Forty Years on
One Headland

• the 101 north · ~95 mi, ~2h
• 🔴 check the Caltrans Highway 1 status before leaving
• coffee before Ventura

Up the coast through Ventura with the sea on the left most of the way. Check the road before committing: a Big Sur closure means turning this into a different trip, not a slower one.

• Santa Barbara Anacapa St Supercharger · 12 stalls, 250 kW
• 0.5 mi from the courthouse door — walk from the stall
• ~95 mi done, and the next stretch has no good option for 90

The stall is a five-minute walk from the tower, so this costs nothing at all: plug in, shoot the courthouse, come back to a full car before Highway 1.

• City Lot 7 · street meters are capped at 75 min and this stop is longer
• free entry · open daily, elevator to the deck · opens 10:00 at weekends
• late morning, hard sun on white stucco

1929, Spanish revival, arranged around a sunken garden, with an open observation deck at the top of the clock tower. Hard sun is right here: white walls, black arch shadows, no midtones. The frame from the deck is the red-tile roofscape compressed flat, mountains behind it. Downstairs, the arcade is a corridor of repeating arches.

• the 101 north · ~106 mi
• eat in Cambria or San Simeon on the next stretch
• fast, inland and unremarkable — the coast starts after this

The dull half of the long middle, taken quickly so the good half is not rushed. The 101 runs inland to San Luis Obispo before Highway 1 turns for the water.

• Morro Bay Supercharger · 8 stalls, 325 kW · 0.5 mi off the 1
• ~106 mi from Santa Barbara — and the last charge before Big Sur
• 🔴 Big Sur has one 72 kW site and nothing else for 90 miles

This is the one that matters on this leg. North of Morro Bay the coast gives you a single slow charger at Ventana and then nothing until Monterey, on a road with no shortcuts and no cell service to sort it out. Half an hour here in the dead middle of the afternoon buys the whole Big Sur run.

• Highway 1 north · ~105 mi
• the coast road is slow and worth every minute
• no fuel, no charging and little signal for 90 of it

The stretch people come for: cliffs, hairpins, and no shoulder to speak of. It cannot be rushed and should not be — which is the other reason to have left Morro Bay full.

• Highway 1, roadside pullouts either side
• free · north pullout for the classic angle · one-way control at Rocky Creek, 1 mi north
• late afternoon rakes across the canyon

1932, a single concrete arch across a steep canyon mouth, with the road curving away on both sides. Everyone has this picture, which is the interesting problem: the frame worth trying is the canyon rather than the bridge — drop the deck to the top edge and let the drop underneath do the work. Late sun comes down the canyon and separates the arch from the shadow behind it.

• Highway 1 north · ~15 mi, ~35 min
• check the location icon

The last stretch, arriving in the dark in winter. Somewhere to sleep in Carmel or Monterey puts the reserve gate twenty minutes away in the morning.

• Point Lobos State Natural Reserve · Highway 1 south of Carmel
• no booking exists · $10 per vehicle at the gate
• gate 08:00–19:00, last entry 18:30 · 150 spaces and they fill

Arrive at opening. There is no reservation system — it is $10 a vehicle at the gate and first come. That is exactly why the hour matters: a hundred and fifty spaces serve about a million visitors a year, and once the lots fill they hold cars out on Highway 1 until someone leaves.

• walk anywhere · the loop trails are short and connect
• Cypress Grove, Weston Beach, the tide pools, China Cove
• morning fog often burns off by eleven — that change IS the subject

Weston came here from 1929 to 1948, made his final negative here, and never ran out. The day's instruction is his: find something in the first hour and stay with it. Photograph one rock, one cypress, one pool — then come back to it at noon, and again at five, and put the three next to each other. That is the whole principle, and it is much harder than walking the loop once. Weston Beach is named for him and the eroded rock there is the obvious place to try it.

• back at the gate for opening · the light is different
• included · same entry

The best argument for the second night: the same rock in different weather, one day apart. If the fog is in, that is not a failure — it is the other half of the pair.

• Monterey Supercharger · 14 stalls, 250 kW · ~5 mi from the reserve
• top up here; the 101 south has plenty, the coast does not
• 🔴 do not start a 330-mile run home on a part charge

Five miles from the gate and the last easy charge before the road turns inland. The 101 is well served the whole way down — it is only the coast that is thin — so this is about starting the run home full rather than about the run home itself.

• Highway 1 → the 101 via Salinas · ~138 mi
• inland via Salinas is faster than the coast road
• leave by nine or it is dark before Ventura

The first third of the way back. The 101 through Salinas and Paso Robles is dull and quick, which after two days of looking is the correct kind of road.

• San Luis Obispo, Madonna Inn · 18 stalls, 250 kW · 2 mi off the 101
• 🔴 330 miles home does not happen on one charge
• lunch here rather than at a table later

Half an hour, and eat while it charges. This is the natural break in a six-hour drive whether or not the car needed it, which is what makes it a cheap stop.

• the 101 south · ~100 mi
• the coast reappears at Gaviota

The middle third, and the one where the road becomes the ocean again for the last forty miles of it.

• Santa Barbara Anacapa St · 12 stalls, 250 kW — the same stall as Day 1
• twenty minutes is enough for the last 92 miles
• 🔴 do not skip it to save the time; Ventura traffic eats range

Twenty minutes on the same stall the trip started at, which is a tidy way to end it. Enough for the last stretch with margin for the 101 through Ventura going slowly, which it will.

• the 101 south · ~92 mi
• Ventura to the basin is the slow part, whatever time it is

The last stretch, with the water on the right until Oxnard and then the long inland run in.