Coachella Roadtrip, 2023 edition

 

In 2019, I turned the voyage to and from Coachella into a multi-day roadtrip, which led to discovering lots of beautiful central California roads. I decided to do it again for 2023, racking up another ~1,100 miles in beautiful "superbloom" weather. My faithful steed, a 2018 Mazda MX-5 Miata, did not disappoint. 

Day One: SF to Santa Maria

San Francisco to Santa Maria via 309 miles of California back roads, including some of my very favorites (Carmel Valley to Paso Robles). Beautiful weather, if a bit windy and chilly. But wow, there are a lot of pot holes, thanks to the recent rains.

As in 2019, I started by taking Highway 1 down to Half Moon Bay, then up to Skyline Drive, and down from the mountains to Felton via Highway 9, still one of my favorite twisty Miata roads, even if there was a bit more traffic this year. Then back on a relatively boring stretch of Highway 1 to Castroville. 

From there I drove into Salinas and then over the Laureles Grade (which I did in 2019) into Carmel Valley, where I had lunch at Running Iron, which provided a perfectly respectable burger in a somewhat less respectable dive bar environment. 

Leaving Carmel Valley, East Carmel Valley Road (G16) remains perhaps my favorite twisty Miata road of all. The slower traffic thoughtfully pulled off to let me pass, at which point I had many miles all to myself. I then took my preferred route to Paso Robles, avoiding most of 101 by taking Jolon Road (G14) up into the Fort Hunter Liggett Military Reservation and then making my way to Lake Nacimiento before heading into Paso Robles. 

After that, it was just regular 101 driving through San Luis Obispo and Pismo Beach until I reached Santa Maria, where my favorite AirBnB overnight spot awaited. 

Total travel = 309 miles in about 8 hours. 

Advice for next time: leave a little earlier (9a instead of 11a) and/or stop sooner (perhaps SLO?). And plan lunch and dinner options in advance. And coming down from Lake Nacimiento, perhaps detour to Adelaida to take Vineyard Drive down to Templeton, instead of Godfrey Road down into Paso Robles? 

Day Two: Santa Maria to Highland Park

Unanticipated road closures forced me to improvise a bit, but that fortuitously put me in the California Poppy Reserve right in the midst of a superbloom! 

Everything started according to plan, with a gorgeous climb out of Santa Maria on Cuyama Highway (166). Sweeping curves through rolling hills dotted with lakes. So pretty. 

Once in the Cuyama Valley high desert, I'd ideally take 33 down to Ojai. But advance Google Maps reconnaissance let me know about a closure due to rock slides. So my Plan B was to take Hudson Ranch Road up into the mountains to Pine Mountain Club, a drive that delivered the goods on my way home in 2019. That worked out splendidly, with the drive from 166 to Pine Mountain Club as the highlight.  

After coming down from the mountains into the Mohave Desert, I'd hoped to take a short hop on I-5 before getting on 138 to 3 Points Road, which would take me back into the mountains to Lake Hughes. Nope, road closed (and Google Maps didn't know about it!). So I took the next right (Lancaster Road) and wound my way towards the mountains on back roads...only to find myself in the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve. Which happened to be in superbloom! 

Then a right on Munz Ranch Road to Lake Elizabeth to San Francisquito Canyon Road to I-5 in Castaic. Pretty road, but cloudy weather and slow traffic made it a yawn. From there it was all LA freeways until my friends' house in Highland Park for the night. 

Total travel = 210 miles in about 6 hours.

Advice for next time: hopefully 33 will be open! But the poppy reserve deserves another visit. And maybe consider Spunky Canyon Road out of Green Valley to Bouquet Reservoir instead of San Francisquito Road? 


Day Three: Coachella to Paso Robles

An appointment to pick up a wine order in Paso Robles meant that I had no time for fun mountain roads. 

