Big Sur, California

The scenery in Big Sur, California cannot be done justice by film or secondhand account. An eclectic populace and cosmic vibe flows through the area and permeates Big Sur hotels, shops and restaurants. A table with a view isn’t hard to come by in Big Sur. Neither is a sense of well-being. Cliffs, rocks, redwoods and effervescent surf create an epic backdrop for recreation, romance and relaxed exploration.

History
Originally inhabited by the Esselen, Salinan and Ohlone Native Americans, Big Sur was first settled by the Spanish in the 1830s, but developed its first large settlements due to the Gold Rush. The lumber industry thrived in the late 1800s in Big Sur, despite the difficulty of reaching the area; the population of Big Sur was greater at that time than it is today. The three-day, dangerous overland journey to Monterey meant most supplies were brought in and goods shipped out by ocean, rather than by road.
The construction of Highway One in the 1930s transformed Big Sur, making its beauty accessible to all rather than just the most intrepid. Residents fought to protect Big Sur against development, preserving its charms and its remote feel. Get a feel for Big Sur's history by visiting Andrew Molera State Park, home to Big Sur's oldest building, and that famous Big Sur lighthouse, Point Sur Lighthouse.

Artist's Haven
Big Sur has provided inspiration to photographers, painters, writers and musicians. Henry Miller and Jack Kerouac chronicled the area in books, and Ansel Adams and Edward Weston captured Big Sur's rugged beauty on film. Robinson Jeffers described Big Sur in epic verse, which later became the inspiration for the Beach Boys' album Holland.
Today Big Sur remains a favorite place for local and international artists of every stripe. Galleries located along Highway One exhibit stunning visual art, while venues such as the Henry Miller Library and Fernwood Resort host both cutting-edge acts and big names. For more information on the Big Sur arts scene, see our Big Sur Arts and Culture page.

Big Sur Hiking
Much of Big Sur is under the auspices of the state and federal park systems, and hiking trails permeate Big Sur. The Los Padres National Forest, Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, Garrapata State Park and Andrew Molera State Park are world-renowned for their stunning scenery, and with good reason. Each park has its own unique atmosphere, and no two hikes are alike.
Big Sur hiking trails range from tranquil walks along a coastal waterfall at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, to miles-long ascents through the redwoods and into the rugged wilderness at the Los Padres National Forest…and everything in between. The sprawling nature of the region makes it possible to hike for hours in solitude. For more information on hiking in Big Sur, see the park links at left. Each page has detailed Big Sur hiking trail information, including descriptions of sample hikes and links to online trail maps.

Big Sur Campsites
Big Sur campsites range from fully equipped RV sites under the shade of redwoods to rustic hike-in tent sites with spectacular ocean views. For the dedicated hiker, use of the Los Padres National Forest's trail camps allow days of travel on foot without ever having to see civilization. Most of Big Sur's campsites are located within state and federal parks, and most are first come, first served. Camping reservations for Pfeiffer Big Sur and Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Parks can be made through the Reserve America website.
Three privately owned Big Sur campgrounds, Big Sur Campground and Cabins, Fernwood Resort and Riverside Campground and Cabins, are all nestled among the redwoods in the heart of Big Sur. If you want the tent camping experience without the hassle of bringing your own, stay in a Big Sur tent cabin at either Fernwood Resort or Big Sur Campground and Cabins. Contact the properties directly to make Big Sur camping reservations.

Big Sur Hotels
Big Sur lodging options range from luxury resorts perched above the rugged coastline to rustic cabins. All of Big Sur's accommodations are harmonious with the area, perfect for visitors seeking a retreat from the busy world. They also offer easy access to Big Sur hiking and other outdoor activities. Click here for a full list of Big Sur hotels and resorts.

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Big Sur Beaches

Big Sur's beaches show off the California coastline at its rugged, unspoiled best. Due to their similar names, two beaches — Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park's beach and Pfeiffer Beach — are often conflated, but each is separate and has its own unique charms. While some of Big Sur's wild beaches are accessible by car, visitors should expect to hike to reach most of them.

- Garrapata State Park Beach
Many consider Garrapata State Park's secluded beach to be the best in Big Sur. While there are no facilities, this sandy, unspoiled beach has stunning views and is easy to get to. You're also likely to spot sea otters, sea lions, seals and even the occasional migrating whale. Nearly invisible from the road, Garrapata State Park's beach can be reached from the trailheads at points 18 and 19. For detailed directions on getting to this hidden park, see our Garrapata State Park page.

