Driving
Up the 101
A California Roadtrip Guide
T photo by Wikipedia
he drive up the California 101 consists of breathtaking views and leads to some of California’s most scenic cities. Starting in Los Angeles the 101 swings left and follows along the coast through Santa Barbara coastline. Swerve inland to San Luis Obispo through farmland and then travel up to San Francisco itself. The final stretch of 101 in California travels through redwood forests up to the Oregon border. You’ll want your camera in the passenger seat to capture all of the beauty California has to offer.
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he south terminus of U.S. Route 101 is in Los Angeles, about one mile (1.6 km) east of downtown Los Angeles at the East Los Angeles Interchange, also known as the “Commuters’ Complex.” This southernmost portion is named the Santa Ana Freeway, inheriting that title as the northerly extension of the roadway now known as Interstate 5. After merging with westbound traffic from the San Bernardino Freeway (I-10), U.S. Route 101 then proceeds northwest via the Downtown Slot under the northern edge of Los Angeles’ Civic Center to State Route 110 at the Four Level Interchange. From here, US
101 becomes the Hollywood Freeway. It then heads to Hollywood and up through the Cahuenga Pass before reaching the San Fernando Valley. View northward from the Cahuenga Pass in 1972 Highway 101 then intersects with State Route 134 and State Route 170 at the interchange known as the Hollywood Split. Here, the alignment of US 101 ‘shifts’ to the alignment of SR 134 (i.e. heading northbound, the road’s alignment turns left, or westbound) and thereafter is referred to as the Ventura Freeway until it reaches Ventura. Though confusing, the “Hollywood Freeway” name continues northward from this
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interchange on SR 170, and the “Ventura Freeway” name continues eastward to SR 134. From the Hollywood Split, US 101 is an east–west highway (until it reaches Gaviota State Park in Santa Barbara County where it shifts back to a north– south alignment). It meets with Interstate 405 in Sherman Oaks at an interchange that was named the worst for traffic in the United States.
Hollywood Hollywood is a district in the central region of Los Angeles, California, in the United States. It is notable for its place as the home of the entertainment industry, including several of its historic studios. Its name has come to be a metonym for the motion picture industry of the United States. Hollywood is also a highly ethnically diverse, densely populated, economically diverse neighborhood and retail business district. Hollywood was a small community in 1870 and was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. It officially merged with the city of Los Angeles in 1910, and soon thereafter a prominent film industry46
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began to emerge, eventually becoming the most dominant and recognized in the world. In 1853, one adobe hut stood in Nopalera (Nopal field), named for the Mexican Nopal cactus indigenous to the area. By 1870, an agricultural community flourished. The area was known as the Cahuenga Valley, after the pass in the Santa Monica Mountains immediately to the north. The name “Hollywood” was coined by H. American Roadtrips
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J. Whitley, the “Father of Hollywood”. Originally the name “Figwood” was to be used to name the area due to the surrounding number of fig trees. Whitley arranged to buy the 500-acre (2.0 km2) E.C. Hurd ranch and disclosed to him his plans for the land. They agreed on a price and Hurd agreed to sell at a later date. Before Whitley got off the ground with Hollywood, plans for the new town had spread to General Harrison Gray Otis, Hurd’s wife, eastern adjacent ranch co-owner Daeida Wilcox, and others. Daeida Wilcox may have learned of the name Hollywood from Ivar Weid, her neighbor in Holly Canyon (now Lake Hollywood) and a prominent investor and friend of Whitley’s.
C E N T R Beach Meets Country A L C Campsites O O A S T y Ashley
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Preceding page: Main Spread: Golden Gate Bridge Polaroid photos (top to bottom): Palace of Fine Arts, Southern California beach, and San Luis Obispo farm lands Current page: Top left: Malibu Beach sunset Bottom left: Famous Los Angeles palm trees Top right: Avila Beach , a short trip off the 101 Bottom right: (top to bottom) Gaviota State Park, Carpinteria Campground and Upper Oso Campground
tura and through Santa Barbara, Highway 101 closely follows the Pacific coastline (generally no North of Ventura, US 101 switches intermittently between more than one to two miles (3 freeway and expressway status (i.e. there is occasional km) from the shore) until Gavcross-traffic), but there are no traffic signals until San Francis- iota State Park, about 23 miles co. The last traffic signals along this stretch of the route were (37 km) west of Goleta. At Gaviremoved in the early 1990s when the section through down- ota State Park, the highway shifts town Santa Barbara was constructed to freeway standards back from an east–west highway after years of resistance from the local community. From Ven- to a north–south alignment.
