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ChiliPepperGarage

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I'm planning a road trip for this spring or summer starting at Lake Tahoe taking back roads to Shasta for the first overnight. Then highway 299 to the coast and down to The Sea Ranch where we'll stay two nights. After that tentatively down to Rocky Point, cut across to Fresno and pick up highway 41 through Yosemite and then back home to NV.

Thinking beginning of June for best top down weather. Do I have to worry about coastal fog then? Could go earlier but will be going over the mountains so don't want to run into any snow. We've had pretty dry conditions so would roads be clear in May?

Going with a buddy and his wife in their Viper and I'll have my Corvette. There looks like a lot of great roads into the mountains to have fun on in the area of The Sea Ranch which is why we are planning to stay there for a couple nights. Many nice looking VRBO places available there too. Anybody familiar with the area and can make recommendations?

Anything else along that route that we should check out?
 

lake p.a.l.

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Let us know if you want a cruise thru the Delta on your way south
 

BassLakeCruiser

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You could do Tahoe to bass lake or Yosemite all through the mountains. Could be fun in a sports car. I did it in a Lexus suv and it was wild. Beat another car to bass that went down to the valley to hit the freeway.
How about hitting the 1 along the coast? Or through Napa? Daou and Justin wineries in paso are awesome and some fun roads in those cars.
 

ChiliPepperGarage

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You could do Tahoe to bass lake or Yosemite all through the mountains. Could be fun in a sports car. I did it in a Lexus suv and it was wild. Beat another car to bass that went down to the valley to hit the freeway.
How about hitting the 1 along the coast? Or through Napa? Daou and Justin wineries in paso are awesome and some fun roads in those cars.

We're cutting across from Tahoe to Shasta then to the coast at Eureka (Humboldt) and south down 101 which is also Highway 1 at that point. Highway 1 splits off at Leggett and we'll run it all the way down past SF and Monterey then cut back across to Fresno area picking up highway 41 north which runs into Yosemite. From there it's only about 150 miles north to home.

So we'll hit all your suggestions except for Napa and wineries as I'm not a wine guy. My buddy with the Viper lives in Canyon Lake but I live just a bit south east of Tahoe. He's driving up to my place where we'll start the trip. If we decide we don't want to go through SF we'll probably cut across north of the Bay Area so may go through Napa then.

I'd really like to go in May to hopefully avoid coastal fog and summer heat. I was concerned about snow in the mountains but now that I think about it I don't think that will be an issue.
 

Sherpa

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Coastal fog all the time... usually burns off by 10-11
 

highvoltagehands

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Hey Chili,
This is a awesome trip you have planned. Are you taking Hwy 89 to Shasta? If so a couple of cool stops are Mt Lassen Park Bumpass Hell, Burney Falls, Subway Caves, McCloud Falls.
As far as the Coast I’d recommend going in August or September if you want best chance to avoid marine layer/coastal fog. Good thing about June is less crowded Coast and Highway.
Good choice going from North to South on your trip, On the 101 about hour s/o of Eureka I would hit the Avenue of the Giants(scenic bypass road running parallel 101) Hit one of the Redwoods parks, Stop at Big Foot attractions.
I don’t remember Sea Ranch having much there, and would recommend overnight stays in 2 other places rather than 2 nights in Sea Ranch. Maybe Ft Bragg, Bodega bay or Tomales Bay. This will allow you see more attractions along the way. “Poets loft” in Tomales Bay is cool place to stay if you can reserve it. Rolling thru the city, if you just want to look without stopping, the Presidio and Golden Gate Park are good drive Thru attractions along with Pillar Point/Mavericks Beach in Half Moon Bay(Big wave months are Nov-March). Santa Cruz and Capitola are cool drive thru towns and so is Cannery Row in Monterey and 17 Mile Dr in Carmel. I don’t have much experience South of Carmel so good luck.....have fun.
Hud
https://www.outdoorblueprint.com/plan/pacific-coast-highway-road-trip-guide/northern-california/
 
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ChiliPepperGarage

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Hey Chili,
This is a awesome trip you have planned. Are you taking Hwy 89 to Shasta? If so a couple of cool stops are Mt Lassen Park Bumpass Hell, Burney Falls, Subway Caves, McCloud Falls.
As far as the Coast I’d recommend going in August or September if you want best chance to avoid marine layer/coastal fog. Good thing about June is less crowded Coast and Highway.
Good choice going from North to South on your trip, On the 101 about hour s/o of Eureka I would hit the Avenue of the Giants(scenic bypass road running parallel 101) Hit one of the Redwoods parks, Stop at Big Foot attractions.
I don’t remember Sea Ranch having much there, and would recommend overnight stays in 2 other places rather than 2 nights in Sea Ranch. Maybe Ft Bragg, Bodega bay or Tomales Bay. This will allow you see more attractions along the way. “Poets loft” in Tomales Bay is cool place to stay if you can reserve it. Rolling thru the city, if you just want to look without stopping, the Presidio and Golden Gate Park are good drive Thru attractions along with Pillar Point/Mavericks Beach in Half Moon Bay(Big wave months are Nov-March). Santa Cruz and Capitola are cool drive thru towns and so is Cannery Row in Monterey and 17 Mile Dr in Carmel. I don’t have much experience South of Carmel so good luck.....have fun.
Hud
https://www.outdoorblueprint.com/plan/pacific-coast-highway-road-trip-guide/northern-california/

We'll start on 89 from just down the road from my house (Monitor Pass) and around the west side of the lake to Truckee and then north. Not sure if we will stay on it all the way to Shasta but it might be a good choice. I'll check out those stops you mentioned.

I was thinking August or September would get us into fire season and I don't want to bring my wildland gear with me and get put to work! :oops: :D Not to mention the smoke, traffic and road closures that we could experience. Thinking early May now to avoid traffic as much as possible. Getting stuck behind trucks, RV's and gawkers lumbering along kind of sucks when you're in a sportscar and want to have some fun.

Avenue Of The Giants is an excellent suggestion and will add that to the list for sure. Have to get the prerequisite photo of the cars driving through the tree.

My buddy has been to Sea Ranch and he recommended it. I had originally thought of Ft Bragg as there is a cool train that runs up into the mountains from there although I don't know with covid if it is taking passengers. A lot of the VRBO's require a two night stay plus we thought it would be nice to have a base for a couple days while we do local road runs instead of staying in a different place every night. We have no set time limit though so we could extend the trip if we want to stay in additional places although I am concerned about changing the schedule and not having a place reserved. If this summer is anything like last summer (and I'm assuming it will be) with so many people traveling everything might be filled up.

Been to SF many times so don't want to stop there besides, not thrilled with the idea of parking a Corvette and a Viper in the city anywhere.

Done the 17 Mile Drive and Cannery Row and the Aquarium so will drive straight through there. My buddy has been to Rocky Point before and wanted to make that our southern most stop. I guess there is a restaurant there that he likes but who knows what will be open then. I'm good with spending more time in Monterrey area though.

Thanks for the tips.
 
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