Trip Plan open for comments

[W. Larrison]

Arrive LA pick up bike (Goldwing) and org ourselves stay over night
Day 1 LA to Big Sur coast road

Depending upon where you pick up the bike and where you want to stay in LA, you might head slightly out of the city before stopping the first day. You might consider staying up in the Santa Monica area and then go up through Malibu along Coast 1 (PCH) towards Oxnard/ Santa Barbara.

From LA to the Big Sur Coast Road is going to be around 4-6 hours of driving, depending upon traffic and the route you take. The most scenic route (but the longest) is to go up Coast 1 through Malibu, junctioning back with 101/ Coast 1 in Oxnard, and north through Santa Barbara to either San Louis Obispo or San Simeon/ Cambria area to stay the night.

Places to visit might include
- Santa Barbara Mission (possibly the most beautiful of the old Spanish Missions in California)
- the wine country around Solvang/ San Ynez
- the Danish themed town of Solvang
- Jalama Beach (west of Solvang, south of Lompoc -- a bit off the usual track, but probably one of the most isolated public beaches south of San Fran).

Day 2 Big sur to El portal

A couple of interesting places along this could be in
- Monterey -- Steinbeck country, including Cannery Row or the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
- Gilroy, home of the US Garlic festival
- Hollister, center of a lot of Earthquake research (and one of the most studied earthquake zones in the world)
- Los Banos and Merced Wildlife Refuges (if you're into bird watching)

Just be aware that CA-140 route between Mariposa and El Portal is closed due to rock slides, and you'll probably not be able to take the most direct route to El Portal.

Just a note on the rest of this -- it may be quite warm in the desert in mid August. QUITE warm, particularly if you go into Death Valley (it was in the mid 90's when I was there this last April...) You should be prepared for triple digit temperatures, and riding in temperatures of over 110 F during the day. You might want to plan out your routes to do riding in the cool of the mornings, and spend the hot hours of the day somewhere cool. Not sure where on your routes, but something to think about.