Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park
Camp Review
We camped at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park at site 73, with the Prives grabbing site 72 and the Saitos, site 74. Individually, each site had its deficiencies, with site 72 and 73 having very little shade in the middle of the day, and site 73 and 74 being susceptible to wind at all times of the day. However, between the three sites, we never had a bad place to hang out. Thus, we had a great time!
Each site came with a fire ring and a table. Unlike many other sites I have been used to in California, it did not have a food vault or pantry. However, the ground was level with plenty of room for all three campsites.
Because of the layout, we had two neighbors that we could see, but they were pretty far away, so we felt like we had a pretty private camping experience. The river was less than 200 feet from the campsites, so easy access was nice too.
We saw many people walking and cycling. We wished we had brought our bikes as cycling around the campground would’ve been fun.
Right next to site 72 was a nicely stocked camp store. Due to the camp store, we had ice cream both the afternoons we were there.
We had one of the neighbors walk through our campsite over and over, but Seri and Florence talked to him and let him know what we expected in terms of camping etiquette. He readily accepted, and was really nice about it.
The bathrooms were pretty clean and well stocked. It even had hot showers, although it cost $1 for 3 minutes of hot water. There was a vending machine that only accepted bills right outside the bathroom.
What I Learned
Cassie brought water guns to share and everyone had a great time with it. She had brought one for every person that was there; however, most of the girls naturally ended up duel wielding, which meant that there were no water guns for the adults. There’s a good chance we end up bringing bigger water guns for just the adults next time.
At the Big Sur River Inn, we found out that glass containers are not allowed in the river, as a few boys cut their feet on broken glass the year before. The thought of the girls getting their feet cut horrified us, and everyone in our group kept their sandals on in the river.
Cassie and Kaylee were sick for most of the trip, with Kaylee getting slightly better each day and Cassie heading in the opposite direction. Anna also picked up a runny nose by the end of the second day, though her symptoms were due to allergies from all the grass around the campground. Florence gave us some Sudafed, which worked well on Kaylee (but didn’t work on Cassie). But what this all meant is that we left 1 day early so that we could recover in a bit more comfortable setting.
Friends
We shared this lovely camping trip with the Saito and Prives families. They’re such wonderful people to camp with, and I hope we keep camping together for years to come.
What Happened?
Every year, we have been taking a camping trip with the Saito and Prives families for the past few years. And similar to previous years, we didn’t want to drive too far. So, we set our sights on Big Sur and booked our campsites 6 months before, as Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park’s camping reservations fill out rather quickly. We were able to book these three adjacent campsites, and were pretty happy with our luck.
However, with a week to go, we learned that Ryo would not be joining us on this trip, as his work required him to work this specific weekend. And without him there, Seri decided to join us a day later as she needed to work and would rather drive the twisty Highway 1 in daylight.
I also had to work that day, but I didn’t mind the night drive, so we arrived around 10:15 p.m., after a slower-than-expected drive due to the dense fog that kept us company for a good chunk of the drive. We got the tents ready for Kaylee and Anna pretty quickly and went to bed.
The next morning, we woke to a warmer-than-expected morning and lazily made our breakfast burritos. Afterward, the girls and I lazily about while Cassie took a quick nap and Dave and Florence took a short hike up to a ridge they could see from their campsite. We then drove out to the Big Sur River Inn for lunch, as we were meeting Seri there.
Lunch was pretty amazing as while the food was fine (well, it was on the expensive side), the experience of playing and eating in the tranquil, beautiful Big Sur River, while sitting in Adirondack chairs was priceless. The girls had a great time exploring the river, as well as skipping rocks, while we waited for our food; and once food came, we sat and held wonderful throwaway conversations with each other (at least I did) while filling our bellies.
When we finished, we went back to our campsite and enjoyed the Big Sur River some more, but this time with water guns courtesy of Cassie, who had bought one for every camper, though the adults didn’t end up with any, as most of the girls ended up dual-wielding the water gun pistols. The girls also shared the floats that Cassie brought and had a great afternoon playing in the river.
After the river, we settled in to play some Catan while the Prives prepared dinner. The amount of food that they brought though, was massive and Seri and I ended up helping with the cooking.
Dinner was a choose-your-own-topping Laksa noodles. We filled our bowls with any combination of the following: rice noodles; Chinese spinach; mung beans; sliced pork (similar to chashu); sliced chicken; spicy soup base with fried tofu, chicken, beef balls, and fish balls; and/or not-spicy chicken soup with other toppings. Needless to say, the soup was so, so good and everyone had a full belly at the end of the meal. But this being a camping trip, we only rested a little bit before bringing out campfire snacks, such as beef sticks and popcorn.
The next morning, we woke up and got to enjoy an encore meal of Laksa before heading off to Pfeiffer Beach to see if we could enjoy the purple sands. Unfortunately, we headed out a bit too late, and we were turned around as the parking lot was full. So, we headed back to camp and played on the river some more. By the late afternoon though, we decided to head back while the Saitos and Prives tried to get to Pfeiffer Beach again.
The drive back for us was a bit hectic as there were multiple points on Highway 1 where there were massive traffic jams. Still, we made it back home before sunset, and were able to take nice hot showers that rinsed the smell of campfire off of us.
