Memories of the Nacimiento-Ferguson Road

I fell in love with the Nacimiento-Ferguson Road in the 1990s, long before I began my love affair with bird photography. My career supporting battery-operated life-safety inverter systems often required medium to long distance travel to jobs. I found air-travel both tedious and restrictive, and as often as I could, I would drive to job sites. This gave me opportunities to visit places off the beaten path, and that description is perfect for the Nacimiento-Ferguson Road. 

Later, when bird photography entered my consciousness, I started carrying my camera gear with me on my trips. My first trip along this route came in 2005. Ten years later, in 2015, I traversed this road on a mission to find Yellow-Billed Magpies. Below is the story of my experiences that day.

2015-06-17 King City to Morro Bay

After breaking my fast in King City, I launched on my quest for the magpies. I followed an eBird report about a week old sighting up a road to Pine Valley. I found deer and hawks, but no magpies, so I turned back and started my push to the sea on Jolon Road, which would connect me to the Nacimiento-Ferguson Road. I continued west and kept an eye out for large black and white long-tailed birds. Sure enough, a few miles down this road, just such a bird flew overhead. I stopped. There were more! There was a riparian grove near a ranch that I’d just passed by that they seemed to be drawn to. I approached slowly and learned that there were dozens of birds in this group, and there were nests in these trees. I figured that like their black-billed cousins, these birds might be nesting communally as a family group. The birds seemed content to watch me from on high, and while I wished for an eye-level view, that did not seem to be in the cards on this day.

After my time with the magpies I pointed westward again, resuming my path to the sea. The Nacimiento-Fergusson Road crosses an army reserve called Fort Hunter Liggett, which nestles in a valley on the inland slopes of the coastal mountains called the Santa Lucias. My route would cross these mountains. There were no security alerts on this day, and I traversed the base without being stopped. There were many hundreds of soldiers camped along the road and across adjacent fields, lots of humvees, and tented cots for sleeping. I must say, the cots with their attached pop-up shades looked like a pretty smart solution … I want one!

After crossing the base, where the road climbs steeply over the mountains, there are a couple of campgrounds near a small running stream. I had spent some time at one of these places in years past, and knew there would probably be some nice birds there. It did not disappoint. There were vireos, warblers, flycatchers, finches, jays, and juncos there.

If the vistas from atop the ridges of the Nacimiento-Fergusson Road as it crosses to the ocean side were the only reason to drive this route, it would be enough to justify the wear and tear on us and our vehicles. On this day, the morning’s coastal marine layer was just beginning to pull away from the beaches, and the vistas were spectacular.

After descending the western slopes of this road, I continued south on the Coast Highway (CA-1). I made stops at some of my favorite central coast locations (Ragged Point, Piedras Blancas, San Simeon, and Morro Bay). But I will save these stories for another time.