California Road Trip

In September 2014 we did a 15 day road trip around California starting and finishing in San Francisco and totalling around 2,300 km.This trip followed on directly after the Alaskan cruise we did which terminated at San Francisco. The road trip was planned to visit all the key wilderness areas such as Mojave Desert, Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Mammoth Lakes, Yosemite National Park and Napa Valley.


Starting in San Francisco I could at last fulfill my dream of driving the iconic Highway 1 down the Pacific coast through Carmel and down to Ventura outside Los Angeles before turning inland towards Las Vegas. With an appropriate “West Coast” music playlist setup on my phone and plugged into the car music system the drive down the coast exceeded all my expectations.


Las Vegas also met my expectations of a brash, lurid, false city but it was a great stepping off point for an incredible helicopter tour out to the Grand Canyon National Park. Leaving Las Vegas the drive through Death Valley was really incredible and then a surprising stop at the beautiful town of Lone Pine and the stunning Alabama Hills beneath Mount Whitney.


Yosemite National Park is of course a photographers dream location and I was not disappointed as every angle you looked it was just an incredible photogenic view. 


Driving north we concluded the road trip with a visit to Napa Valley and had the opportunity to take the Napa Valley Wine Train which was a wonderful way to celebrate my wife’s birthday. 


Returning to San Francisco after the 15 day road trip we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and stayed one last night in San Francisco before departing on our flight home to Malaysia.