Week 278 - California Highway 1, Beach Cities - 12-11-2011

Southern California Highway 1 and Beach Cities

Coast Highway, Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), Shoreline Highway and Cabrillo Highway are all names for parts of California Highway 1. This historic highway between San Luis Obispo and Big Sur is a National Scenic Byway and is known as one of the top 10 beautiful drives in America. We have twice traveled in the Mothership from San Luis to San Francisco and a few other times in our previous life as "car drivers".

Highway 1 goes from Mexico in the south to Leggett in Northern California. The section from the Mexican border to San Clemente runs concurrent with Interstate 5. Our drive this week, shown in red, started in Oceanside and ended in Morro Bay. The black section from Sausalito to Leggett will be a future trip and travelogue.

These two photos are from the central, green section on the above map and are documented in Week 96: http://bigrigbible.com/WeeklyTravelogues/week096.php. These are the images that most would think of when you mention California Highway 1. We are ready to see what the southern section has in store.

Day One: 1) As you can see, Mandy was excited about driving through the Southern California beach cities. Leaving Oceanside we passed by Camp Pendleton and the nuclear power plant at San Onofre.

Leaving Interstate 5, we began our Coast Highway trip at Dana Point. As we are used to seeing the Pacific Ocean when on the Central Coast section of Highway 1 and we ready to find what views are like on this trip. All you see in Dana Point is a lovely city, but not the beach.

Get sick in Laguna Beach and recover in this room at Mission Hospital and your view will be great!

Your views in Newport Beach are expensive; like the Ferrari and Maserati dealer, the bay, Fashion Island shopping mall, beautiful homes and pricey hotels. There is an RV Park, Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort. It is an older park, so many sites are small. The only sites that we fit into are $93 per night in the winter and $225 in the summer. Did we mention pricey?

Next up is Huntington Beach. We have stayed at three RV parks along this beach. They are 1) Huntington-By-The-Sea; pricey and not by the sea but on the east side of the highway, 2) Bolsa Chica State Park; nice with electric and water and on the beach side and our favorite 3) Huntington Beach Sunset Vista City Park; right on the beach, electric, water and a short walk to restaurants.

The city of Sunset Beach with a view of the harbor, but not the beach.

Seal Beach had ocean views but we did not see any accessible beach.

Long Beach, known for the ports and cargo docks. Long Beach is a large city and the highway turns inland for the full length. Very Long, not so Beach.

1) Redondo Beach King Harbor sign, but no sign of the beach from the road. 2) Manhattan Beach, all city, no beach.

1) LAX in Inglewood. You can see the water when you fly out! 2) Marina Del Rey. We know from experience that there are some very nice harbor areas and restaurants, but you won't see the ocean from Highway 1.

By the time we got back to the beach in Santa Monica it was almost dark. This photo just proves how much we need a new camera that can take low-light photos. So our first day was complete. We made our goal of reaching Malibu Beach RV Park. We traveled from Oceanside to Malibu, 112 miles at 22.5 miles per hour. One of our traveling rules is "we never pay for an RV park after dark". However, we had to break the rule as our previous research had shown us that this is the only park in the area; no Walmarts, no Elks, no boondocking, so we paid.

The next day we woke up in beautiful Malibu and the views were worth the price (once!).

For $75.00 you get a full hookup level site with a view. It would have been nice to face the ocean but then the hookups could not be used. If the park were built today, they would certainly build it with ocean view sites.

Day Two: Back on Highway 1 to continue our trip to Morro Bay. North of Malibu, we passed by several beaches, lots of day parking and RV parking on the beach shown below.

Reaching Port Hueneme the road once again leaves the water and heads into farm land.

From Hueneme you enter into Oxnard with all the offices, shops and restaurants that you could want.

At this point Highway 1 and Highway 101 run concurrently for 69 miles with a few miles of separation at Rincon State Beaches. Ventura has nice a harbor and access to the Channel Islands, but no views from the road until you get to the north end of the city.

1) Rincon State Beach is just before you reach Seacliff. There are 128 RV sites right along the beach. You are only 30 to 50 feet from the crashing waves that create natural "white noise" to help you sleep or keep you up all night! 2) After you leave Rincon, the highway rejoins 101. You head through Carpenteria and Santa Barbara and then you ride along the ocean for 10 miles starting at El Capitan State Beach.

At Gaviota you depart from the ocean until you reach Oceano. 1) Here is the tunnel from the movie "The Graduate" where Dustin Hoffman raced through this tunnel on his way to Santa Barbara. However, you only head through the tunnel leaving the city, but that's Hollywood. 2) Mandy has managed to stay enthusiastic about the trip.

While the beach is gone, you have the peace and quiet of country roads on the way to Lompoc.

1) North of Lompoc is Vandenberg Air Force Base, where Pete's mom worked for 33 years. Virginia started as a secretary and retired as an Air Force Contract Administrator. 2) Farmland just before reaching Orcutt, CA.

Day Three: As we head from Orcutt to Guadalupe, Mandy "suddenly rates this email GREAT!"

1) Guadalupe's Far Western Tavern where the Mattson family enjoyed steak dinners a time or two. 2) The descent from Nipomo mesa approaching Oceano.

1) At Oceano you are very close the beach, but the houses block your views. 2) Likewise in Pismo Beach, but this time it is the many shops and businesses.

1) Ahhh, Shell Beach and your ocean view is back. 2) Reaching San Luis Obispo, we met up with Melissa. Melissa poses with Mandy and Sam. Sam was Ellen's inspiration to adopt Mandy. Sam is a little older, a little lighter and much taller from ground to ear top!

Day Four: The final leg of our Highway 1 trip. North of San Luis Obispo we pass by Cerro Romauldo, one of the Seven Sisters volcanic peaks. While there are really nine peaks, Seven Sisters has a nicer ring, don't you think?

Morro Rock is the first of the sisters and sits majestically next to the Morro Bay Power Plant.

At Morro Bay we left Highway 1 for the last time and headed up Highway 41 to Atascadero. As we end this journey, we are home for the month of December. We're glad you could join us and we ask for the Lord's blessing on your Christmas season.

Until next week or next year, love Pete, Ellen and Mandy

Photos from Dec 2011