Pacific Coast Highway, Central California
This portion of the Pacific Coast Highway runs from San Francisco to Legget and includes beautiful coastal scenery and one of my bucket list locations, Fort Ross.
This was my second time in San Francisco, and the first time with my kids. In February of 2022, I took the kids on a road trip from Seattle down to San Francisco for midwinter break, and we drove the Pacific Coast Highway on the way back. We didn’t get a chance to go to Alcatraz, but we were coincidentally there for the Chinese New Year. We spent a couple days in San Francisco, I think the kids had the most fun going to some of the local parks and flying kites, and seeing their first Redwoods at Muir Woods National Monument.
Mt. Shasta on the drive down to San Francisco.
The Golden Gate Bridge.
My son flying his new dragon kite.
Dragon kite with the Golden Gate Bridge in teh background.
Dragon kite with the Golden Gate Bridge in teh background.
VW on the sloped streets of San Francisco.
Just a dog ordering some food.
Pier 39 flag.
Sea Lion on the docks.
Alcatraz Island.
Chinatown during the Chinese New Year celebration.
Chinatown during the Chinese New Year celebration.
Golden Gate Bridge with heron at a park.
My son's Red Baron kite.
San Francisco sunset.
San Francisco sunset.
My son at Muir Woods National Monument.
My son and daughter at Muir Woods National Monument.
Heading north along Highway 1, the first stop we made was at Point Reyes National Seashore. I really wanted to see elephant seals since I had never seen one before, and I didn’t know the next time I would get a chance. To get to the place we ended up having to drive way longer than I thought we wood. It was a very unique drive. I was expecting a rugged rocky coast the whole way, and while the coast was definetly rocky, by the time we got there my daughter Olivia was so tired she didn’t want to get out of the car, and there was a pretty cold breeze, so we didn’t stay at the viewpoint long.
Elephant Seals at Point Reyes.
Dock at Point Reyes.
Cattle blocking traffic on the road to Point Reyes.
Hawk along road.
Rocky shoreline north of Point Reyes.
One of the most personally important places I wanted to visit was Fort Ross. We actually drove past it after visiting Point Reyes and stayed in Gualala and had it was important enough to me to visit that we had to turn around and go back before continuing our journey north. After Alaska was colonized by Russia in the latter half of the 18th Century, they continued across southcentral Alaska, southeast Alaska, through Canada and as far south as California following the sea otters whose fur was fueling expansion like a gold rush. As the Russians followed the sea otters, they needed hunters. The Unangan were the first to be exploited by the Russians and were the best sea otter hunters in the world (although some of the other Alaskan Tribes might argue). Fort Ross was the most southerly Russian Fort where Unangan hunters were brought, over 2,500 miles away. It’s also not the most accessible place to go, being a two hour drive from San Francisco, really the only time I could probably make it was during a road trip up the California Coast.
Fort Ross stockade.
Cannon at Fort Ross.
Antique weapons
Cannon shot.
18th Century tools.
My son and daughter at Fort Ross.
Bell at Fort Ross
Fort Ross oven.
Panoramic view of the ocean from Fort Ross.
Windmill at Fort Ross.
The rest of the coast was the beautiful rugged coastline I was expecting, but there were also stretches of beautiful sandy beaches. We stayed in Fort Bragg on our way north. When we got to the end of the Pacific Coast Highway in Leggett, we continued north to the Redwood Highway!
Rocky Pacific Coast.
My son playing on the beach.
My daughter playing on the beach.
My son playing on the beach.
My son playing on the beach.
My son playing on the beach.
Panoramic view of California coastline.