Friday, June 18, 2021

Day 17 - Calistoga CA

Miles today: 323
Miles total: 5857

Left Cayucos at 6:40am ... 59F and foggy. Not much visibility for the first hour.  At San Simeon I had hoped to at least drive up to Hearst Castle but the road is closed, and with the fog you can’t see anything from the PCH. Instead I spent some time at the elephant seal viewing area, which was probably a better way to spend the time anyway. 



One the fog lifted the ride on the PCH was pretty spectacular. No traffic to speak of for the first 100 miles. 




Stopped for food in Big Sur, successfully refueled, and continued up the PCH.

The famous Bixby Bridge near Big Sur (1932):


Some spots of traffic through Monterey and downtown Santa Cruz. Then things came to a grinding halt halfway between Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay because of repaying work. Stuck for 30:minutes. Of course things got really slow through the San Francisco peninsula, and just to take a picture of the bridge cost another 30 minutes because of parking closures. 




At least there’s no toll northbound. 

Still a lot of slow traffic on CA-1 north of the bridge. The road has plenty of turnouts for slow traffic but only about 1/2 of the cars I came up on got the hint and actually used them.  


At Point Reyes I headed east on the back roads and, in the interest of time, grudgingly picked up 101 at Petaluma. Within minutes of turning east the temperature shot up from the upper 60s to upper 90s. The Napa Valley was around 100 today.  Tomorrow looks it will be just as crappy. 


1 comment:

  1. So jealous. Nothing quite like Big Sur. Fog’s never a good thing there, though.
    Did you drive down into and around Pt. Reyes before heading east? One of my favorites.
    You’re not missing any cool weather here for the week-end! Sorry it is so hot inland, there.
    Gorgeous photos!

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