Day 28 Saturday March 28th: Driving US1 North of San Francisco

 Saturday was only a little over a 300 mile drive but it took all day.

US1 San Francisco to Leggett, CA

We planned to skirt San Francisco to the North but did want to experience some of the city, I took I580 which follows San Francisco Bay for a while and then the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge (officially the John F. McCarthy Memorial Bridge), crosses the bay. 

The drive from our campground west to San Fran was still pretty, more farmland, more windmills, and lots of hills, but in general you could feel that we were descending as we went west. 

Tanker off load in SF Bay

As we skirted the Bay we could see a large oil tanker docked at a pier, I believe this is how they unload a tanker and send the oil to a nearby refinery.  The California coast is an interesting mix of stunning beauty and industrial instillations, you see much of both. 

The Richmond-San Rafael Bridge is a 4.5 mile double decker, quite impressive for being built in 1956. 

We picked  up US1 in Olema, CA and worked our way north. The temperatures were in the 60's and there was a fog/cloud along the shore, but it was sunny inland. 

North of SF

The coast north of SF reminds me much more of Maine than the southern coast, much of it is Rocky and US1 is mostly elevated over the shoreline giving nice views. 

This is a video from our stop in Bodega, CA; we had the same problem making progress north there were just too many beautiful places and we kept stopping. 

Sonoma Coast State Park

There were fewer beaches and the sand was much darker than what we saw on the southern coast. 

US1 wanders inland in places where you drive through the Redwoods, they are huge, the road weaves around them and sometimes block out most of the daylight, pretty cool. 

US1 is a very twisty road, I am talking like Needles Highway in SD, App Gap in VT and the like, only it goes for 100s of miles. It is impossible to drive one handed because you have to hand over hand many of the turns.  But this was nothing compared to the road we took off of CA-101 to get to our camp for the night, Shelter Cove Campground.  The road to Shelter Cover is extremely taxing on your vehicle (and June's nerves), it is very steep with switchbacks that are crazy.  I was in low gear up and down the grades and by the time we got to Shelter Cove, the brakes were smelling pretty hot.  When we checked in the guy said, if wasn't for that road we would be mobbed all the time. Well, he doesn't need to worry about that.

Shelter Cove Campground

Despite the ride, Shelter Cover is beautiful, we arrived in time for a nice sunset which helped calm the nerves after that trip.  

Shelter Cove Sunset

The sunset at Shelter Cove is very nice. 

Sunday, is Palm Sunday, there is not church here so we will just say a prayer. 

We hope to make our way to the Redwood National Park tomorrow. June is not looking forward to going back over that mountain tomorrow.