The Ocean Road

Soon after we left Paso Robles we caught the first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean.

It is possible to drive from Paso Robles to San Francisco quickly on a boring highway or slowly on a scenic road by the Pacific Ocean. It was an easy choice for us. First we crossed some hills - where we come from they would be called mountains - to reach California State Route 1, which runs along the coast. The Ocean was quite a sight to see, when it finally become visible behind the hilltops. We had seen it already at the start of our trip in San Francisco, but it felt that only now we really saw it for the first time.

They say that across the Ocean, there's a place called Japan. I am not sure if I believe that. I think there is only the Edge of the World, and the waters of the Ocean are forever flowing over it into the abyss.

Of course, we had to stop at the beach as soon as possible to dip our toes in the Pacific. As we had spent most of the preceding two weeks on deserts, it felt almost cold. The weather was windy and the temperature "only" a bit over 20 grades Celsius (about 70 Fahrenheit).

Relaxed Elephant Seals in San Simeon.

They say that everything is bigger in America. The seals certainly are. On a beach near the small town of San Simeon we saw Elephant Seals. A grown-up male can weigh over 2000 kg (almost 4500 pounds). The South American subspecies is even bigger. The Elephant Seals can dive in depth of over 2 km (about 1,25 miles), but the ones we saw at the beach were just relaxing, sometimes throwing sand on themselves.

The landscape was dramatic and spectacular. The vegetation was surprisingly "Nordic" with a lot of coniferous trees: we were approximately on the same latitude as Northern Africa. The most impressive vantage points were very crowded, as were Big Sur's many (expensive!) restaurants - and this was a Tuesday in June, before the American Summer holiday season had really taken off.

One of the many vantage points...

...and another.

Many guidebooks advice to drive the State Route 1 from north to south rather than south to north, because it apparently is difficult and dangerous to turn left and almost all vantage points are on the west (i.e. sea) side of the road. I found this a bit alarmist: we drove from south to north and I never felt there was any problem. However, the road is at times winding, there may be a lot of traffic and it's mostly a two-lane road, unlike most U.S. highways.Obviously it's best to drive carefully, as always, but I really did not find Route 1 particularly difficult or intimidating. One should allow a lot of time for driving and numerous stops for admiring the spectacular views.

If the plan is to drive all the way from San Francisco to Los Angeles or vice versa, we would definitely recommend an overnight stop: actually,  two overnight stops might not be a bad idea. We only drove some 300 km (about 185 miles) from Paso Robles to Santa Cruz, and we missed a number of recommended sights, like the town of Monterey and apparently beautiful 17 mile drive.

In Santa Cruz I went to an amusement park - this was a first time, I think, in ten years or so. Beach Boardwalk was founded already 1907, and the atmosphere is like from before the Second World War. I was lucky to be there on a Tuesday for "retro prices", all the rides were only $1. The payment was by a pre-paid card, and without giving the matter much thought, I put 5 dollars on it. Only after that I realized that there was only one ride I was interested in, a roller coaster known as Giant Dipper from 1924. Well, I had no complaints riding it five times.

Giant Dipper is constructed of wood.

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.

We drove the Pacific Coast road on June 23rd 2015.