Pasadena to San Francisco (Route 1)

[barbarrino]

Road the FJ from Pasadena to San Francisco stopping at all the major vistas.
 
What a great trip, the FJ was flawless on the road and a bit off the road. 
 
Took about 9 hours with all my stops, food and gas. 
 
Did it in November over the Thanksgiving Holiday, a bit chilly at about 60 degrees but the roads are amazing as you get toward Big Sur. Road back on the 5 to save time through the mountain pass had some hail and low 50 degree temps. My fieldsheer gear was amazing! 
 
Everyone should try this ride! 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[koth442]

That's a ride I wish I had done before I left CA. I've ridden a lot of Hwy 1. Mostly north of SF though. Never disappointing... Except when stuck behind RV's.

[shigeta]

Nice! I'm originally from Pasadena and moved up to SF about 4 years ago.

[crd]

Your trip looked fun! Thanks for the photos.
 
My brother lives in Covina, and I try to visit him as regularly as I can. Previously, I have given myself two days to get down there, staying overnight at a motel 6 near the Firestone Walker brewery in Paso Robles. Most recently (on my VFR prior to taking possession of my FJ-09), I put together two single day routes for down and back that I am pretty happy with. Hopefully this link works for others.
 
On my way down, I blasted down 101 fairly early in the morning just to get out of the Bay Area, so you will notice that eastern half of the route begins where I got off of 101 at 25. I usually fill up at the Tres Pinos Corner Store which is basically where the fun begins. I probably should have filled up around San Miguel but I pushed my luck and got really anxious about my fuel range when I got to 58. That was around noonish, so I took 58 west to Santa Margarita to fill up and have a nice sandwich at The Porch Cafe. Then it was back east on 58 and down through Taft towards Hudson Ranch Road. Since I still had some daylight left once I made it to the 5, I popped over to Pine Canyon and headed south at Lake Hughes. That's about all I could get in with the available light.
 
My route back involved another early morning slog out 101 to Topanga Canyon Blvd, down to Tuna Canyon, and then I followed the ridge to Mullholland Hwy. Once done with that, it was a bit of slab through Ventura to get to 33 and up through Ohai. The last bit of 166 before 101 helped break things up some more. 101 up to Paso isn't too bad, but cutting up through Lake Nacimiento is well worth it. Carmel Valley Rd is one of my all time favorites, and I have to take it whenever I can. A quick nod to the iconic MRLS and then I'm in familiar territory and on the home stretch.
 
My objective is to generally avoid long stretches of freeway, and I'm pretty happy with how well these routes achieve a nice balance of technical twisties, fast sweepers, views, and tolerable slab. I don't mean to jack your thread, but I hope that others find this useful when planning similar routes between "the Greater Las Angeles Area" and "the San Francisco Bay Area".