- Andrew Molera State Park Beach

Andrew Molera State Park's beach can be reached via the aptly named Beach Trail, which is an easy, almost flat hike along the banks of the Big Sur River. Andrew Molera State Park's beach is considered Big Sur's most reliable surfing destination, and is also a prime surf fishing spot. State park admission fees include parking; there are no facilities at the beach, but restrooms are available at the parking lot.

- Pfeiffer Beach
Don't confuse this beach with the one at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, which lies a few miles south. Many locals name Pfeiffer Beach their favorite because of its wide sandy beaches and the arch rock that lies just offshore. Pfeiffer Beach is very hard to find for the uninitiated. It is located at the end of unmarked Sycamore Canyon Road, which is the only paved, ungated road on the west side of Highway One between the Big Sur Post Office and Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park.

- Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park Beach
Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park's beach is only accessible on foot, but it's worth the trip. Popular with divers, this beach has excellent views and great tide pools. You'll also see equipment and artifacts left over from Big Sur's period as a center of the logging industry. To access the beach at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, take the Partington Canyon Trail, located west of Highway One behind a gate about two miles north of the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park entrance. The trail runs through a rock tunnel on its way to Partington Cove.

- Sand Dollar Beach
The biggest unbroken stretch of beach in Big Sur, Sand Dollar Beach is popular with rockhounds for its jade and hikers and photographers for its breathtaking bluffs. (Planning to collect some jade? See our tips below under Jade Cove.) A steep staircase leads down to the beach. Sand Dollar Beach is 25 miles south of the main settlement in Big Sur on Highway One. It is well-signed.

- Jade Cove
Named after the smooth, waxy stone frequently found on its rocky beaches after a storm, Jade Cove lies 27 miles south of the main settlement in Big Sur, two miles south of Sand Dollar Beach, and just over three miles north of Gorda. Keep a sharp eye out for the trailhead sign by the side of Highway One, and park at the pullout.
If you plan to seek jade there, you should know that serpentine, a common stone that looks identical to jade, is also often found there. How to tell the difference? Serpentine can be scratched with a steel knife; jade can't, and you may see bits of metal left on the jade. Please see the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary's regulations on collecting jade from beaches.

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340-year-old Bible found in a Wisconsin Lutheran church

A 340-year-old Bible has been discovered tucked away in a pantry-sized room filled with old books, historical records and pamphlets at a 148-year-old Lutheran church and school located in Wisconsin. Middle school teacher Debra Court first found the Bible two years ago, while searching for baptism records for a class. When she saw it she thought it was just an old book and didn’t think much about it, according to FOX news. "I was looking for the old baptism records to show my students and then up here in the corner was where the Bible was tucked," said Court.

The 17th century Bible was found at St. Paul Lutheran School by Court who showed the Bible to Church Pastor Timothy Shoup. "When I did open it up and look at the title page I saw the roman numerals at the bottom I kept coming up with 1670 and I concluded whatever that is I've got it added up wrong." So Shoup contacted Concordia Seminary Library in St. Louis, according to Channel 5 News WFRV. A cataloger at Concordia was able to authenticate the 340-year-old book. The German Bible was printed in Nuremberg in 1670, hand-pressed, rare and at a weight of twenty pounds. It's made of pigskin over boards with brass corners and clasps, reports WFRV.

Lyle Buettner, who works in Special Collections at Concordia Seminary Library, said he believes the Bible is one of about 40 remaining copies known to exist in the world. Buettner said the illustrations were also impressive. He told news reporters "Each time I see an illustration like this, I just think of how beautiful it looks and how much of a labor of love it must have been for the person who actually drew it." Reports said that church officials don’t know how they got the book and no one seems to remember how it got into the safe. Many of the church elders have been asked but nobody seems to recall ever hearing of the existence of the this piece of church history. The church is considering donating the centuries old Bible to a library in St. Louis in the future. But for now church leaders are looking to have a climate-controlled display box made and will keep it until their 150th anniversary in 2013, according to the news reports.

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New Year in Bali - Nyepi Day of Silence

Every religion or culture all over the world has their own way to define and celebrate their new year. For example, the Chinese have the Imlek year and to celebrate it, have, as they called it in their own language, "Gong Xi Fat Choy". The Moslem societies have their Muharam year, and any of the people over the world using the Gregorian calendar, celebrate the New Year on January 1st.

