Drive Down the Pacific Coast Highway

After my stay in San Francisco, it was time to take the drive down to Los Angeles. Rather than just taking a quicker route on the interstate, we knew the only way to get down there was driving the Pacific Coast Highway. And so our journey began.

The beginning of the scenic route of Route 1 doesn't happen until around Monterey, so we took 101 South first. We made a pit stop in Palo Alto to check out the campus of Stanford. We couldn't see much because of construction, but it certainly looked like a very nice campus overall.

After getting down to Route 1, we took the 17 Mile Drive on the Monterey Peninsula. This is a big tourist attraction and rightfully so. The drive offers some amazing views of the Pacific Ocean along with beautiful homes and golf courses. Most notably, Pebble Beach Golf Links is located on the peninsula and provides a scenic place to play a round of golf. The historic site was definitely a pleasure to see, even for someone like myself who isn't a big golf fan.

Once we got back on the highway, we hit the best part of the trip, which was the drive through Big Sur. This mountain range is a tremendous site to look at with a variety of colors and peaks. On the drive, you have the mountains on one side with the ocean on the other. The road features a ton of places where you can pull over to stop the car, get out, and take some pictures. The views down from the high points on the road are absolutely breathtaking and very unique to the road. A personal favorite point was looking out into the ocean and hearing sea lions off in the distance.

We stayed overnight in San Luis Obispo, a cute little town about midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. In the town is a funny place called the Madonna Inn. Inside, there are crazy designs in the restaurant, lobby, and bathrooms that make it a unique tourist stop. It was an interesting site to say the least.

On the rest of the drive, we made stops at Pismo Beach, a nice area just south of San Luis Obispo that featured a lot of surfers, as well as Santa Barbara, another fun town that features Stearns Wharf, a long pier with some good food, shops, and great views of the ocean. If you go to California, I highly highly recommend taking this drive. It is well worth it and something I extremely underrated!