I’m not afraid of heights. I love rooftops. I love edges. Or I thought I did, However, I may be full of it because yesterday we sat on a pretty safe bench that wasn’t necessarily that dangerous and it scared the stuffing out of me.
The bench is just 10 steps off the road on Highway One in Big Sur (it’s just to the north of the new bridge being built near Limekiln). I don’t remember what enticed us to stop… the foggy sky plus glassy ocean, I’m guessing. We stopped. Grabbed our cameras. Got out of the car and were quite happy to see this little bench on the cliff side hidden by a couple boulders.
Steve went right to it and as he sat down the bench immediately rocked forward and made a loud creaking sound. “Come join me,” he said. “No way,” I said.
But I did.
In the next photo you can see the view when looking directly down while sitting on the bench.
Here’s Steve’s short video showing us, the view, and illustrating the loud creak-creak of the bench as it lurches forward while you sit on it.
This is my (lousy) video of the view. I’m shaking in my boots while taking this (regardless of the fact that I’m wearing sandals).
From the secret bench on Highway 1 in Big Sur from emdot on Vimeo.
This would be my scared-as-hell-but-trying-to-hide-it face.
Below: looking to our right, to the north.
Below: looking straight ahead, to the west.
Below: looking left, to the south.
Hi from Germany – I like your “bench post” a lot. We drove the Highway 1 in March 2013 and we also stopped right at this point. We didn’t know why but we stopped there and we were pretty surprised and happy to see this little bench. Unfortunately I can’t remember where exactly this bench was located. I tried to find this spot on Google Earth but I could’nt find it yet. Do you remember exactly where this bench was located. I looked up the north of the new bridge near Limekiln but could’nt find it yet.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=489219291132788&l=6d33c4060d
I have recently found a video on YOUTUBE and this video is very sad. At the end of the video the narrator himself kicked down our bench into the cliff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLk8oERYKp4&list=UUNhPhjW9WY22-0-pcHPwLEA
That’s why I’m trying to start a little project to rebuild this little bench on exact the same lovely place. Thank you for your help and your interest. If you want to you can contact me via info@graphic-island.de
Greetings from Germany, Roy
Roy – I’m so glad you wrote to tell me about the bench. That is bad news. I will help to get the word out to gather funds or to tell people what happened. I have to admit — I can’t bring myself to watch the video of the person kicking the bench down. That is a terrible thing.
I’ll write to you and see how I can help.
Cheers from the Central Coast of California!
P.S. That explains why I haven’t been able to find the bench since this post. I visited three or four times since and was never able to find it again.