Tour Diary: The Pacific Coast Highway
I made my way west to the edge of America and spent two days traversing one of the most gorgeous stretches of roadway on Earth.
Aretha and I pulled west out of Albany, OR on a bright Monday morning and headed toward the seaside town of Newport. The two hour drive westward was easy and uneventful. Once I hit the edge of the continent, I turned left and began the drive southward through Oregon and in to California.
The Pacific Coast Highway runs along the edge of America’s left coast for virtually the entirety of the American shoreline. It is a world renowned stretch of road that offers some of the most iconic and breathtaking views in all of North America. As I hit the edge of the water in Newport, it was just after noon. The sun towered high above and shone down in brilliant streams from the sky. As I drove south, I would be able to watch it slowly descend into the Pacific for the next several hours, simply by looking to my right.
The first scenic spot I hit was at Yachats, OR where the road takes a turn and begins to offer some of the craggy cliff views the PCH is so famous for. I pulled into a roadside park and explored the area on foot for a while before heading back to Aretha to meander further south. I drove slowly, made regular stops, and walked several paths down closer to the water to get supreme views of the shoreline and the crashing waves.
By the late afternoon, I had made it to Port Orford where I traipsed along a series of trails to a series of lookouts where the views were stunning, showcasing a combination of rugged shoreline, lush greenery, evergreen trees, and a brilliant blue sky.
From Port Orford, I continued southward watching the colors of the sea and sky change gradually over the hours that the sun descended towards the horizon line. By the early dinner hour, I landed at Humbug Mountain State Park and jumped out to explore a bit. I trudged along a short trail and made my way to a ledge with a nice viewpoint and stood to watch the surf for several minutes. It felt great to stand in the sea air and late afternoon sun with stretched legs and no place to be anytime soon.
As the sun began to make its’ final descent into the sea, I made a number of stops along the PCH near Brookings to catch glimpses of the sun through the cedars and to catch the orange orb falling towards the blue Pacific. I pulled Aretha into a parking lot near Gold Beach, I followed a trail down to the water and hit the sand just as the sky began to turn orange.
For more than an hour, I wandered the surf in complete solitude stopping frequently to marvel at the beauty around me. The world alit in orange, purple, pink and blue. The sky seemed almost heavenly hanging above the sea as it swallowed the sun. I stayed until near complete darkness, and at one moment worried I might not find my way back to the trail that led to the parking. Thankfully, with the help of my cell’s flashlight, I navigated the way back to Aretha. At the car, I was reticent to leave despite the darkness. I watched a sliver of a moon hang in the sky as the last of the sun’s light descended.
Gradually, I made my way southward to the small town of Eureka, CA where I would lay my head for the evening. I pulled into a nondescript roadside inn and settled inn for a few hours of sleep.
Without an alarm, I arose very early the next morning excited to see the Redwoods. I loaded my luggage, a cup of hot coffee and my fat ass into Aretha and we began the drive south to Humboldt state Park and the Avenue of the Giants.
I’d heard about the redwoods all my life and their massive size. They are, of course, legendary for being the largest trees on Earth and only found in this size in a small section of California. The combination of moderate temperatures, partial elevation, and regular fog cover are key to the redwoods health and the reason they grow to be so large in this part of the world.
By 7:30, I was already well within the boundaries of Humboldt and I began to wander the trails a bit to inspect these giants for myself. It almost impossible to capture the beauty and size of these living things in a photograph. Without a human being or something else next to it for scale and context, there is no way to translate the sheer size of these trees.
I continued along the road through the Avenue of the Giants a section of the park’s main road that coincides with the PCH. These massive redwoods are so close to the edge of the road, that each tree has a series of reflectors placed in front of it. A driver losing concentration for just a second could easily smack right into one of these arboreal beasts and ruin a perfectly good vacation.
With no one around, and a world of beauty around me, I walked back to Aretha and grabbed a guitar and a tripod to shoot a bit of video in the forest. At three locations, I shot performances of me playing tunes amongst the redwoods. I’ll be sharing the vids in the future, but when I first watched them after getting them shot, the background is so amazing and intense, it looks like a green screen effect and not the honest to God redwood forest where I filmed it.
Once I was through at Humboldt, I meandered slowly southward on the 101 away from the coast, until I could catch a westbound road back towards the coast. I navigated the slow moving, winding road over the hills to Mendocino County where I would find a morning of breathtaking views amid turquoise seas.
