Hello...
I was planning a vacation in a couple of weeks to California. I have always wanted to visit and now that I've been diagnosed with cancer for the second time, I'm thinking of doing some travelling.
I have been watching CNN but that doesn't help me much since I don't really know the area.
I was planning to fly to Vegas for a couple of days and then drive to Los Angeles and on to San Francisco along the coast.
I heard that Big Sur has been evacuated so I don't know if doing this route is a good idea.
Can anyone help me with any information? I would greatly appreciate it.
Asking from Toronto Canada
The smoke from the Big Sur fire goes over my house as do the C130 transport planes, other aircraft and copters, all headed south to drop and then back over to fill up again. I live in Carmel Valley, parts of which are threatened.
Big Sur is shut down and evactuated. Highway 1 is closed, so you can't even drive down the coast. They are talking about the end of the month to open up again. The road, I am guessing, might be open sooner, but who knows. I wouldn't bet on it. You can come down from SF through Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel and about 20 miles down the coast before they turn you back. Might be worth doing that if you haven't seen any of this before.
I did recently drive up the Pacific Coast Highway from San Diego, but switched over to 101 for the trip up thru Santa Barbara, etc. The coastal cities along the PCH are pretty interesting, really, in a lot of ways. I once asked someone in Santa Barbara what the main industry was and he said it was being rich...
Anyone, you could come up the PCH, on to 101 and then turn off to the Monterey Peninsula, to the coast, and turn left and go down the coast like I suggested. Then, you could turn around and go up 1 to SF.
Or, you could go up 1 as far as possible. I am not exactly sure how far you can come up from the south, maybe to the Hearst Castle area, and then take 46W over to 101 and go north from there. 46 is gorgeous, goes through interesting wine country and is amazingly undeveloped at the west end. On 1, there are small towns like Cambria that are fun.
If you are willing to jump around like I suggested and realize that fires may change how far you can go, then that would be a fun trip.
Actually, 1 all the way through SF, across the Golden Gate bridge and up the coast all the way to Oregon is pretty nifty. The far north CA coastal towns have a hemp economy, so that is pretty interesting as well.
Vegas to all that is a big change for sure.
This will all make more sense when you plot it on a map.
Good luck with the meds. Been there.
It ends in Oxnard then doesn't resume until you get to Gaviota.
