Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Sur in legends and their cave paintings. More recently, legendary author John Stein-
beck described them in his story, “Flight”:
“Pepe looked up to the top of the next dry withered ridge. He saw a dark form
against the sky, a man's figure standing on top of a rock, and he glanced away quickly
not to appear curious. When a moment later he looked up again, the figure was gone.”
In 1937, the poet Robinson Jeffers mentioned them in his poem “Such Counsels
You Gave to Me” as “forms that look human … but certainly are not human.” If Jef-
fers or Steinbeck ever actually saw one of the Dark Watchers is unknown, but the
local legend has been around since long before they wrote about it. Longtime Big
Sur resident Rosalind Sharpe Wall claims to have seen the Dark Watchers near Bixby
Bridge. If you happen to come across a Dark Watcher, the prevailing wisdom warns
against looking at them.
The Ventana
The Ventana Wilderness is named for a unique notch called “The Window” on a gran-
ite ridge between Ventana Double Cone and Peak. According to local legend, this
notch was once a natural stone arch that created a natural “window,” which is sup-
posedly what inspired the Spanish explorers gazing up toward the peaks to call it
Ventana. The Ventana, or “The Slot” as local rock climbers call it, is the 200-foot-deep
gap in the ridge. Geologists have yet to find rubble of a collapsed arch to support the
legend, but nonetheless there are many arches and small complete “windows” in rock
formations in the Santa Lucias. You can view the notch by looking west from Ventana
Double Cone or along Coast Ridge Road with views north and looking northeast from
Post Ranch Inn.
Supernatural Stories of Point Lobos
During the mission period, the Ohlone Indian neophytes at Carmel Mission would go
out on foggy evenings to “cheer up” their lonely and forlorn fog spirits. The mission
fathers strictly forbade any such pagan activity, and one night they followed them out
into the fog and performed an exorcism. The fog spirits flew off angry and offended,
departing with howls and causing sadness among the Indians. Some believe poetic
justice prevailed, when the priest who performed the exorcism went mad, jumped off
a cliff into the sea at Point Lobos, and was drowned.
A Goddess and a Hidden Gold Mine on Pico Blanco
With the discovery of gold and silver in Big Sur in the late 19th century, miners began
searching for the precious metals along the flanks and valleys of the Santa Lucias.
Today, the Pico Blanco area is littered with the rusting remnants of mining operations.