The same thing also occurs in Bali, however the Balinese use many different calendar systems. They have adopted the Gregorian calendar for business and government purposes. But for the endless procession of holy days, temple anniversaries, celebrations, sacred dances, building houses, wedding ceremonies, death and cremation processes and other activities that define Balinese life, they have two calendar systems. The first is the Pawukon (from the word Wuku which means week) and Sasih (which is means month). Wuku consists of 30 items starting from Sinta, the first Wuku and end up with the Watugunung the last one. The Pawukon, a 210-day ritual calendar brought over from Java in the 14th century, is a complex cycle of numerological conjunctions that provides the basic schedule for ritual activities on Bali. Sasih, a parallel system of Indian origin, is a twelve month lunar calendar that starts with the vernal equinox and is equally important in determining when to pay respect to the Gods.

Westerners open the New Year in revelry, however, in contrast, the Balinese open their New Year in silence. This is called Nyepi Day, the Balinese day of Silence, which falls on the day following the dark moon of the spring equinox, and opens a new year of the Saka Hindu era which began in 78 A.D.

Nyepi is a day to make and keep the balance of nature. It is based on the story of when King Kaniska I of India was chosen in 78 A.D. The King was famous for his wisdom and tolerance for the Hinduism and Buddhism societies. In that age, Aji Saka did Dharma Yatra (the missionary tour to promote and spread Hinduism) to Indonesia and introduce the Saka year.

The lead upto Nyepi day is as follows:

• Melasti or Mekiyis or Melis (three days before Nyepi)
  Melasti is meant to clean the pratima or arca or pralingga (statue), with symbols that help to concentrate the mind in order to become closer to God. The ceremony is aimed to clean all nature and its content, and also to take the Amerta (the source for eternal life) from the ocean or other water resources (ie lake, river, etc). Three days before Nyepi, all the effigies of the Gods from all the village temples are taken to the river in long and colourful ceremonies. There, they have are bathed by the Neptune of the Balinese Lord, the God Baruna, before being taken back home to their shrines.
• Tawur Kesanga (the day before Nyepi)
  Exactly one day before Nyepi, all villages in Bali hold a large exorcism ceremony at the main village cross road, the meeting place of demons. They usually make Ogoh-ogoh (the fantastic monsters or evil spirits or the Butha Kala made of bamboo) for carnival purposes. The Ogoh-ogoh monsters symbolize the evil spirits surrounding our environment which have to be got rid of from our lives . The carnivals themselves are held all over Bali following sunset. Bleganjur, a Balinese gamelan music accompanies the procession. Some are giants taken from classical Balinese lore. All have fangs, bulging eyes and scary hair and are illuminated by torches.The procession is usually organised by the Seka Teruna, the youth organisation of Banjar. When Ogoh-ogoh is being played by the Seka Teruna, everyone enjoys the carnival. In order to make a harmonic relation between human being and God, human and human, and human and their environments, Tawur Kesanga is performed in every level of society, from the people's house. In the evening, the Hindus celebrating Ngerupuk, start making noises and light burning torches and set fire to the Ogoh-ogoh in order to get the Bhuta Kala, evil spirits, out of our lives.
• Nyepi
  On Nyepi day itself, every street is quiet - there are nobody doing their normal daily activities. There is usually Pecalangs (traditional Balinese security man) who controls and checks for street security. Pecalang wear a black uniform and a Udeng or Destar (a Balinese traditional "hat" that is usually used in ceremony). The Pecalangs main task is not only to control the security of the street but also to stop any activities that disturb Nyepi. No traffic is allowed, not only cars but also people, who have to stay in their own houses. Light is kept to a minimum or not at all, the radio or TV is turned down and, of course, no one works. Even love making, this ultimate activity of all leisure times, is not supposed to take place, nor even attempted. The whole day is simply filled with the barking of a few dogs, the shrill of insect and is a simple long quiet day in the calendar of this otherwise hectic island. On Nyepi the world expected to be clean and everything starts anew, with Man showing his symbolic control over himself and the "force" of the World, hence the mandatory religious control.
• Ngembak Geni (the day after Nyepi)
  Ngembak is the day when Catur Berata Penyepian is over and Hindus societies usually visit to forgive each other and doing the Dharma Canthi. Dharma Canthi are activities of reading Sloka, Kekidung, Kekawin, etc.(ancient scripts containing songs and lyrics).

From the religious and philosophy point of view, Nyepi is meant to be a day of self introspection to decide on values, eg humanity, love, patience, kindness, etc., that should kept forever. Balinese Hindus have many kind of celebrations (some sacred days) but Nyepi is, perhaps the most important of the island's religious days and the prohibitions are taken seriously, particularly in villages outside of Bali's southern tourist belt. Hotels are exempt from Nyepi's rigorous practices but streets outside will be closed to both pedestrians and vehicles (except for airport shuttles or emergency vehicles) and village wardens (Pecalang) will be posted to keep people off the beach. So wherever you happen to be staying on Nyepi Day in Bali, this will be a good day to spend indoors. Indeed Nyepi day has made Bali a unique island.