After the typically bad traffic out of LA, and the gorgeous superbloom on the Grapevine, Google Maps got me off I-5 onto the deserted and very straight Copus Road (instead of 166, suprisingly) to 33, a lovely drive through California oil derrick country. Then to 46 to Paso Robles. Lots of superbloomin' goin' on.

After the wine pickup (and a lovely tasting session), I spent the night at the La Quinta Inn & Suites in Paso Robles, which was very nice. 

Total travel = 350 miles over about 7 hours.

Advice for next time: remember Copus Road as an alternative to 166. Scheduling a wine pickup en route is a pretty good idea, but maybe aim to do it in the morning on the way out of Paso, instead of on the way in against the 4p closing time.  

Day Four: Paso Robles to SF

I don't know why Airline Highway (CA-25) isn't more famous. For me, it ranks right up with Highway 1. What it lacks in ocean it makes up with lack of traffic. Great pavement, great terrain. More of a cruising experience than cornering, but that just makes it less car-specific than most of my favorites.
 
The superbloom hadn't entirely arrived yet north of Paso Robles, but there were some pretty beflowered spots. Also, I got to go through Hollister, the land of cheap gas and Apricot King! 

After Hollister, eager to get home, I decided to take 101 all the way to SF. 

Total travel = 220 miles over about 4 hours.

Advice for next time: yes to Hollister! Apricot King! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fixing the clock in a C2 Corvette

Image
After fixing the radio in the Corvette, it was time to tackle the clock. We tried mightily to revive the patient, but in the end, a heart transplant was necessary. The clocks in the "midyear" Corvettes (1963-67) are electro-mechanical units made by Borg Instruments. They were used in a bunch of other GM cars of the period, in addition to the Corvette. This article gives a nice description of the clock and what commonly goes wrong with it. These are analog, spring-wound clocks with an electric winder that is supposed to reset the spring mechanism every 3 minutes or so. To see how it's supposed to work, check out this video (currently at 460 views, many of which are from me!). The design doesn't exactly inspire confidence, as it depends on a set of 12 volt contact points reliably closing every 3 minutes or so, pretty much forever. Those contact points build up corrosion over time, which will kill the rewinding mechanism. Thanks to a bunch of threads on the...
Read more

Five Year Miataversary

Image
  Five years, fifteen thousand miles. Time flies.  The car remains a joy to drive. As I anticipated when I bought it , I don't miss the extra horsepower you get in the 2019 and onward model years (aka ND2). That extra power is reportedly mostly at the top of the rev band, an area where I don't spend much time. The joy in this car, for me, is less about going fast than about the ways it engages you in the act of driving.  Cost of ownership? Here's the math:  Maintenance = $1,057 (basically oil changes, plus an engine air filter and transmission oil change) Depreciation = $500 (yes, Kelly Blue Book says I can basically get what I paid for it!) This makes the Miata by far the cheapest car to own that I've had, beating out my 2010 Honda Fit . Most of this is down the the crazy high post-pandemic used car prices holding depreciation in check. But that doesn't diminish the joys of simple reliability, which not all newer cars can provide.  Here's to the next 5 years!...
Read more

S550: 12 Month Cost of Ownership

Image
Everyone knows that a Mercedes S Class is an expensive car to own. That's partly why they depreciate so quickly. Well, this car more than lived up to that reputation, proving to be far and away the most expensive car to own of those I've discussed on this blog (compare 2018 Mazda Miata , 2010 Honda Fit , 2002 Porsche 911 Turbo , 1965 Chevy Corvette ).  Deep breath. Total one-year cost of ownership = $27,853. Holy smokes. $2,321/month. I could have (maybe should have) leased a new one for that (although the shortest leases are 24 months, so I'd have ended up spending a lot more total).  The inflated pandemic used car market certainly accounts for a bunch of this. Yes, I knew it was a bad time to buy, and yes I overpaid to get the car I wanted , but I didn't count on another $10k of depreciation in one year. The problem with selling an S550 is the plethora of cheap, minimally optioned cars out there. If you want to get above those prices, you need to find someone who valu...
Read more