ROAD TRIPS

Hit the Road, Jack

HIGHWAY 1

Whether you drive ten miles or the full thousand, Highway 1 will provide twists and turns and views of the coast that will take your breath away, such as this one in Santa Cruz County, above.

Californians didn’t invent the car,

but they like to think, with some justification, that they invented the automobile lifestyle. With drive-thru grocery stores, drive-thru pharmacies, drive-thru churches and even drive-thru mortuaries, one gets the feeling that if Californians could only invent a drive-thru delivery room they could happily go from cradle to grave without ever having to pull over to the curb.

California is a land of supersized distances, jumbo landscapes and big-gulp vistas, and the best way to see it all is on a road trip, or, better yet, a series of road trips. Here are a few of our favorites.

Up the Coast

Northern Californians call it “Highway 1” and Southern Californians call it the “Pacific Coast Highway”—or, simply, the “Pch”—but there’s no doubt that the road that hugs the state’s remarkable coastline, often close enough to feel the salt spray, offers one of the world’s classic driving trips.

From sun-splashed Southern California beaches to the misty redwood forests near the Oregon border, the journey, which includes a few stretches on other highways, is a touch over 1,000 miles.

The sights are so numerous we can barely scratch the surface: The Hotel Del