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Nyepi is a religious event. Bali is a Hindu society, one that believes in the karmapala principle, according to which the dynamics of life, and of Man’s individual fate, is set in motion by ‘action’. Man is in the midst of a Samsara cycle of incarnations, each of which is determined by the quality of his actions (karma) in his existence.  His ‘ideal’ is thus to put the system to rest, to control one’s actions, and thus to subdue one’s inner demons. Only in such a way can Man hope to achieve ‘deliverance’ from his cycles of life (moksa) and eventually merge with the Oneness of the Void, the Ultimate Silence of Sunya.

The Day of Silence is a symbolic replay of these philosophical principles. At the beginning of the year, the world is ‘clean’. It has been cleansed in the previous days. All the effigies of the gods from all the village temples have been taken to the sea or to the river in long and colourful ceremonies. There they have been bathed by the Neptunus of Balinese lore, the god Baruna, before being taken back to residence in their shrines of origin. On the eve of Nyepi all villages also hold a large ceremony of exorcism at the main village crossroad, by lore the meeting place of the demons.

There at the crossroads a Siwa priest addresses the gods, a Buddha priest, the middle world and a Sengguhu priest the netherworld. At night the demons of the Bali world are let loose on the roads in a carnival of fantastically crafted monsters - the Ogoh-Ogohs.

Thus, on the day of Silence, the world is clean and everything starts anew, Man showing his symbolic control over himself and the ‘force’ of the world.  Hence the mandatory religious prohibitions of mati lelangon (no pleasure), mati lelungan (no traffic), mati geni (no fire or light) and mati pekaryan meaning that nobody may undertake any work, even Ngurah Rai airport remains closed for business for one day of the year.

There is more than mere religion, though, to Nyepi. Twenty years ago, there was still fun to it. Traffic was discouraged, but there were almost no cars anyway, and people would walk freely around, visit friends and the like. But now, Nyepi has become a demonstration of identity. Faced with urbanization, large-scale migration of non-Balinese to the island and a withering of its agrarian basis, not to mention the millions of tourists visiting the island, the Balinese use Nyepi to remind all those visiting guests of who exactly is ruling the land.

And they do it so gently, as with almost everything Balinese, in the most peaceful manner. Think of the Balinese demons. Which other people in the world take its demons in the streets in a non-political carnival, as the Balinese do in the Ngrupuk cavalcade of the night preceding Nyepi?

This cavalcade of demons is as relaxed as Nyepi proper is serious. The parade is held all over Bali, but the most fantastic one is undoubtedly that of Denpasar. There all the banjar (ruling village heads) neighborhood participants and hundreds of youth associations make their own Ogoh-Ogoh monsters. Banjar neighborhoods and youth associations, who raise a special ‘tax’ for the purchase of the needed glue, bamboo and cowhide, make the Ogoh-Ogoh. Some work at it for weeks on end and spend millions of Rupiah on their creations, hoping to have the most beautiful effigy of the village or of the entire neighborhood.

Some are giants from the classical Balinese lore, while others are guitarists, bikers or even AIDS microbes. All with fangs, bulging eyes and scary hair. Thus, when they all come out at sunset, illuminated by torches and with the accompaniment of the most demonic gamelan music (bleganjur) of the Balinese repertoire, Denpasar becomes another, gentler Rio Den Janeiro. Heading for Gaja Mada street and the Puputan square, they surge suddenly by the hundreds, more ‘horrible’ the ones than the others, each carried on the shoulder of four to thirty youths, jerking this way or that way so as to give the impression of a dance, or suddenly turning in a circle, much to the fascination of the spectators.

This is not a small procession, it lasts for three to four hours, as if Bali has an inexhaustible pool of demons. All the Ogoh-Ogohs eventually head for the Puputan square, where they are burned. The world is then cleansed and ready for the day of Silence, a day without demons.

Today’s Ngrupuk festival has lost some of its symbolic religious meaning. Youth see it as an occasion for merriment and creativity, travel agents as a business opportunity, Banjars and youth associations as a means to assert their ’superiority’. Fights sometimes erupt with politics never far beneath the surface. For this reason the present tendency is toward the control of the Ngrupuk festival and its demons.

Let’s us hope, though, that the Balinese demons will always remain as gentle as they have throughout the centuries and that the world at large can be inspired by Nyepi, a very sacred and inspirational day of peace.

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