Fall drives on the Pacific Coast Highway

Get lost in the mystic of giant trees at Redwood National Park. Credit: Photodisc.

By Pieter van Noordennen

It’s that time of year when, from San Diego to Seattle, East Coast transplants start waxing philosophic about Robert Frost, crisp New England morns, and hillsides flush with fall color. But just because it’s autumn doesn’t mean travelers should skip a California vacation or leave the scenic drives tothose on the Right Coast.

The Pacific Coast Highway, or California’s Highway 1, ranks as one of the best drives in America, and when September comes, the summer heat and crowds that stifle California’s beaches and highways begin to disperse. While the state only designates a scant 130 miles of tarmac as the official Pacific Coast Highway, the actual PCH runs more than 1,800 miles up the coast, from the cliffs and surf shops of SoCal, through the wine valleys of the Central Coast, and finally up into Redwood country north of San Francisco.

Napa South
While the wine regions of Napa Valley and Sonoma get the headlines, Central California has long been a major producer of reds and whites. Only recently has it come into its own as a vacation destination for wine-savvy travelers, with the valleys outside of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo boasting terrific wine tours and cozy bed-and-breakfasts. Try the Santa Ynez Valley, where places like Sunstone Vineyards and Alma Rosa Winery serve award-winning vintages in cavernous tasting rooms set among rustic gardens.

Mind and Body
Moving north, the coastline becomes more dramatic as you head toward Big Sur, long the haven of poets and authors. Hearst Castle, the manse of legendary newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, pulls the most tourists, but those driving the PCH should take advantage of this section’s more outdoorsy offerings, as well. The courses at the Esalen Institute, founded 1962, may be too new agey for some (think courses titled “A Cleansing Through Fire”), but even the most conservative traveler would be foolish to pass up a soak in one of their mineral tubs while sitting under the night sky overlooking the California coast. If that’s too passive, continue north past San Francisco to Sausalito, where you’ll find excellent sea kayaking with views of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Tall Trees
Lack of foliage notwithstanding, the case can be made that the best forests to visit this fall may be in Mendocino County. True, the weather can be wet and chilly during this time of year on the northern California  coast, but that makes for ethereal, exciting hikes through cathedral-like stands of massive trees. About 45 minutes from the Pacific Coast Highway, near the town of Fort Bragg, you’ll find MontgomeryWoods State Natural Reserve, home to 370-foot-tall trees set into a massive wilderness area in the Coast Range. Along the coast, on a stretch of U.S. 101 known as the Redwood Highway, Redwood National Park offers camping, hiking, and the chance to see wildlife like Roosevelt elk and black bears and tide pools teeming with ochre sea stars and purple shore crabs. Who says these forests lack for color?

Related resources

• Scenic Drives Guide
• Pacific Coast Highway Overview by Mike Kessler
• Hidden-Gem Wine Regions
• California hotels

Pieter van Noordennen is a travel writer and editor at Away.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @psvann and on the Away.com ski newsfeed @awayskiing.

Tagged: California