By Gary Anderson
Driving Passions
When I was growing up, in the days before every house had a television, the highlight of the weekend often was a Sunday afternoon drive.
Generally, there was no destination; it was just a chance for mom and dad to get out of the house and to give the kids something to do before the weekday routines of work, school and housekeeping.
Sunday drives are an institution that ought to be revived, and we live in an ideal place to revive them.
To enjoy a Sunday drive from Los Altos, you don’t even need to take an on-ramp. If you’ve rarely been west of Interstate 280, except for a quick run on Highway 92 to Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival, then you’ve missed some of the best drives, scenery and serendipitous destinations anyone could ask for. Rather than give you a route to follow, let me suggest some roads you can choose from on the spur of the moment and some places that you might stop as the mood hits you.
The backbone of the drive is Highway 35, Skyline Drive, which runs down the Peninsula from Highway 92 in the north to Highway 17 in the south. It’s a great road in its own right, with views of the Pacific Ocean around one bend and views of the Santa Clara Valley around the next, connected by smooth, gently curving blacktop.
You don’t have to drive it from end to end. Instead, use it as a connection between a choice of roads going up to the ridge and a choice of roads running down to the coast.
For the first and last leg, choose King’s Mountain Road or Woodside Road out of Woodside, Page Mill Road from Palo Alto or Highway 9 out of Saratoga. You might even start with a latté or brunch in one of these little towns before setting out. Each of these four routes offers tight curves ascending into the Santa Cruz Mountains through dense woods and hidden rural valleys. Just watch out for cyclists; they’re particularly thick in the early morning.
Once at the ridge, drive a ways along Skyline. Here, you’ll have to watch out for motorcycle enthusiasts who come from all over the Bay Area to take the sweeping curves at high speeds. Don’t try to keep up with them; the views to the east and west, especially on a clear day, are best enjoyed at a comfortable speed.
Going down to the coast, you can choose to start down Highway 84, which becomes La Honda Road after Skyline, or Alpine Road, the extension of Page Mill on the west side of Skyline. Continue out to the coast on Pescadero Road to Pescadero or La Honda Road to San Gregorio. Between Pescadero and San Gregorio is the Old Stage Road, the historic and seldom driven alternative to Highway 1 between these two little towns. Once at Route 1, you could go north to Half Moon Bay and return by Highway 92 and Interstate 280 if it’s a nice day on the coast, or take one of the routes back up to Skyline and home that you didn’t take to come out to the coast.
One of the best parts of a Sunday drive is to have no particular plan, but rather to just stop when something catches your fancy. Along these routes, I have several places that I might stop, depending on time, appetite and weather.
If it’s near lunch time when I reach the ridge, Alice’s Restaurant at the intersection of Woodside/La Honda Road and Skyline is a wonderfully funky place that makes great burgers and sandwiches. On La Honda Road, just before you get to the coast, watch on your left for a large fruit and vegetable stand. The produce is always good and the homemade jams and jellies are worth buying, especially if you wind up getting some fresh bread at one of our next stops.
At the coast, two small hamlets offer delightful breaks. When making a list of the 10 best country stores, the San Gregorio Store has to be on it. Buy a hat, an iron frying pan or a funny greeting card, then enjoy a cup of coffee and listen to one of the musicians who entertain almost every weekend. At the other end of the Old Stage Road is Pescadero, once a Portuguese fishing village and home to Duarte’s Tavern. Duarte’s looks as if it’s been there since the early days of California and is worth the drive itself for the cioppino and the artichoke soup. Or, if it is one of those few warm days on the coast, go across the street to the grocery store and buy fresh-baked bread and picnic fixings and head out to San Gregorio State Beach.
When you’re ready to return home, just take the road you didn’t take coming out to the coast, and enjoy some different scenery. Any combination works; I’ve driven these roads to these destinations probably 50 times, and no two trips have been alike.
Anderson is editor and publisher of British Car Magazine, published bimonthly and distributed internationally from offices in Los Altos (949-9680; www.britishcar.com).
