Born to be wild
With its miles of unspoilt coastline, wide, open spaces and big skies, California has long been synonymous with road tips. And with California having fully reopened in mid-June, it’s anticipated the iconic road trip will appeal to many travellers craving the freedom of the open road.
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Words by Louise Longman
California in 1903, when Horatio Nelson Jackson took a bet that he could drive from San Francisco to New York in 90 days at a time when cars were mostly driven in cities and many roads were unpaved or non-existent.
Hiring bicycle racer and mechanic Sewall Crocker and travelling in a Winton car, the two men set out on May 23, 1903, driving across open prairies, wearing out tyres and waiting for parts to arrive by train. The journey took them - and a pitbull named Bud they bought along the way - 63 days and has ensured the California Road Trip has become a rite of passage ever since, celebrated in music, literature and film.
These days, holidaymakers and everyday explorers make their way across California’s 400,000 miles of roads and 840 miles of coastline, choosing road trips that take them along cliff-lined beaches, redwood forests, the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Central Valley farmland and the Mojave Desert.
Road trip itineraries are as varied and diverse as the state itself. Visitcalifornia.com has a range of itineraries to choose from that list key stops along the way, must-visit diners and places of interest.
There’s the 968-mile, seven-to-10-day, Born to Be Wild trip that heads south from the tree-studded Redwood Coast to A-lister hangout Malibu. Steer your car through 315-foot-tall sequoia sempervirens with a 70-foot circumference and fold in your wing mirrors as you squeeze through one massive redwood’s six-foot- wide tunnel, which was hand-carved in 1937.
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Hugging the coast initially, the itinerary takes you through Mendocino, Bodega Bay and Tomales Bay, before heading inland to Napa Valley and its grand estates and wineries. You’ll then head to Shaver Lake, a sapphire gem hugged by pine forest in the granite- studded Sierra Nevada Mountains and across to Mammoth Lakes before heading to Lone Pine, Alabama Hills and Red Rock Canyon State Park, before finally reaching the sunny shores of Malibu.
For beach lovers, there’s the 616-mile, four-to- seven-day Top Surfing Spots itinerary to experience some of California’s best beaches and iconic surf.
Starting from the seaside town of La Jolla, which secured its place in wave history in 1937 when surfing pioneer Woody Brown rode here, the route winds its way up the Californian coast travelling through 15 stops where you can catch a wave.
There’s the series of point breaks at Trestles in San Clemente, where you have to hike from the San Onofre State Beach car park, and the Wedge at Newport Beach, a world-famous bodysurfing and bodyboarding wave which forms during swells then slams into incoming waves resulting in 30-foot-high waves. There’s also a stop in Surf City USA – no surfing road trip would be complete without a stop here – where the pier at Huntington State Beach is perhaps southern California’s holiest surf shrine thanks to a pedigree that dates back a century to legends Duke Kahanamoku and George Freeth.
Shorter road trips, but equally as iconic, include the 496-mile, three-to-six day Amazing Desert Oddities itinerary which takes in bizarre roadside attractions in the Californian desert, such as 130 gigantic scrap- metal sculptures of animals, including dinosaurs and a saber-toothed cat, at Borrego Springs Sculptures.
For foodies, there’s even a 176-mile, two-day Southern California Taco Tour, which allows you to track the story of the humble taco, with its Californian roots traced to the rolled tacos smothered in avocados from Cielito Lindo in East Los Angeles.