From Tucson to the Redwoods...

[GTABurnout]

Link to the Planning Thread. Didn't get to check out all the great recommendations.
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/109076-Tucson-to-the-Lost-Coast-and-Redwoods

The truck is a 2007 Tacoma Mid Travel Icon. With 285 MTR's.
I put the truck in road trip mode for this trip. The camper shell was painted flat black as opposed to the blue it was on our Moab trip.

Drove in to LA for Mitsubishi's Owners Day. We left LA after MOD and got stuck in 3 hours of this...

All I wanted to do was get the the 1 and follow the coast to Santa Barbra. We made it as far as Ventura and decided to stop for the night. Next day was 8 hours of this...

So people have tom me that the 1 is the slowest way to get up the coast, and man where they right. We planned on driving the 1 from Ventura up to Half Moon Bay. At about 4 pm we where forced to bail at Monteray and take the 101 to make up some time and get to our hotel.

Still with these views whats not to like...

We made it to Half Moon Bay where we quickly realized that Northern California is nothing like Southern California. Neither of us had been past the central coast until that point. We where unprepared for the cold. In Tucson it was 110 so I had one sweat shirt and she had some light long sleeved shirts. Oh well no camping.

Shot from the hotel at Half Moon Bay harbor. This is where I realized my HID bulbs had blown out. Less then 4 months old from DDM, still not sure if they are going to replace them.

 

[GTABurnout]

From Half moon bay we drove thru San Francisco and over the golden gate bridge. I pulled over on the over looks for some pics....

At this point the wife made it clear we will not be camping since the weather was in the 50's during the day and 40's at night. We where really not prepaired for that much cold. Hell when we left AZ it was 110. She was also not really stoked on my constant movement planning I had. She wanted to be in one place for a few days. My plans had us moving every day to see as much as possible. In hind site we should have hauled up to the coast set up a home base (hotel or campground) and explored from there. We will do this next time.

So we shoretend out plans for the Colder north and headed to Fort Bragg for the night. We would then return to Santa Barbra and stay in a nicer hotel for a few nights so she could do the beach thing.

Good thing about Fort Bragg is ist a nice jump off for the Lost Coast as well as the Redwoods.

Road to USAL Road.....

We missed the trun off at first. I was told its just after the road turns from the coast. It honestly felt like a long time from the turn to the road.

Now I am not sure how long the entire USAL road from the 1 to Shelter Cove is but it took a good amout of time to get to just the beach. We returned back to the 1 for a trip up to the Drive Thru Tree....

USAL Road. Loved the feel, the trees and the Fog....

The bridge to the Beach Turn off....

 

[GTABurnout]

And the Beach.

We left the USAL in search of some Redwoods...

Got to drive thru tree park. Had to get the truck thru. The wife did a great job considering we where pretty much the largest truck to go thru that day...

From there it was back down the one and all the way to Santa Barbra for the remainder of the trip.
I will call this a scouting trip. It lit the fire. We will be back for a week or more.

 

[Kiddmen57]

Awesome shot! I too have left Tucson thinking about 110 degree weather only to realize it gets cold in other parts of the country. I have many jackets from trips that had to be purchased.

 

[BKCowGod]

Nice pictures. What was the condition of Usal? I am considering a detour on my North Coast trip, but I will likely be in the Audi S4 (with AWD, locking differential, and a couple of Eastern Sierra mining roads under its belt)

 

[GTABurnout]

Usal is in decent shape. In fact they where working on parts of it while we where there.

 

[BKCowGod]

Cool, thanks!

 

[Crom]

Excellent photos! Thanks for sharing. I'll have to add some of those destinations to my future trip plans.

 

[fortion]

Excellent pictures...Looksa like you people had a lot of fun

 

[Russ in California]

nice pictures. not prepared for the cold, eh? the fog up on the coast doesn't let up much until school's in. Indian summer don't ya know.:Wow1:
if you get up this way again let me know. have some wheelers with places we could show you on the weekends.
beach camping, inland camping and free camping out in the booinies!
always bring a sweatshirt up on the north coast.
Onward,

 

[GTABurnout]

nice pictures. not prepared for the cold, eh? the fog up on the coast doesn't let up much until school's in. Indian summer don't ya know.:Wow1:
if you get up this way again let me know. have some wheelers with places we could show you on the weekends.
beach camping, inland camping and free camping out in the booinies!
always bring a sweatshirt up on the north coast.
Onward,

In hind sight we felt pretty stupid. We left tucson it was 2:30am and still 95 out. Who would have thought. Lol. We will be back as soon as the wifes school allows and we will stay put and enjoy the cold.

Thanks

 

[jackkent]

You got nice photos out there. This adventure is so amazing. Wow! Passing the golden gate bridge is so cool. What I like most was when you got through the BIG Chandelier tree with your big truck which is so cool :smiley_drive:. It's like going through a cave. Thanks for sharing your awesome report.

 

[paddlenbike]

What weekend were you at the Lost Coast? I spent three days there from August 2nd to the 4th and the road was not freshly graded like in your photos. It's 5.7 miles from Hwy 1 to Usal Beach and another 19.8 miles to Shelter Cove. We did the entire drive plus went north of Shelter Cove to ride the Paradise Royale Mountain bike trail. I never touched 4wd. Also, the Usal Campground was quiet at night while we were there.

 

[ssichler]

Great pics. We did the Lost Coast last September (great weather) and loved it - http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/83994-California-s-Lost-Coast

 

[rickashay]

Your photos are amazing. Seeing trip reports like this are what literally tear at me to get away and go explore. Love your truck too, if I ever got a 2nd gen Tacoma it would be the identical config - Rad. Red DCSB TRD OR.

It's funny how looking at the map, you plan X number of miles to travel up the lost coast in a day, then only realize how long it actually takes when your on it. I did a similar trip in 09' and found the same thing. Jumped onto the 101 to "keep on schedule." I want to go back and do the coast again with a different agenda next time!

PS - Lets see some pics of that Vette propped on the gorgeous California coast, looks like a Z06 too?

Cheers,
Addison