Pacific Coast Highway - Day Two

(All these shots and more, except the map, available at flickr.  Map courtesy of Google.)

I mentioned in my last post that most of that day's drive took place on the Pacific plate.  If you look at this fault map, you can see what I mean:

From the upper left, there's a dark line - the San Andreas Fault - that cuts off just south of San Franciso itself then cuts inland slightly but still roughly follows the contour of the state.  That fault separates the Pacific plate - everything left of it - from the North American plate - everything to the right.  Also, if you notice the green area just to the right of the San Andreas in Northern California, that's mesozoic-era rocks that are part of the plate.

What this means is that the actual soil and ground are extremely different along the coast north of the bay area than they are south of it.  For example, because of the addition of volcanic elements from the Cascades, you often find black sand beaches in northern California that don't exist in Southern California.

And yes, this is where we make the joke that, while California has many faults, lack of diversity isn't one of them.  Anyway, for the record, the plate action is such that Los Angeles (and the parts of California on the Pacific plate) is actually moving northward slightly towards San Francisco.  This is also increasing the size of the Sea of Cortez as the action creates a "gap" that will, in millions of years, probably reach up to Lake Tahoe.

Back to the trip...

Sunday started later than Saturday - we weren't rushing to get to the aquarium this time, but it was going to be a long slow slog.  Saturday's drive time was around 9 hours for 400 miles; Sunday was about the same distance but with nearly zero freeway(1) miles, so much slower (ended up taking us almost 13 hours).  Anyway, we slept in until 7ish and were on the road by 8.

First stop is the quiet little town of Santa Cruz, at the north end of Monterey Bay.  Santa Cruz is best known for surfing, a college, and its boardwalk - which is pictured here.  The boardwalk has the fifth oldest coaster in the US - it opened pre-Depression - but was obviously closed so early in the morning.

The college I mentioned is University of California (UC) Santa Cruz (SC), one of California's public universities.  It's nestled in the hills and trees just north of town.  UCSC's major focus is on marine biology - logical, since Monterey Bay is part of a large protected area for marine reserves that stretches from San Francisco south almost to Morro Bay.  The fun fact about UCSC is its mascot: the banana slug.

Leaving Santa Cruz, we headed along the coast up to Half Moon Bay, a fairly famous golf course and resort getaway for bay area types.  However, just north of the bay is more famous for surfing: surfers generally acknowledge three amazing spots in the world for the best waves year-round, one in Maui (Jaws) and two in California - and Mavericks is by Half Moon Bay.  Waves average - and yes, I said average - 50 feet, with crests over 80 feet. 

We didn't go surfing.  Instead, we headed up PCH and joined up with the 101 as we got to San Francisco.  Mark had little actual interest in the city itself - he's coming back at a later juncture - so we just drove through town, but I did want to make sure we stopped and got pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge if the weather cooperated.

Well, the weather was great, but something else made it a bit more difficult than it should have been: apparently, May 27th, 2012, was the 75th anniversary of the bridge, and so most of the viewing areas were closed off for press events.  Eventually we wound down a road to a little marina.  I've put in some of the shots, as well as one of SF from across the bay and Alcatraz through the haze.

Alcatraz

San Francisco looking south

That bottom left shot is there to give you an idea of the size of the bridge: navy ships regularly go under it.  That one passing under it is the SS Jeremiah O'Brien, stationed in SF and one of the few surviving ships (there are only two confirmed from what I can tell) from the Normandy armada of D-Day 1944.

In the San Francisco shot, you can make out the pointy TransAmerica building almost dead center as well as the Bay Bridge on the left.

Bolinas

Leaving the bridge and getting back onto the highway was a little tricky, but we did.  North of SF, PCH follows the coast briefly to a "day trip" spot for beachgoers, Bolinas Bay.  The bay itself actually looked more like a salt-water marsh, but I think we were passing at low tide.  This shot is approaching, with the opening of the bay beyond that promontory.

Tomales Bay looking north at the mouth

From there, PCH cuts inland a bit heading north-northwest to Point Reyes - everything west of PCH at this point is a National park.  Point Reyes itself is situated at the end of Tomales Bay.  It's at this point that the scale of the map is a bit deceiving, as Mark noted: Tomales Bay is barely a notch in the coastline of California, but the bay itself is 11-12 miles long.

