(This is Part 3 of our West Coast Adventure from July 2022. If you missed Part 1, you’ll want to check that out first to hear about our train ride from Indianapolis to San Francisco. If you missed Part 2, you’ll want to hear about our explorations in Northern California in SF and Yosemite).
Tuesday, 7/12/22 - Road Trip along Route 1 from San Francisco to San Diego
When we planned this west coast adventure, we knew that we wanted to fit in as many experiences and glimpses of California and the West Coast as possible (this was Rachel and I’s first time visiting this incredible state and seeing the Pacific Ocean after all). We also knew that we would likely be ready to fly home after taking the three-day train ride from Indiana to start our trip. With all of this in mind, we decided to finish out our trip by taking a road trip from San Francisco to San Diego, spending three days at the beach in southern California, and then flying home out of San Diego International Airport.
The number of routes, detours, and vacation-worthy destinations along this path is remarkable. Having heard of the Pacific Coast Highway (much of which is Route 1 in California), we decided to follow a section of this route in central California before heading back inland to Interstate 5 to make sure we would still arrive in our Oceanside, California, hotel (north of San Diego) at a decent hour - even with driving through Los Angeles at rush hour, evening traffic.
The Pacific Coast Highway was built in 1934 and took 15 years to complete, stretching along most of California’s coastline for over 550 miles - and closer to 1,500 miles if you take into consideration Route 101 further north in California and through Oregon and Washington state, as well. While many itineraries recommend taking at least five days to enjoy all that is to see on this route, we were so glad to experience a few of the highlights of California’s Central Coast going south from Monterey to Cambria on our single day drive from San Francisco to San Diego.
Tip: Driving the route from north to south was ideal, as this kept us on the ocean side of the road the entire way, allowing unobstructed views of the jagged coastline below and easier turnoffs for photos and taking in the incredible scenery.
On the morning of July 12, we had a quick continental breakfast in our hotel in Emeryville, took in our final sunrise over San Francisco Bay, packed up our hotel room, loaded our rental car, and hit the road by 8:00AM to head south on Route 101. By 10:30AM we joined Route 1 in Monterey, near the Carmel Highlands and stopped at our first scenic overlook at Point Lobos.
From there, we continued south and stopped at Hurricane Point View, Bixby Bridge, Big Sur, Big Creek Bridge Vista Point, and Gamboa Point all along this incredible path. It really felt surreal to be in such beautiful, untouched terrain with such vivid views of the ocean, beaches, cliffs, and rugged landscapes. I still can’t believe the way that the road followed the rolling mountainside and each turn seemed to reveal a more breath-taking view than the one before. Again, we can’t overstate how thankful we are that the weather cooperated in such a perfect way for us. We had prepaid for our hotels months in advance and this was the only day we had scheduled for this drive across California and we couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day to take this road trip of a lifetime.
If you take this route for yourself in the future - which I highly recommend - be sure to fill up your gas tank in Monterey or Carmel-by-the-sea before you head south in this area since there aren’t many options for gas or bathrooms for a good stretch. (Special thanks to the gate attendant at one of the state parks who let us stop for a restroom break in a stretch with no other public restrooms!)
Around 1:15PM we came across the Elephant Seal Vista Point at Point Piedras Blancas, which has an incredible viewing area of the thousands of elephant seals who visit this area each year.
While we wished we could have stayed on this scenic route for the rest of our trip south, after this stop we decided to turn off of Route 1 in Cambria and headed towards the Paso Robles vineyard country to eventually meet up with I-5 near Bakersfield for the remainder of our journey south.
Overall, we made relatively good time and only had bumper-to-bumper traffic for 45 minutes or so as we made it through downtown Los Angeles around 6:30PM. The only precipitation of the trip fell at the very end of the day as a few raindrops dropped onto our windshield as we pulled into Springhill Suites in Oceanside around 8:30PM, which would be our final stop for the last three nights of our vacation.
After unloading our belongings, I walked to Domino’s Pizza around the corner from the hotel and brought back a late dinner to our room. Even from this quick walk, I was glad to see that Oceanside had a fun atmosphere with open air restaurants with live music, dancing, and loads of tourist families.
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