I have a short trip to California that I will be leaving for on June 5th. I pretty much have my itin. together except for the part for my drive up the coast.

Here is what I have - three days in LA with family (Sat - Monday). Leave Monday evening to overnight in Santa Barbara.

Whale watching trip in Santa Babara 8-12 on Tuesday

Here is where I need help on deciding what to do.

I had origianlly planned to do Hearst Castle on Tuesday afternoon, but after getting excellent advice from this board, I don't think I have time to make the last tour at 3:20.

So I was thinking of staying overnight in either Moro Bay or Cambria, doing the 8:20 tour of the Castle, then driving up the coast. I plan to just stop and look at the views. Other than stopping where the views were great, I definitely plan to stop at Point Lobos and walk around Carmel for a bit before heading north. My goal is to end up in San Francisco Wed. night to have two full days in SF.

I am trying to decide on which route to go to see coastal redwoods. Here are my options

1. Leave Hearst Castle at 10, drive up the highway, stop at Pfeiffer Big Sur for about an hour, Point Lobos, Carmel, drive to Big Basin, then on to San Francisco for late evening. (is this too long? are the roads to Big Basin too difficult?)

2. Option 2 would be to do the same as above, except skip Pfeiffer Big Sur and focus on Big Basin.

3. A third possible option would be to bypass both Pfeiffer and Big Basin and drive to SF, then to Muir Woods. It is supposed to be less crowded middle of the week and late afternoon.

What would you recommend? I am from the deep south and am a "flatlander", so I am also taking into consideration which would be the least difficult in terms of driving. But I would like to see the nicest coastal redwoods of the three parks I am considering.

Thank you all so much.

snorkelcat,

Your day from San Simeon to San Francisco is indeed long. I think the Big Basin detour is just too much. I think if you stop at Big Sur you will get a nice taste of redwoods. Then take a daytrip to Muir Woods for your "main meal".

Along the way, you might want to stop at Julia Pfeiffer Burns and take the short walk to catch the view of the water fall. Point Lobos is extraordinary and you could spend a day there. The different trails have different faces. I recommend you drive all the way into the park and take the Cypress Trail and then walk a bit along the tide pools. For the best visit you would do the perimeter walk, which is about 6 miles and covers it all.

Depending on what you are interested in with respect to Carmel, the Mission is pretty special. Ocean Avenue is just a street of shops and restaurants and lots of folks walking around.

Have a great trip.

Just thought of one more thing, Snorkel.... When I was driving down in March there were loads of elephant seals just a tiny bit north of San Simeon. You can tell where they are by the cars parked along the road. If you can, check them out. Amazing things.

I would try to break up the drive between San Simeon and SF into 2 days - esspecially if you are a flatlander and not used to driving narrow, curvey roads. Last October, I drove from Morro Bay to San Jose, stopping at a couple places along the way - Pfiffer Big Sur and a few turn outs. By the time I got to San Jose, I was exhasted.

I agree with Grasshopper that the side trip to Big Basin is too time consuming to incorporate in your plans for that particular day. I would go further to question whether you should feel the need to go to Muir Woods later (unless you are incorporating it in a drive to some the other wonderful sights north of San Francisco, like nearby Mount Tamalpais, Stinson Beach and Point Reyes.) You will see redwood forest at Pfeiffer Big Sur with virtually no side trip time added. While it's true that the forest there is not as extensive as others you've mentioned, with severely limited time I'd advise that once you've experienced one redwood forest, there comes a point of diminishing returns where seeing more and larger ones really don't present much of anything new. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going as far as to say "seen one, seen 'em all," redwood forests are always beautiful and inspiring, and I would not discourage you from seeing Big Basin, Muir Woods or best of all, the Avenue of the Giants and Redwood National Park much further noth in California given sufficient time. But they are really all that dramatically different from each other, and if you are prioritizing I think once you have seen the forests at Pfeiffer, both Muir Woods and Big Basin can drop down below other different types of things to see if you are allocating very scarce time.

Do not miss the Big Sur coast near the two Pfeiffer state parks. In my opinion, close together as they are, and both must sees, Big Sur presents almost as different a coastline experience from Point Lobos as coast redwoods are different from giant sequoias.

Let me also make clear that my advice about diminishing added value in seeing additional different redwood forests does not extend to the Giant Sequoia forests around Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Yosemite. As people who are not familiar with California often do not understand, those trees are dramatically different from, and at least as unique as, the Coast redwoods, and should also be seen in their own right--but you must go more than 150 miles inland to get to where they grow.

By far the nicest coastal redwoods will be at Big Basin. If I were you I would go with option 2 and skip Julia Pfeiffer Park and focus on Big Basin. Big Basin is on the way to SF from Monterey. I agree with J Correa about breaking up the trip from San Simeon to SF into 2 days because the coastline from San Simeon up to Monterey is the most beautiful coast in California, and it would be a shame to breeze through it. Highway 1 north of Monterey pales in comparison.


I would recommend staying in Monterey on Wednesday night and doing Big Basin the next morning and then go to SF. This would be much more relaxing. From Big BAsin just get back on highway 17 then take the scenic 280 to SF.

Thank you all for your fantastic replies, they have given me so much food for thought.

Lake, I am strongly leaning to doing what you( and johncharles) recommend and just doing one place with redwoods.

Im I timing this right? - I am thinking about 5 hours to get from San Simeon to Monterey, taking my time, and then about 1.5 hours the next day to get to Big Basin?

The 5 hours from San Simeon to Monterey sounds about right, allowing for stops along the way. And 1.5 hours from Monterey to Big Basin sounds about right too.