Winter Road trip on the California Coast...
Delightful Winter time, holidays and Christmas festivities all around called for a road trip along the pacific coast highway 1 to San Luis Obispo. It is about 5 hour drive from San Jose if you take the picturesque highway 1.
First stop was Atascadero, at Carlton Boutique Hotel, friendly staff always willing to help made the stay even better, beautiful decorations for Christmas made for some unforgettable Christmas Postcard like photographs.
Agenda for the next day and first stop was at the Charles Paddock Zoo which is the ONLY Zoo on the Central Coast that is home to hundreds of species from all over the world. Scroll down to see the majestic blue and gold Macaw. Macaws are king-sized members of the parrot family and have typical parrot features.
Next stop was Horse back riding at the Madonna Inn, we saddled up and hopped on the trail riding experience in San Luis Obispo. Madonna Inn Trail Rides has gentle and friendly horses and their wranglers are friendly and safety oriented so we relaxed and enjoyed the trails, what a memorable adventure it was!
After a quick lunch, we were chasing sunset at the Pismo beach pier, the icon of Pismo Beach is the wooden pier, stand on the pier and look out at the Ocean was what I had in mind, barely made it on time to get some amazing shots, albeit it was freezing, the gorgeous sunset made it all worth it.
Obvious next stop was Hearst Castle in San Simeon however the visit to Hearst Castle was unsuccessful, lesson learnt was that in Winter everything is booked in advance, if you do not book a tour in advance save yourself from going and being disappointed.
Last stop was to photograph another beautiful California sunset at the Ragged Point, San Simeon. a must see landmark travel destination. Gorgeous sunset shots at the ragged point, one in particular was a shot of a couple that walked ahead of me and stood there admiring the sunset which I absolutely love made this a successful photography road trip!
A Canon mark iii body was used to take the shots with 70-200mm 2.8 lens and 50mm 1.8 prime
Scroll down for some of my favorite shots!
