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TRAVEL. CALIFORNIA
Driving the Pacific Coast Highway in California
From the beaches to the majestic redwoods
Driving the Pacific Coast Highway in California is an essential American road trip worth doing at least once in your life. I’ve done it twice — once with a friend in a muscle car and a broken heart and once in a rented sedan with my husband, mom, and new baby boy and it was amazing both times.
My grandmother did it for her honeymoon in her third marriage. It’s iconic and eternal, until California burns or falls into the sea.
The Pacific Coast Highway runs from the palm trees and missions of San Juan Capistrano in Southern California all the way to the clean air and seaweed-strewn beaches of Mendocino County in the North.
It’s a minor artery, the longest route in the state. In most places the PCH is two narrow lanes, meandering along cliffs, beaches, mansions built to spill into the ocean in a few short decades. It’s inefficient and gorgeous. People in a hurry take the 5, not the 1.
For your trip, don’t be in a hurry. My friend and I had a rule not to drive more than two hours without going to a beach. This is a good rule.