Southbound along Highway 1

If you are in the Bay Area we will recommend a trip southbound along Hwy 1. You will drive along the Pacific coastline down towards Santa Cruz. The road is scenic and there are only a few villages along the road. Some are used by commuter's and the rest by weekend tourists.

The pacific never stops moving.....

Heavy waves roll in to the Pacific coast and make the beautiful beaches useless for swimming. Strolling and picnic however....!

When you reach Santa Cruz you may go down to the harbor, where there is a pier and an amusement park. The pier are ruled by the pelicans and the gulls, but under the pier the seals and the walrus have their headquarter.

Pelican

This pelican is living on the pier of Santa Cruz, having a ball eating fish&chips given to it by the tourists. If it doesn't get any food however, it can be annoying enough to make people drop their meal and run for cover.......

In Santa Cruz you may have a late breakfast or an early lunch, especially if you are leaving Hwy 1 and are heading for Big Basin Redwood Park. After you leave Hwy 1 there are only some small community's before you after many miles of driving are back in Silicon Valley on your way to SF again. You can read more about Big Basin further down this page.

If you continue on Hwy 1 southbound you will reach a nice city named Monterey. We recommend a stroll at the harbor watching the boats, go to the pier or go to the old cannery for eating or shopping. After a small break in Monterey we will be ready for a ride along a spectacular coastline. The road is private and you have to pay some dollars in toll to go here. Along the road called "17 mile drive" there are a lots of golf courses with deer on them and some very large houses and estates. The most famous golf course are "Pebble Beach" where US Open was held in year 2000.

At the end of "17 mile drive" is the little nice city that had Clint Eastwood as mayor some years ago. The sleepy little city with many exclusive shops and restaurants is named Carmel. "Carmel by sea" is build just above a very nice beach and they have a very active traffic police.

After visiting Carmel we were heading northbound through "the land of the artichokes" direction San Francisco. If you want to spend some dollars on new clothes, shoes or sports gear, then you should stop at large factory outlet at Gilroy. Here they sell well known brands to very nice prices. You will be back in San Francisco in the early evening.

Redwood

The pine woods of Norway will never be the same once you have seen the Redwoods. The white little spot at the bottom is Hilde...

If you chose to turn off Hwy 1 in Santa Cruz you will be heading north on a road full of twists and turns. You will go through large forest areas with a relatively scattered population.

You are in the country and they are all driving a pickup and wear their caps with pride, The hotels are not named "City Hotel", but they have names like "Timber Lodge" and "Redwood Cottage". There are small shops along the road that sell all kind of wooden objects.

If you turn of from the main road and follow the signs towards Big Basin you will reach the heart of the park. Around the foresters cabin there are trees that were alive when Christopher Columbus came to America hundreds of years ago.

Big Basin is not the largest redwood park in California, but it is easy accessible from San Francisco.

On our way back, in the middle of the forest, we discovered this sign with a very familiar name for us Norwegians: "Henrik Ibsen Rd." (Henrik Ibsen was a very famous Norwegian poet)

Well hello, Henrik my man!

Kind of fun for a Norwegian finding this in the middle of nowhere in the mountains of California

Both trips are perfect as day trips and an extra bonus is the weather. If it's rainy and gray in SF, it's very often warmer and sunnier further south.

A lot of people don't want to drive in the USA, but the roads signs are clear and the drivers often more polite then in Europe.