West Coast Roadtrip- US-101

I have always dreamed of cruising up the 101 and camping along the way. This past October those dreams became reality! The planning began after I signed up for the Yosemite Half Marathon. If we were already driving up to Yosemite , why not make a huge loop out of it and hit Big Sur and San Francisco too right?? This was our game plan…

Day 1: Drive north towards Big Sur and stay in Oceana (central coast)

Day 2: Head to Big Sur Campground bright and early

Day 3: Camp!

Day 4: Drive to San Francisco

Day 5: Stay in SF

Day 6: Head to Yosemite

Day 7: Explore Yosemite

Day 8: Race day!

Day 9: Drive back to San Diego

The first day we left early in the morning and headed north, stopping at Santa Barbara on the way because its an adorable city. We explored the Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens which was full of small turtles so I was ecstatic. 

Our next stop is San Luis Obispo which is a town on the central coast of California that is full of charming restaurants and wineries. We had attended a wedding here a few months prior so we were slightly familiar with the area.

We visited Slo Creek Farms to pick a “few” apples… I got carried away because there is always a larger, redder, more appetizing apple around the corner that needs to be picked. After picking apples we asked some new friends at the farm for winery recommendations. We were sent over to Kelsey winery which makes cider out of the apples at Slo Creek Farms (yay local businesses!). We headed right over to Kelsey for a tasting flight and were greeted by adorable winery dogs. After a lovely afternoon in the sunshine we headed downtown to have a few beers at SLO Brewing Company. We had a lot of fun here and ended up staying a while and trying many different kinds of beer.

After a long day of driving, eating, and beer drinking we were ready for a relaxed night and headed to our vacation rental to rest. Early the next morning we would start our drive up the scenic 101!