Why this ride
A 301 km one-way ride from near East Palo Alto, about 5 h 08 of riding. On the way it passes Moss Beach, Inverness and in Allendale. Half Moon Bay is the high point.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Napa Silverado Trail Backroads · short arc
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 301 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 08
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Fuel stop near East Palo Alto
East Palo Alto sits on the flat edge of San Francisco Bay, right where the Dumbarton Bridge launches its long, low span towards Fremont. To the west lies the wealth of Palo Alto and Menlo Park, home of Silicon Valley's giants; to the east, the salt ponds and marshes of the bay. It is a dense, busy corridor, cut by Highway 101, and for riders it is mostly a place to pass through, refuel and plan the escape to the hills.
Read the complete Scenic stretch near East Palo Alto write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Napa Silverado Trail Backroads is where the day begins. Next is Napa Silverado Trail Backroads high point.
2. Half Moon Bay
Half Moon Bay is where the Peninsula's mountains finally meet the Pacific. The town sits on a wide coastal plain, backed by the green flank of the Santa Cruz Mountains and fronted by a long crescent of sand, and it feels like a different state from the busy bay side only twenty minutes away over Highway 92. Fog arrives most summer afternoons, so mornings are your best bet for sun.
Read the complete Half Moon Bay write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
You top out here; the road stops climbing. Next is Napa Silverado Trail Backroads scenic road.
3. Moss Beach
Moss Beach clings to a low bluff above the Pacific, a scatter of houses, cypress trees and fields on the San Mateo coast between Montara and Half Moon Bay. It is a small, quiet place, often wrapped in fog, where the sound of the surf is constant and the air smells of salt, seaweed and eucalyptus. For many riders, it is a first taste of the wild coast just south of San Francisco.
Read the complete Moss Beach write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 54 km into the recorded legs you reach Napa Silverado Trail Backroads scenic road. Next is Napa Silverado Trail Backroads photo pull-off.
4. Inverness
The San Andreas Fault runs straight up Tomales Bay, and in the 1906 earthquake the land on the western side lurched several metres north in a matter of seconds. Inverness sits on that western side, on the shore of the bay, a small village of wooden houses among the trees, at the gateway to the Point Reyes peninsula. It is a quiet, slightly eccentric place, with a general store, a few restaurants and a lot of bird-watchers.
Read the complete Inverness write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Napa Silverado Trail Backroads photo pull-off, about halfway. Next is Food stop in Allendale.
5. Food stop in Allendale
Planning note
Food at 411 km, roughly 8 hours into the riding. Next is San Francisco Bay Area.
6. San Francisco Bay Area
Central California's valley floor is flat in a way that has to be seen to be believed. The land around Dixon and Davis, in the Sacramento Valley, is a table of irrigated fields stretching in all directions, with rice, tomatoes, sunflowers, almonds and sugar beets laid out in squares, and the Vaca Mountains rising to the west. A rider coming from the Bay Area crosses the Carquinez Strait, then drops onto this plain, and the change is abrupt: the fog and the redwoods give way to dry air, big skies and long straight roads.
Read the complete Near Dixon, on the way back 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 514 km.
Leg by leg
Fuel stop near East Palo Alto to Half Moon Bay
Fuel stop near East Palo Alto → Half Moon Bay is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Food stop in Allendale to San Francisco Bay Area
Food stop in Allendale → San Francisco Bay Area return is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.