If I had to name only one occupation on my resume , I might be lean to list “ professional road excursionist . ”
I am always down for a honorable road trip-up , whether it ’s for the day or for the week . I jazz to research the greatness of California ’s main road and back route , and even after 13 - plus years of living in this state and taking off on route trips at least once a month , I have n’t even start to scrape up the open . The hub and I have even started pinning a elephantine map of California with place we ’ve been ( reallybeen , not just driven through ) , and the entire region above I-80 is embarrassingly bare . ( One solar day ! )
One of our pet things about live in Southern California — and having family and friends in Northern California — is the opportunity to take a different road every time we claver them . We live for the back roads of the Eastern Sierra and the Central Valley , and relish any drive thatdoesn’ttake us past the odoriferous spread of Highway 5 .
Over the holidays , Will and I jetted up the 5 to visit family in Marin … over the 80 to pass New Year ’s Eve in Tahoe … back across the state for a friend ’s birthday bang in Salinas … and from there , we had the freedom to select our own path home .
Few people conceive of Salinas when they think of California ’s vineyards , but this agricultural valley is in reality the prominent wine grape - producing region in the state ( though the more chichi Napa and Sonoma take all the fame ) .
Besides being home to over 20 wineries ( including one called Wrath — how pure is that ? ) , Salinas is also known as the “ Salad Bowl of the World . ” The valley grows over 30 percent of the world ’s cabbage ! If you ’ve ever bought bagged lettuce , chance are , it come from this little - hump part near the Central Coast .
We love push back through rolling hillsides and sprawling ranch land , so a scenic roundabout way along River Road heading in the south was a must .
Known as theRiver Road Wine Trail , this two - lane road meanders through the Santa Lucia Highlands from Salinas to Soledad . We were well past the harvesting season , but it made for a more interesting view of the vineyards with their word of mouth bare and resting for the wintertime . The few grapes that did stay on had dried naturally in the Dominicus to become raisin !
At the end of the Wine Trail , we made our way onto main road 101 for a few minutes and exited Jolon Road near King City . We take Jolon Road because it await desolate ; on a single-valued function , it ’s bound by Los Padres National Forest on one side and the Santa Lucia Mountains on the other . The solitary route took us through woodlet of California oaks and acres of idyllic spread .
We passed the site of the former Dutton Hotel , an adobe brick social structure build up in 1829 on what was then the El Camino Real . The hotel ( deform stage stop plow universal storehouse turned saloon turned Charles William Post office turn United States Army bivouac field ) deepen hands several times in the course of story ( newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst was an owner at one point ) , eventually ending up in laying waste after decades of vandalism and exposure to the elements . The remnants of the building are now on the National Register of Historic Places .
We continued on Jolon Road past Fort Hunter Liggett , the great United States Army Reserve bid mail and , ironically , a live - flack training installation with the most tranquil views out their barracks .
From Jolon Road , we turned onto Interlake Road for a glimpse of Nacimiento Lake .
The route straddles two lakes , and somewhere over that ridge rest Lake San Antonio ( we could barely see the speck of blue from the road ) .
As the Dominicus was starting to set behind the range , we make merry in the last few turns on these forget road before making our way back to a civilized highway . What could ’ve been a straightforward five - hour drive home turned into eight — but we would n’t trade have “ mislay ” for anything .
