After living in the Bay Area for 20 years, we’ve driven Highway 1 along the coast a few times but it wasn’t until this last winter with the RV that Doug and I had a chance to drive it all the way from Huntington Beach to Monterey.
We had been visiting the Mason family (Abby, Luke, Mabel, Thomas, Kellen, and their baby) at their new home in Huntington Beach. Their four kids under the age of 11 are high-energy, spunky, smart and never cease to make you laugh. The visit was short, but so enjoyable!
We started our Highway 1 drive on Doug’s birthday so we stopped at Paradise Cove Beach for fruity tropical drinks on the beach to celebrate followed by a night Leo Carrillo State Park just outside of Malibu.
The next day we drove to Santa Barbara and camped at Refugio State Beach. This is a gorgeous, but busy, campground that’s just a stone’s-throw from a beautiful beach and cove. A great spot to break out the SUP, paddle, wade, swim or walk the beach for a romantic sunset. The next day saw us continuing up Hwy 1 to an overnight stay at Plaskett Creek State Campground and another sunset overlooking the nearby Sand Dollar Beach.
Refugio State Beach CG
Sand Dollar Beach near Plaskett CG
With Thanksgiving just around the corner we cut inland to Paso Robles for a return visit to the Wine Country RV Resort and a Thanksgiving dinner at “The Hatch” restaurant. On our way back to the coast we did some wine tasting and stayed the evening at a Harvest Host winery called HammerSky Vineyards.
Back to Highway 1 we stopped just north of San Simeon to view the spectacle of the elephant seals. We were a bit early in the season but there were already dozens of females arriving and the huge males beginning to fight to establish dominance.
The twisting roads of Big Sur were just ahead and the classic stretch of rocky California coast did not disappoint!
We stopped for the night at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. This heavily wooded park is quite popular even though it does not have any access to, or even views of, the beach – though Pfeiffer Beach is just a few miles and and Doug took a quick ride on the ebike to check it out before the sun set.
Julia Pfeiffer Burns
Pfeiffer Beach 
Heading towards Carmel we stopped at Garrapata State Beach and had this amazing stretch of dog-friendly beach to ourselves!
Garrapata Beach 
Our next stop was with friends, Katherine and Andrew in Pacific Grove. We parked the RV in their driveway and took a beautiful walk along the Bay Trail at sunset.
The next day we walked to the Pacific Grove Monarch Sanctuary – one of our bucket list items! It was awesome! The weather was warm enough that the Monarch butterflies were very active. The pictures don’t do justice to the full experience but there were so many so butterfiles it felt like we’d walked into a fairytale. Later that afternoon we drove down to Carmel, grabbed sandwiches at a local deli and hit Carmel Beach for a picnic lunch and a walk along the surf. Closed the evening out with some wine, snacks, and card games. It doesn’t get better than this – and was a fitting way to end our drive up this iconic stretch of California’s coast on Highway 1.
Carmel Beach 
