The Pacific Coast Highway, also known as California State Route 1, runs 659 miles along the coast of the golden state. It's known as one of the most scenic drives in the world and it's easy to see why. Mike & I did not drive the entire length, but started near Los Angeles and then finished in San Francisco, covering approximately 350 miles of Route 1. We chose to take our time and spent about five days (including our night in the Channel Islands) covering the distance. Even still, we easily could have spent our entire trip doing things along the coast!

Our timeline:

Day 1 - LA to Ventura

Day 2 - Channel Islands

Day 3 - Ventura to Santa Barbara

Day 4 - SB to Julia Pefier State Park

Day 5 - JP to San Francisco 

Muir Woods, San Francisco, CA

Located just north of San Francisco is Muir Woods National Monument. It was protected as a monument in 1908 because of the large number of old-growth coastal redwoods in the Redwood Creek Valley. Today, it is a very popular day trip out of SF, so be sure to go early to avoid the crowds. Muir Woods actually requires timed parking reservations (they had a huge problem with parking a few years ago), so make sure you reserve one before your visit. We arrived shortly after the park opened and we felt like we had it all to ourselves.

Channel Islands National Park, California

In March, Mike & I took a ten-day trip to California. We visited multiple national parks, drove up part of the Pacific Coast Highway, walked among Redwood trees, and drove over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a fantastic trip, and we kicked it off by visiting the Channel Islands National Park!

Visiting this national park takes a fair amount of pre-planning, as the only way to get there is by boat. We chose to visit Santa Cruz Island, which is one of five islands in the park. You can sail out of either Santa Barbara or Ventura (where we went from) and it takes about an hour and a half to get out to the island. The tricky part is finding a campsite available and a boat reservation that match up. However, if you're able to camp, I think the experience is worth figuring out the details. There are a few primitive campsites on the island, but there are no facilities or food available to buy. Campers have to pack in (and out) everything you need, including food & trash. We stayed at the Scorpion Ranch campground at a site in the upper loop, which was a 1-mile hike in from the boat landing. We fit most of our supplies in our backpacks, so it wasn't a big deal to carry it.