Page 70 - 2014 Travel Guide to California

CA.ROAD TRIPS
BY JOHN FLINN
Take the Wheel!
Explore California’s highways and byways
PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY (Highway 1) at the southern end of Big Sur.
PACIFIC COAST
HIGHWAY
One of the world’s great drives,
the Pacific Coast Highway
meanders along California’s
rocky coastline with
breathtaking views over most of
its 1000-mile length. Visitors
could spend their entire
vacations driving and exploring
the attractions along the way.
For more information on regions
it passes through, see Central
Coast, pages 134-137, and North
Coast, pages 138-141.
Californians didn’t invent the car, but
they like to think, with some justification,
that they invented the automobile lifestyle.
With drive-thru grocery stores, drive-
thru pharmacies, drive-thru churches and
even drive-thru mortuaries, one gets the
feeling that if Californians could only
invent a drive-thru delivery room they
could happily go from cradle to grave
without ever having to pull over to the curb.
California is a land of supersized dis-
tances, jumbo landscapes and big-gulp
vistas, and the best way to see it all is on a
road trip, or, better yet, a series of road
trips. Here are a few of our favorites.
Up the Coast
Northern Californians call it “Highway 1”
and Southern Californians call it the
“Pacific Coast Highway”—or, simply, the
“PCH”—but there’s no doubt that the road
that hugs the state’s remarkable coastline,
often close enough to feel the salt spray, is
one of the world’s classic driving trips.
From the sun-splashed Southern Cali-
fornia beaches to the misty redwood
forests near the Oregon border, the journey,
which includes a few stretches on other
highways, is a touch over 1,000 miles.
The sights are so numerous we can
barely scratch the surface: The Hotel Del
WELCOMIA/SHUTTERSTOCK. OPPOSITE: BRANNEND/SHUTTERSTOCK; GALYNA ANDRUSHKO/SHUTTERSTOCK; SASHA BUZKO/SHUTTERSTOCK
68 2014 T R AV E L G U I D E T O C A L I F O R N I A