Ten memorable things you can do with a car in California (including 8 you’ll enjoy)
Your mileage (and opinion) may vary.
But in more than a year of roaming the state to compile our bucket list of 366 (and counting) compelling California destinations and adventures, my Travel section colleagues and I have found that some of our most memorable moments have happened while we were behind the wheel.
Most of them were happy. And many of them soon will seem quaint, as California hurtles into a future far different from its gas-guzzling, auto-centric past.
As for the details of the list, anyone who’s been here for more than a year has probably checked off two or three items. In a single eccentric day, you could probably cover four or five. But how many have covered all 10? I’m guessing that’s a rare as a perfect parking space.
(Coming soon: 10 of the greatest things you can do in California without a car.)
10. Climb Conzelman Road to the Marin Headlands for epic Golden Gate views.
9. Drive through In-n-Out Burger’s flagship restaurant in Baldwin Park for a double-double, animal-style.
8. Make tracks at Oceano Dunes, where they let you drive on the beach.
7. Pile the kids in the car, drive to Riverside and catch a drive-in movie while you still can.
6. Cross Bixby Bridge in Big Sur, where land, sea and infrastructure meet in a most remarkable way.
5. Drive the narrow, winding, spectacular back-door route to Big Sur: Nacimiento-Fergusson Road.
4. Drive that steep, curvy, busy, big-rig-filled mountain route that holds California together: the Grapevine.
3. Dare to drive California’s first freeway from L.A. to Pasadena.
2. Rumble down 26 miles of bad road to Death Valley’s strange, smooth Racetrack.
1. Drive through this redwood. While you still can.
christopher.reynolds@latimes.com
Follow Reynolds on Twitter: @MrCSReynolds
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