The craggy coast of Mendocino looks like a car commercial, a winding road on which some zooming two seater coupe might make precision turns on a perfect California day. I found the coast at Fort Bragg and worked my down US 1 with the hopes of hitting the area around Mill Valley by day’s end.
Mendocino County offered me a host of beautiful vistas as I continued my six week commute around America. At several spots, I left the car for a photo ops, hiking, and simply basking in the seaside sunshine. I lazily meandered the left edge of Mendocino County until I came to the tiny town of Bodega, CA, where Alfred Hitchcock filmed much of the exterior shots for his 1963 hit, The Birds.
Within Bodega, itinerant cinema lovers can see the schoolhouse that was used in the film as a well as a tiny church where a couple of scenes were filmed as well. In nearby Bodega Bay, CA you can also visit the marina, and the Wharf Restaurant which was also used in the original film, although the restaurant has been updated significantly in the years since filing took place.
I wandered the minuscule center of Bodega to take a few snaps of the school and church. The schoolhouse is still in use today as a private residence, with the third generation of the same family living there since shooting occurred more than sixty years ago. The church is also used for services and events, but it’s hard to imagine how many parishioners one might get in a tiny seaside town with a few houses and no actual town to speak of.
As I made my way out of Bodega, it was just after 4:00 in the afternoon. I pulled up my GPS toes how far out I was from California. I was quite surprised to see that even with afternoon Bay Area traffic, I could be to the Golden Gate Bridge in just over an hour. Suddenly, I was overcome at the excitement of being the bridge at sunset. I hit the accelerator and pointed Aretha to the Golden Gate.
The drive to the bay was pretty and largely unencumbered by traffic until just before I hit the road to the Golden Gate viewpoint. The road up to the top of the hill where visitors can best see the bridge includes a lengthy tunnel with a five minute stoplight due to one way traffic within the tunnel. After waiting three times for the green light to give me the go ahead, I was finally on my way up the mountain in search of the bridge.
When the Golden Gate bridge first came into view, I gasped out loud and with force. Even from a distance it is a gorgeous sight to behold. As I neared the top of the hill and the parking area, the sun was just beginning to give off glows of orange and gold. I found a spot to leave Aretha, and walked up to the viewing deck to get a great look at the Golden Gate.
At the edge of the viewpoint, the red tinted bridge that stands so proudly at the edge of America came into full, glorious view. From my vantage point, I could see San Francisco lay out before me with Oakland in the background and Alcatraz Island floating just away from the edge of the city. I jockeyed for photos, and stood in awe of the beautiful and impressive structure that stood before me.
From the Golden Gate viewpoint, I worked my way back down the mountain and eventually across the bridge. It was a treat to drive across the Golden Gate and land smack dab in San Francisco. Slowly, through the heavy downtown traffic, I made my way to Golden Gate Park, which was opened in 1870 just twenty years after San Francisco became a gold rush boomtown.
The park features a pair of museums, including the large and impressive de Young Art Museum. There is a large outdoor area for music, and a series of gardens and fountains. The Japanese Tea Gardens are especially lovely. The park is large, and feels like a slower, smaller version of New York’s Central Park. Perhaps this is because Central Park designer Fredrick Law Olmsted also had a hand in the design and creation of Golden Gate Park.
In the waning light, I wandered back to Aretha, parked n the street in a nearby neighborhood. We cruised the hilly streets of San Francisco making our way through a bit of Chinatown and then headed out beyond Oakland to Richmond, CA where I would be playing the next evening.
By the time I made it to the working class suburb of Richmond, I was exhausted, hungry and quite ready for bed. With very few dining options available and wanting to wait zero minutes for food to arrive, I walked to the 7-Eleven next door to find a Coke, some chips, and a pre-made ham and cheese sub. It was actually better than I had expected, perhaps due to my ravenous appetite. I dumped my frail bones into bed just after 9:30 and turned out the light.
Next up, more San Francisco and another setback.
Cheers,
Matty C
What an amazing trip! I took the train from SF to LA and it was quite spectacular - but we couldn't stop and enjoy the scenery the way you did.
I just can't believe how much ground you have covered. You have such fortitude. And I'm so happy you got to see the best of our amazing coastline.