Pacific Coast Highway: Ventura to Santa Cruz

After a month or so of trying to plan a trip up the Pacific Coast Highway in California, the series of atmospheric rivers finally relented and we set off on 2/21. Our first stop was at Giessinger Winery in Fillmore, CA, which was our Harvest Host campsite for the night.

Fun bartender, good wine and interesting conversation with some of the other patrons. Fillmore has nice little downtown area and, notably, a small grocery store with an impressive bourbon selection.

We picked up the PCH the next day in Ventura, CA and headed north, stopping in Carpinteria, CA and hanging out on the beachwith the seals for a bit.

A bit further north near Montecito, CA, we hiked the Coffin Family Trail for a little leg stretcher. Muddy!

Moving on to Santa Barbara, CA, we stopped at Third Window Brewing Co. for a very important planning session. Great beer and a nice beer garden atmosphere! Finding free campsites on the California coast can be challenging to say the least. Several miles north of Santa Barbara, we settled on a long, wide oceanside pullout on the PCH. Just us and the trucks!

Continuing north the next day, we stopped at Gaviota State Park and made a quick hike up to Gaviota Hot Springs. Turned out to be a couple of muddy, lukewarm pools. One trail review said to expect nudity, but no such luck. We traveled a bit further north and stopped at Oso Flaco Lake Dunes. A short hike out to a great beach with many fisherman catching sea bass.

Continuing north, we stopped at Manrock Brewing Co in Grover Beach, CA for a timely planning session. As previously mentioned, finding free camping in this area that isn’t parking on the side of the road is a challenge. Craft beer definitely helps!

We moved north to Pismo Beach, CA with a few camping prospects, only to be surprised with a great find. We scoped out a couple pullover spots and went to the Addie Street Surfer Lot for the sunset. It turned out to be a free 24 hour lot and I noted a few other RVs in the lot. We ended up staying there for 2 nights with no issues, even running the bbq grill. Great place to people watch as surfers and tourists were coming and going all weekend.

Pismo Beach is a great vacation town with an awesome beach, pier and downtown area. Lots to do! On a tip from a local, we visited Pismo Preserve the next day to do some hiking. The hiking was so good that we ended up hiking, then eating lunch in the van and going out on a second longer hike.

The great thing about hiking in coastal California is that you don’t have to go far before you are treated to some spectacular views.

10 miles of hiking means one thing. Pismo Brewing Co was a great place to rehydrate and was easy walking distance from our beach front parking lot. Great beer and friendly bartender.

Moving north the next day, we visited Montana de Oro State Park, a very remote park west of San Luis Obispo. We hiked the Valencia Peak Trail and were rewarded with some great views.

After lunch in the van, we hiked along the oceanside bluffs for several miles and it was just spectacular. Nice seeing an occasional seal fishing in the surf as well.

We moved on to Morro Bay, CA and hunkered down at Three Stacks and a Rock Brewing Co. Great beer and a great view!

Free camping was slim pickings here, so Safeway campground it is!

Unfortunately, a big chunk of the PCH north of here was closed due to a massive rockslide. We were forced to divert up US 101 to Monterey, CA and then drove south to Big Sur. Along the way, we stopped at Garrapata State Park and hiked the Soberanes Canyon Trail. This may have been the best hike of the trip. Getting out of the van at the trailhead, we could hear seals barking down on the rocks. 15 minutes into the hike, we were in a stand of massive redwoods.

We continued down to Big Sur, but decided to head back to Monterey. We visited Alvarado Street Brewery and Dust Bowl Brewing before settling into our free campsite at a downtown park. The next morning, we enjoyed coffee at Captain + Stoker across the street from our campsite.

We moved north toward Santa Cruz, CA and visited the Santa Cruz Bicycle factory. Wilder Ranch State Park happened to be just up the road, so we took advantage. We hiked the Old Landing Cove Trail and were rewarded with awesome views and many, many seals.

We decided that this was as far north as we would go on this trip, so we repaired to Humble Sea Brewing Co to rehydrate and plan the our next move. We snagged a parking spot on the ocean in a Santa Cruz neighborhood and took a long walk along the waterfront to downtown and the pier.

Returning to the van and cooking dinner, I had the feeling we’d be getting a ticket for parking overnight in a 22 ft vehicle, so Home Depot campground was the destination.

We headed southeast the next day for Pinnacles National Park. It’s a relatively new park that features stunning rock formations and California Condor habitat. We did see some condors during our hike. We talked to a volunteer at the park store about the best hiking and she wrote down some suggestions. We ended up doing a combination of Old Pinnacles to Balconies and Juniper Canyon Trail to High Peaks. By the time we got back to the van, it was a 10 mile day.

Stunning scenery!

We camped in the park campground for the evening and decided to head for home the next day as the next big storm was on its way. The drive from Pinnacles to Interstate 5 was eye opening. Think Appalachia. Driving the van on the leading edge of that wind was very interesting!

Planning this summers Alaska trip is underway. Stay tuned!