Driving Highway 1

Well after my first week of work the company has sent me to the main office for training. I flew from Amsterdam to San Francisco, rented a car and drove to my hotel in Sunnyvale California just outside of San Jose. I spent one day recovering from my flight and a week trying to learn something about the stuff I am going to be working on and then came Saturday.

I really have been busy with the new job so did not know what I was going to do with my free time here but wanted to see a bit of the famous Highway 1 along the California coast. I drove to Santa Cruz and Natural Bridges state park. There has been a forest fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains the past few days and when I got out to walk around the state park I could really smell the smoke. There seemed to be a haze all along the coast and I believe it was from the fire. Here is a picture from the park.

I drove on down the coast stopping at Moss Landing state park and took a bit of a break from the traffic. Moss Landing seemed to be a really nice beach but there were signs up saying no swimming. After a short rest I proceeded on down highway 1 until I say a sign for Point Lobos state park. I don’t why I stopped at this park but it was well worth the stop and maybe even worth the $10 it cost to go in with the car. There seems to be a lot of people that don’t want to pay the fee for parking. At a number of the state parks I past there were a lot of cars park along the road or anywhere possible close to the entrance of the parks and then they walk into the park. I guess I am not the only cheapskate.

Point Lobos was really beautiful and was very busy. It was a bit hard finding a parking place once in the park. I enjoyed walking the paths of the park and seeing the cliffs rising out of the water. I was also surprised how many sea lions I saw all along the coast.

I kept driving down the coast and through Big Sir Forest. Big Sir seemed a real contrast from most of the drive along Highway one. It seemed more like being in the mountains then on the coast. I kept driving south until I hit the junction with Highway 46 which run west and hits Highway 101 for my return drive to San Jose. I did not realize how far it was and did not get back to my hotel until after 11PM. It was a really long day but also a very enjoyable day with some gorgeous scenery.