In the fall when the aspen trees turn golden, it’s arguably the most beautiful drive in California. You can take large RVs and travel trailers on it, but most people who have tried that say they won't do it again.īetween Bridgeport and Lone Pine, the 150-mile stretch of US Highway 395 passes through a landscape that looks like it was torn from the pages of National Geographic magazine. The highway is a paved, two-lane road suitable for all passenger vehicles. Try these remedies or take the wheel which helps many people avoid the problem. If you or your companions are prone to motion sickness, be prepared. If you're driving an electric vehicle, charge up in Big Sur village or Cambria (75 miles apart). Purchase gasoline in either Carmel or Morro Bay. You can find food and restrooms at Ragged Point, Gorda and in Big Sur village. Places to stay are scarce except around the Big Sur village area where you can find plenty of inns and campgrounds. You can also spend a day or more exploring Carmel-by-the-Sea. If you want to make this trip in two days, you'll want to spend more time in Morro Bay. You can find all the best stops and points of interest in the guide to driving Highway One through Big Sur. Before you set out, check the road conditions on the CalTrans website and find out what you can do instead if it's closed. In winter, mudslides can close Highway 1 for weeks to months at a time. In summer, the coast is subject to coastal fog called June Gloom, the road gets crowded, and there are few places to pass those slow-moving vehicles. The best time to go is in spring and fall when the sky is the clearest.
#California shared space roads drivers
The 120-mile distance seems short, but photo opportunities, hairpin turns, and slow-moving drivers combine to make the trip take up to twice as long as you might expect. To minimize that drama, start in Morro Bay and drive north which puts your vehicle on the land side of the highway.
That is when you're not fretting about whether you're going to veer off the road and end up in the ocean at the bottom of those sheer cliffs. Some of the turns are so tight you'll feel like you can see your own taillights. It's all about the scenery on the Big Sur drive, with the highway tracing the curvaceous coastline and the Pacific Ocean crashing on the rocks below.ĭriving on this road can be nerve-wracking. It's undoubtedly the most photographed, talked about and dreamed about route in the Golden State. And it may just be the most famous 155 miles in the world.
#California shared space roads download
Before you hop in the car, download a map to your mobile device or get one printed on paper.Ĭalifornia Highway 1 between Morro Bay and Carmel-by-the-Sea is the best drive in California. While all of these routes have fantastic views, they can take you far from the nearest cell phone tower. You can see where they are on this handy Google map.īefore you get started, take a little time to go old school. In fact, you could string them all together to make the ultimate one- to two-week California road trip vacation. You will cross the desert through a World Biosphere Reserve and see the lowest place in North America.Īll of these road trips are between 100 and 180 miles long, short enough to do in a single day and interesting enough to turn into multi-day trips. You will travel over high mountain passes, through valleys with floors a mile high, feeling small in comparison to the mountains that soar 10,000 feet above you. If you take them all, you will see waves crashing on coastal cliffs and drive beneath trees that are the tallest living things on earth. They're the best places you can go for a short road trip in California, journeys where you will measure progress by photos per mile rather than miles per hour. These seven California drives are guaranteed to make you say "Wow!" - And say it more than once.