We will only have 2 full days in SF before we head south towards LA. We visited Muir Woods back in 1997 and wanted to bring our travel companions to see the giant trees (redwood/sequoia) I read somewhere that there are redwoods in Big Sur. Will we see trees as massive as the ones in Muir Woods in Big Sur? If so, there would be no need to travel to Muir Woods and could spend more time in SF.

There are redwoods in Big Sur. Although the ones in the Santa Cruz Mountain areas are more impressive I think. It's an easy detour on your way from San Francisco to Big Sur. See link below: http://www.pelicannetwork.net/santacruzredwoods.html
See also a Big Sur link:
http://www.pelicannetwork.net/jpb.statepark.htm

I haven't been to Muir Woods in a while, but I think Big Basin State Park has comparable ones to Muir Wood. Maybe someone with more knowledge on this region will pipe in.

We visited Muir Woods last week, and frankly, it looked a bit under the weather. Either there is a blight of some sort, or a serious drought, because there were dead and damaged braches and trees all about. Not the famed redwoods, thank goodness, but oaks and other varieties.

We, too, were re-visiting one of our favorite SF spots, and this was a sad sight to see. It remains visually stunning, but there is damage throughout.

Can any of you Bay Area residents enlighten me on what has happened? Hopefully, it's just a temporary situation.

Jim

Since you are going south from SF it hardly makes sense to drive north to Muir Woods. And especially so when Big Basin is on your way. Better park, bigger trees, and less crowde4d thanat Muir Woods.

And w/ the added bonus of wineries in the same general area.

So you actually can have it all Redwoods, wine tasting, great scenery and all on your way towards Carmel/Big Sur . . . . . .

Thanks so much for the info! This will free up time for other things in SF! I also thought that we wouldn't have time to visit a winery. Didn't know there were any south of SF. I did a search and found the Fogarty winery south of SF. Are there other options near Big Basin? We plan on leaving SF in the morning and slowly make our way to Carmel for the night. We have reservations at the Hearst Castle the next day at 1:30. I may try to change this to 2:30 to give us a little more time to drive through Big Sur. It won't matter if we get to LA late that night. I think that I read LA is 4 1/2 hours from the Castle.

There is definitely no shortage of wineries in California. In addition to the ones in the Santa Cruz mountains, there are wineries in the Monterey area and the Santa Ynez valley. There are several other wine growing regions not on your route as well.

Here is a link to the Santa Cruz Mountains Wine Growers Association web site:

http://www.scmwa.com/

If you click on the map on the site J_Correa linked, you will see Big Basin and all of the wineries so you can work out an itinerary to 2 or 3 and still be w/i a few miles of Big Basin.

Thanks a bunch!