Highway 101: Salinas to Avenue of the Giants

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Salinas

   John Steinbeck was born in Salinas in 1902, and the town has never quite decided whether to be proud or embarrassed about it. His novels, from Of Mice and Men to East of Eden, drew on the valley and its farm workers, and some locals were angry at how he portrayed them. Today the National Steinbeck Center in the old downtown tells his story with exhibits, a replica of a boxcar and a reconstruction of the writer's fishing boat. His childhood home, a Victorian house, has been turned into a restaurant, and his grave lies in the town cemetery.

   Read the complete Salinas write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Salinas is where the day begins. Next is San Francisco.

2. 2. San Francisco

   San Francisco hits you with its hills first. The city sits on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific and the bay, and the streets climb and drop at angles that make a fully laden motorcycle feel like a mountain goat. The Golden Gate Bridge, completed in 1937, spans the mouth of the bay in International Orange paint, and when the fog rolls in from the Pacific, as it often does in summer, the towers rise out of the white like something from a dream.

   Read the complete San Francisco write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   San Francisco comes up about 356 km into the recorded legs. Next is Avenue of the Giants.

3. 3. Avenue of the Giants

   The Avenue of the Giants is a thirty-one-mile stretch of old highway that runs parallel to Highway 101 through the Humboldt Redwoods State Park, and the moment you turn onto it the light changes. The trees are coast redwoods, the tallest living things on the planet, with trunks as wide as a small room and tops that disappear a hundred metres overhead. The air is cool and damp, the forest floor is thick with ferns and sorrel, and sound seems to vanish into the huge trunks. It is the sort of place where riders instinctively lower the revs.

   Read the complete Avenue of the Giants write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 1158 km.