At the end of Tomales Bay, after PCH curves inland a bit and then heads almost due west, you come to Bodega Bay.

Bodega Bay

The town of Bodega Bay is a little fishing village with a very small population that, while picturesque, probably wouldn't be noticed by most people if it weren't for Hollywood.  This is where Hitchcock - who seemed to love the small little coastal town that reminded him of England - filmed his movie "The Birds", often touted as the first "fantasy/horror" movie. 

... no idea why he was up there...

Bodega also, of course, has a small beach just north of town, and a lot of rugged coastline north of that.  I'd probably make the statement that, eventually, you get ill from all the picturesque little coves with quaint fishing villages in them as you drive up PCH. 

The coastline is rather beautiful, though, and weaving in and out of shores lines with trees (often redwoods) is fairly relaxing.

The Russian River

Also, there are occasional moments that stand out more, like crossing the Russian River.  I'm very familiar with this spot, as the resort town I frequent - Guerneville - is along the Russian River about 20 miles inland from this spot.  To the south-east is a small town called Sebastapol, along the Bohemian Highway, where a friend and ex-classmate of mine has a nifty little brewpub.


There are plenty of shots along the coastline; I'll just put some of the more interesting ones here.

About 30 miles past Fort Bragg, PCH leaves the coast for the last time(2) and joins back up with the 101, now the Redwood highway, in - you guessed it - the middle of the redwoods.  Robert Frost's statement definitely sprang to mind as we drove the winding road in the late afternoon:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

We reached the 101 just before 7 pm - still daylight at this time of year - and had to take a touristy detour.  You see, we had to drive through a tree.

Think thin

The Chandelier Tree is a pretty famous attraction here.  There's a similar one, if I recall correctly, up by Yosemite, but this one's near enough to the Avenue of the Giants that it gets a fair bit of traffic.  Yes, you drive your car through the base of the tree.  Yes, the tree is still alive.  It was a tight fit for my Eclipse - I certainly wouldn't try it with a full sized van - but we made it.

We then hit the 101 and drove north to the Avenue of the Giants.  Now, to be clear, parts of the 101 here are less "freeway" and more "twisty windy road", but since we'd spend almost 800 miles on twisty windy highway, this wasn't much of an issue.  The fading light was, however, and I wanted to make sure we had time to see at least a few of the giants.  Even impossible-to-find markers along the self-guided tour didn't dissuade us: eventually, we found them.

These are smallish sequoias.

When people talk about "big trees", there are three distinct varieties in California.  The Douglas Firs are more common, a pine tree that's still been known to reach over 350 feet tall.  However, the biggest are the other two: the coastal redwood, which have been confirmed to grow up to 380 feet (and stories tell of much taller) but are relatively skinny (only 26 feet across).  The other is the giant sequoia, which only grow to 200-250 feet or so tall but can have diameters in excess of 50 feet.

The canopy above

Redwoods - all types, including sequoias - have natural pest repellants in their bark.  Also, because the canopies are so high and light so dim at the base, not much grows between them other than other redwoods and low ferns or mosses.  The effect is that of a natural cathedral, with almost dead silence and a distinct earthy smell.

I always joke with people that California is known for excess: we have the largest animal that ever lived - the blue whale - living off our coast year-round, and we've got the largest organism that ever lived - the giant sequoias - living in our hills.  But, really, there is something otherworldly and ancient when you wander through a redwood forest - I often half-expect a Tyrannosaur to come stomping through.  The main response, though is best summed up by this last shot.

If you've never been, you don't know.

Sunset came up quickly, and we drove back down to Garberville for the night.  Next up, the last of the wine (or the wine road, anyway).

(1) Okay, so, nomenclature.  "Freeway" is just to distinguish from a "tollway".  There are very few toll roads in California.  Most of our major highways are freeways - in fact, I can only think of two tollways in SoCal, and both are optional routes that parallel freeways.
(2) Technically, the 101 goes back to the coast, but PCH as an independent road ends here.