Day I Don't Know: San Francisco to Bakersfield, CA

Day i don't know Tuesday April 14th


Losing track of days, which is fine. I know it's Tuesday and we've been on the road a week tomorrow. We left San Francisco behind around 9 this morning and started our drive south. We took this amazing road that curved up a mountain for something like 12 miles. It was an incredible experience and the trees just kept getting bigger and bigger. We reached a vista point and stopped the car for a breathtaking view of the mountains from the top of one. There was a quirky dirt trail that we both kind of really wanted to walk on but we didn't have time really to explore just then. We continued our curvy route up the mountain and eventually entered Big Basic Redwoods State Park just south of San Francisco California.

Driving through the park we both kept getting distracted because the trees were just so big and so so beautiful. Arriving at the Headquarters we saw that they were having a controlled fire which smelled amazing. From there we took their shortest path through the woods - Redwood Loop - which took us maybe half an hour to 45 minutes including the billion times we stopped to take photos. While this wasn't the main northern redwood park, these were pretty incredible in and of themselves. We also were able to see the biggest trees in that particular state park which are the biggest both around and height wise that I've ever seen. It was awesome. While it wasn't a hike, in fact the path was completely flat, it was a really nice walk through the forest and the redwoods were awe inspiring. I want to take of one of the photos of us there and write across it " On Endor, lookin fur ur Ewoks" because after being completely in awe and fascinated by the sheer size of everything around us, we realized that we were totally on Endor. I feel like, in this particular case, photos can tell better than words how incredible this was, but basically we were just grinning ear to ear the entire time and I was jumping up and down a lot. I'm so so glad that we were able to take that path and see the Redwoods.

From there we went down the mountain, found some lunch at a local place and continued south. We're currently on Rt 1, or the Pacific Coast Highway - which will soon start to directly follow the ocean and is supposed to be an incredibly beautiful drive. So far we've caught glimpses of the Pacific Ocean, but we're still kind of driving through towns. I think a little ways after Monterey we'll hit the actual coastal drive which is supposed to be incredible. We both changed into pants for the chill of the forest, but hopefully we'll hit warmer weather soon. I think it's around 55 still right now. Just saw a boar crossing sign :) I think so far we've seen horse crossing, goat, bull, cow, tractor, deer, elk, and I think that's it.

We just got our first space to pull over and view the ocean and it is incredible. The wind is really high so it's cold out, but the waves are crashing and the water is so so so blue/green. I've never seen water that color really. I think the closest I've come is Cape Ann which has pretty water tendencies. This is going to be such a beautiful drive. I just hope it gets warmer.

This drive is more incredible than I ever imagined. We are driving on curvy roads on the edge of a mountain - we go up and down alternatively as we drive the coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It's beautiful and sort of terrifying. There seem to be a lot of "falling rock" areas that make me nervous - especially when I see the rocks in the middle of the road that fell. There are a lot of stopping points by the side of the road to stop and take pictures but we've only stopped once or twice because the wind is so ridiculous. Occasionally there are random houses perched on the cliff below us. Sometimes all we can see is the mailbox. There are also occasional inns and lodges, and I would totally add one of them to the list of off-beat places to stop on another road trip - along with that place by Walker Lake in the middle of nowhere Nevada desert. All slightly scary places to stay - but beautiful nonetheless.

Also of note - there are farms on this cliff as well - some including cows. Just grazing by the side of the cliff overlooking the ocean. It's bizarre. At the end of the route is Cambrai - which has this little street full of everything you could imagine a small town needing. Right at the bottom of another mountain cliff where I think I saw houses perched. There are art galleries, ice cream parlors, restaurants, gas station, book store etc. Tiny little seaside type buildings. It was really cute. The only downside to all of this is the crazy wind and the fact that it's still 50 degrees. We want to know what the hell is going on if California is cold and windy. But we're heading to Vegas which should be 70 and beautiful.

Every day competes with the day before for amazing things that we've seen. Best idea we ever had, I'm loving every minute.

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Found a hotel for the night, walked across the parking lot for a late dinner and almost fell asleep during the 35 minutes it took to get our food. Going to set up the route for tomorrow and get some sleep.