Page 29 - 2024/2025 Travel Guide to CALIFORNIA

Coronado, where Marilyn Monroe frolicked in Some Like It Hot; classic surf breaks made famous by the Beach Boys; star-studded Malibu; Riviera-like Santa Barbara; Hearst Castle; Big Sur; Santa Cruz, with its old-time beach boardwalk; San Francisco; Point Reyes National Seashore; artsy Mendocino; Redwood National Park.
A few tips: Allow far more time than you think you need; besides the frequent diver- sions, the road is so winding in places it’s hard to average more than 30 miles per hour. If you’re prone to carsickness, this isn’t the trip for you. Keep your gas tank full and your bladder empty. In some areas, it’s more than 40 miles between gas stations and restrooms.
Cowboys & Indians
East of the Sierra Nevada the green, popu- lated West Coast ends and the brown,
sagebrush-covered West begins. This is the Old Frontier of our imagination, a realm of real cowboys and real Indians—and of cinematic cowboys and Indians.
Highway 395 hugs the state’s eastern border, and the 264-mile stretch of high desert from Reno to Lone Pine, which passes tumbleweeds, swinging-door saloons and ghost towns beneath the breathtakingly sheer eastern wall of the Sierra Nevada, is one of California’s most iconic drives.
The northern stretch traverses ranch- land that was once, and sometimes still is, the domain of Basque sheepherders; and in the town of Gardnerville, just over the border in Nevada, you have your choice of excellent Basque restaurants. As you drive south, keep an eye out for cowboys, although these days they’re as likely to be riding an all-terrain vehicle as a horse. Far- ther south, as you approach Mono Lake,
MUIR WOODS NATIONAL Monument, right; Santa Cruz Breakwater Lighthouse, a.k.a. Walton Lighthouse, below; the Golden Gate Bridge, bottom.
PICK YOUR HIGHWAY
CA-1 The Coast
pacific-coast-highway-travel.com
US-395 Eastern Sierra
aaroads.com/guides/us-395-ca
2024-25 TRAVEL GUIDE TO CALIFORNIA 27