The top 5 road trips in California

The ultimate California road trip take you from sea to mountain and through desert and redwoods © Oleksandr Telesniuk / 500px

Road-tripping live the ultimate way to experience California , then fill the gas tank and buckle up for unforgettable campaign through scenery that tugs at your center and person .

Get ready for memory-making encounter as you roll through sensuous wine rural area , humbling redwood wood , epic desert expanses , endless miles of coastal highway and sky-touching Sierra Nevada peaks . Just reach sure that rental car has unlimited miles – you ‘ll need ’em all .

California is the third-largest state in the US , and you could easily spend week navigating its rural byways , safely remote from the nerve-jangling , often-jammed interstate system . These five classical road-tripping route are soaked in enough epic scenery to make each deliciously slow , winding mile worthwhile .

1 . Pacific Coast Highway

Best road trip for world-class ocean views & autumn trip
Dana Point at Interstate 5–Hwy 101 in Leggett ; 656 miles

No matter if you watch the entire 656 miles or just a short stretch of coast-hugging Hwy 1 , you ‘ll hit the Insta jackpot . Posing options include striking sea cliffs , sun-soaked surfing town , playful harbor seals and the Golden Gate Bridge .

Our top pick for classic California dreamin’ snakes along the Pacific coast , although officially , only the short , sun-loving stretch of Hwy 1 through Orange and Los Angeles Counties can legally call itself Pacific Coast Hwy ( PCH ) . Never mind those technicalities , because equally capture ribbons of Hwy 1 and Hwy 101 await all along this route .

Local tip :For best results , avoid drive the PCH in the spring and summer month , when the central and northern coastline can be socked in by fog and the rainy season can initiate landslides . Instead , September and October will yield the cheery skies and some of the best weather as you spend a week checking this beaut off your pail list .

2 . Route 66

Best for iconic drive & weekend drive
Arizona margin near Needles–Santa Monica ; 315 mile

Get your kicks on America ‘s “Mother Road , ” which brought Dust Bowl refugee , Hollywood starlets and hippies to California . Cruise from the desert to the Pacific Ocean , pull up alongside retro relics , sleep in a tipi hotel and fueling up in neon-lit diners .

The Golden State cost the promised nation at the end of a long and sometimes lonely road . Today you drive across the Mojave Desert – a relative air compared to sentence of yore – through famous western town , like Barstow and Daggett , into the San Bernardino National Forest . Emerge in Pasadena and Los Angeles before dead ending into Hwy 1 in Santa Monica for a grand coastal-view payoff .

3 . Gold Country and California Highway 49

Serious for historic hill & category road trip
Oakhurst–Nevada City ; 200 miles

Follow Hwy 49 through the rough-and-tumble Sierra Nevada foothills , a stronghold of gold-rush history with thrilling , mostly true tales of banditry , bordellos and bloodlust .

That highway issue exist substantial : it commemorates the ’49ers who came seeking fame and chance in California’s original Gold Rush . Today the road winds through Gold Country town such as Placerville and Nevada City , past ghostly Old West mines and Victorian buildings housing inns , restaurants and museum .

You wo n’t want to miss the blend of western history and capture wineries strung along sensational position of the Sierra Nevada . Give yourself three to four days to enjoy this outdoorsy , family-friendly road trip . Summer and early fall are ideal time to live .

Detour :Hwy 49 do mighty near to Yosemite National Park ( 15 miles ) and Lake Tahoe ( 75 miles ) , both wonderful jumping-off points for category camping and natural majesty .

4 . Avenue of the Giants

Best for road trips with child & new redwood grandeur
Stafford–Highway 101 junction ; 32 mile

The incredible 32-mile road at Humboldt Redwoods State Park is canopied by the Earth ‘s tall tree , some of which were seedlings during the Roman Empire . It’s one of the nearly justifiably celebrated campaign in California , a place where traveler stand with jaws agape and neck craned upward . The best time is in the morning when sunlight glints off dew-drenched ferns .

The route associate a number of humble towns with mid-20th-century motels , diners serving “lumberjack” meal and pull-offs pack with Harleys .

Among the majestic grove along the Avenue , like the rightly famed Rockefeller Grove and the Founders’ Grove , the California Federation of Women’s Clubs Grove exist home to an interesting four-sided hearth , designed by famous architect Julia Morgan . Walking lead wind through all the groves for proper tree-hugging .

5 . Desert Solitaire in Death Valley

Best road trip for moody moonscapes & winter or spring driving
Palm Springs–Death Valley ; 290 mile

Tank up and load the water onboard as you road-trip from Palm Springs through Palm Desert and Joshua Tree up to Death Valley . You’ll drive where California pioneers and gold miners once rolled their wagons .

In Death Valley National Park the magnum forces of natural and human history collide . Artist Drive live nine mile of vividly variegated desert hills , a taster of the area’s sensuous sand dunes , water-sculpted canyons , rocks travel across the desert story , extinct volcanic craters , palm-shaded oases , soaring good deal and endemic flora .

Local tip :Go between February and April for spring wildflower bloom and cooler temperatures . Pay yourself three day to soak up site like Badwater Basin ( the low elevation in the US ) , Mesquite Flat and Emigrant & Wildrose Canyons .