Turnoffs That Turn On
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You uncover treasures when you travel, whether happening upon a new trail, sharing a gorgeous glass of wine in a perfect setting or rediscovering a child’s glee when tidepooling. From historic piers to an actual castle, elephant seals to artist galleries, few geographical explorations provide as many options as a Highway 1 road trip on the Central Coast of California.
Taking a Highway 1 road trip unveils one emotional high point after another, from a morning ride on gentle Clydesdales to a stroll upon the Moonstone Beach boardwalk as the sun settles behind the Pacific. The excitement also rises at unexpected moments, like when you catch sight of a rare California condor or turn left at a trail junction in Fiscalini Ranch Preserve and realize you’re the only couple around or walk out the Harford Pier on Avila Beach to find Mersea’s, an old-school seafood restaurant.
Surprises like these await discovery all along Highway 1, a diverse combination of attractions and nature that appear throughout the year. The sights come in all sizes here, like during December through February, when elephant seals give birth within 100 feet of the observation boardwalk at the Elephant Seal Rookery in San Simeon. In September, the monarch butterflies arrive by the thousands to roost and feed in the eucalyptus groves along the coast’s Western Monarch Trail, most notably at the Pismo Beach Butterfly Preserve.
The road trip also reflects independence, the ability to take a turn off the highway and turn on to something magical. The Highway 1 road trip is perfect for those of us uninterested in simply getting from Point A to Point B. We can add a side trip to visit a glassblowing studio in Harmony or settle onto a neighboring café’s terrace beside the Brown Butter Cookie Company, surrounded by roses, honeysuckle and other flowers. Sipping a lattè or hot chocolate in Cayucos with a Brown Butter cinnamon shortbread cookie in hand adds a certain aha moment.
Aha moments abound here. You never know quite what to expect when visiting the art galleries and boutiques in Cambria. Other treasures often appear in plain sight, if you know where to look. Highway 1 features 10 Whale Trail vista points, so keep your eyes peeled for spouts, tales and fins emerging from the ocean. The many piers provide excellent whale and other sea mammal viewing locales too. And don’t forget the sea otters in Morro Bay, one of the best places to watch these once endangered sea mammals loll about, often with pups in tow.
Of course, wine tasting and discovery go hand-on-stemware to create a flow of aha moments too. Visitors are often astounded to find such a variety of wines in a relatively small area, due to the many microclimates and diverse geography. The wineries themselves are equally diverse.
The Hearst Ranch Winery overlooks San Simeon Bay. The winery’s “tasting deck” is steps away from a fantastic beach walk, a perfect preamble before tasting the winery’s selection of reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. The settings at Harmony Cellars and Stolo Vineyards, both located within minutes from Cambria, remind visitors that winemaking is an agricultural science. Madeline’s on Moonstone adds Bordeaux varieties to the region’s colorful varietal mix.
Whale Watching in Avila Beach
Downtown Cambria
Wine lovers and novices alike should always schedule an excursion into the Edna Valley, where a "secret" stash of exceptional wineries resides less than 6 miles from the coast. The Edna Valley Vineyard provides a perfect point to plot your schedule among the 27 resident tasting rooms, as the terrace gazes out upon the valley.
Here, the bella vita draws out the emotion even among the most stoic among us, whether we’re sipping under the Tolosa Winery orchard or tossing a bocce ball with friends at Baileyana. The beautiful life melds seamlessly together in places like this, as it will within an uncorked bottle’s embrace back on the hotel balcony or rental house terrace that same evening.
Like sipping bubbly (Yes, you can follow the Sparkling Wine Tasting Trail too!) a road trip along Highway 1 invites us all to refresh our priorities and renew our positive energy. A visit to Hearst Castle, for example, not only dazzles our aesthetic senses, but the spectacular gardens and opulent rooms may well inspire our own designs. In addition to excellent exercise, a day hike in Montaña de Oro or another one of the 12 State Parks also reminds us to slow down and literally smell the wildflowers, breathe in the sunshine and release our concerns to the open space.
Experiences always feel best when we focus more on the journey than the destination, yet how often do we bypass the opportunity to pause and reflect on our surroundings? Spanning almost 100 miles from Oceano Dunes to Ragged Point, SLO CAL/San Luis Obispo County’s stretch of Highway 1 encourages you to delve deeply into the local environment, to act spontaneously, to blend a day to your exact specifications. After expending too much energy on travel complications in the recent past, the Highway 1 road trip encourages you to bask in travel elation once more, to share in the discovery of a new favorite Chardonnay, spot a spouting whale and point to a purple sea star.
Visit the Highway 1 Road Trip website to plan your joyful travel today.
Los Osos
Moonstone Cellars
Fiscalini Ranch
Cambria
Coastal Wine Tasting
Avila Beach
Clydesdales in Cambria
Cayucos State Beach
Moonstone Beach
Pismo Beach Butterfly Preserve
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By StoryStudio on August 15, 2022 8:19 AM
Discoveries Await on Highway 1 Road Trip
Nature Trail at Ragged Point
Hearst Ranch Winery
Edna Valley
Hearst Castle
Baywood
Montaña De Oro
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