#wwim12slo

Yesterday, I drove down to Avila Beach for the 12th Annual, worldwide Instameet. The meet up was hosted by the super crazy, talented photographers Chris Burkard, Karen Grubb, VisitSLO and Niche. The day started off with a scavenger hunt and ended up on the beach where we all hung out, ate donuts, jumped in the freezing Pacific, ate pizza, socialized, looked at a drone, played games, and socialized some more. 

I meet  lot of really cool people and when I mentioned I was going to camp up at Big Sur for the night, a few guys decided to join in for the adventure. One of the guys (Alex) was from Santa Barbara and wasn’t in a rush to get back home. The other two guys (Jonny and Willy) left their homes in Quebec, Canada around four months ago and have been on the road, exploring North America since. When we mentioned to Chris that we were going to Big Sur, he suggested we camp out by Salmon Creek Falls, so that’s what we decided to do. 

Alex, Jonny, Willy and I all got into our cars and made our way up the coast until we arrived at the trailhead for Salmon Creek Falls. We made our way to a cave next to the falls to set up camp, then headed to the falls to take some night photos. We got lost more than a few times trying to make our way around at night, and finally found our way back to camp and set up for the night. Four hours later we woke to a slight drizzle which fortunately didn’t affect me, being in the cave. Alex was just on the edge so got a bit wet. Jonny and Willy were in hammocks but didn’t get terribly wet either.

We packed our things in the dark, hiked back out to our cars, hit the road, then Alex hit a rock which caused a flat. We pulled over, threw on his donut wheel, and left his car on the side of the road to be picked up later. 

around 15 minutes before sunset we arrived at McWay Falls in Big Sur. We scrambled out or vehicles set our cameras up, and shot the beautiful cove at Pfeiffer State Beach. We walked back to our cars, I said my goodbyes as they were headed back South, and I was headed back up North, to the Bay Area.

On my way up the coast, I made a quick stop at Moss Landing where the surf was amazing! I watched and snapped a few photos of the local surfers getting “pitted,” then continued my journey home up Highway 1. 

All in all, I had one heck of a fun weekend! Can’t wait to do it again!