visit Cape Town, I really think this is a 'must' do activity there, the whole experience were excellent! 

The views from on top of the sea, Sights of the city with views of the new Cape Town Stadium, the beautiful beach and mountain...

"Fabulous!"-the only word I can say. Fun memory with all those photos taken in flight.