nce the Pacific Ocean can be seen, the 101 has finally reached the Central Coast. These miles are filled with breathtaking ocean views. Along the coast are many opportunities for camping. Three popular sites are Gaviota State Park, Carpinteria Campground and Upper Oso Campground. There is no better way to get the full experience of the Central Coast then by these campsites nestled between the ocean and tree lines hills. Don’t take our word for it though, try it yourself!
American Roadtrips
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an Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial and financial center of Northern California. The only consolidated city-county in California,San Francisco encompasses a land area of about 46.9 square miles (121 km2) on the northern end of the San Francisco Peninsula, giving it a density of about 17,867 people per square mile (6,898 people per km2). It is the most densely settled large city (population greater than 200,000) in the state of California and the second-most densely populated major city in the United States after New York City. San Francisco is the fourth-
most populous city in California, after Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose, and the 14th-most populous city in the United States—with a Census-estimated 2013 population of 837,442. The city and its surroundings are known as the San Francisco Bay Area, part of the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland combined statistical area, with a population of 8.5 million.
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When US 101 reaches Gilroy, it becomes the South Valley Freeway, and at the same time, it expands to three lanes in each direction. It then heads through the suburb of Morgan Hill, and shortly afterwards expands to four lanes in each direction before reaching San Jose. From San Jose to San Francisco, Highway 101 is known as the Bayshore Freeway as it passes through Palo Alto and the other major communities along the San Francisco Peninsula. This segment was originally Bayshore Boulevard, later redesignated the 101A bypass and upgraded to freeway by the late 1950s. This section of 101 from San Jose north to San Francisco is very heavily travelled. The stretch 48
between Redwood City and South San Francisco was the Bay Area’s first freeway when it opened in 1947; over the next 20 years the stretches from San Jose to Redwood City and South San Francisco to San Francisco were upgraded to freeway. change with I-280 at the Alemany Maze, until the junction with the San Francisco Skyway (Interstate 80) and the Central Freeway near the city’s Civic Center. Highway 101 continues in a northwestern direction on the Central Freeway, and then leaves the freeway to run north on Van Ness Avenue. Parkway). It is then joined by Route 1 before approaching and crossing the Golden Gate Bridge.
American Roadtrips
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he freeway portion ends north of Cloverdale near the Mendocino County line, and it narrows to an expressway through the Russian River canyon and eventually a twolane road south of Hopland, the first time since leaving San Francisco. Just before reaching Ukiah, US 101 becomes a four-lane freeway. In the community of Calpella, State Route 20 merges with US 101 for the next 15.5 miles (25 km). South of Willits, as the freeway portion ends, US 101 ascends 1,953-foot (595 m) Ridgewood Summit, the highest elevation along the route’s 807-mile (1,299 km) trek through California. US 101 then becomes a short
two-lane road before reaching Willits. SR 20 then splits from US 101 in downtown Willits. US 101 leaves Willits as a two-lane road, but it soon widens to a four-lane expressway until the intersection with the western portion of State Route 162, where it reverts to a two-lane road. North of Laytonville, US 101 ascends Rattlesnake summit (1,796-foot (547 m)) before a descent to follow the South Fork Eel River and Eel River all the way to Fortuna near the mouth of the river. About 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Laytonville, US 101 becomes an undivided freeway near the community of Cummings. SR 271 is the old portion of US 101 through this area. At Leggett, US 101
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Top most left: (top to bottom) San Francisco’s United Nations Plaza and the Palace of Fine Arts Top center: Redwood carved through to let cars pass in Redwood National and State Forest Top right: Redwoods in Humboldt Redwoods State Park Below: (left to right) Olympic National Park Washington and cherry blossom trees in Salem, Oregon
meets SR 1 for the last time, and from this point until Piercy, runs along a section of highway with frequent landslides. construction of two bridges known collectively as the Confusion Hill Bridges.
Continue the Road up to Oregon The 101 continues up north into Oregon and Washintgon. Buckle up and keep driving for more breathtaking views in the Pacific Northwest!
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