Drive the Pacific Coast Highway for 1,650 miles on an epic West Coast road trip from Washington to California with this planning guide.

Oregon Coast Road Trip. Rarely losing sight of the Pacific Ocean during its 340-mi (545-km) jaunt along the Oregon coast, US-101 winds past rockbound coast, ancient forests, and innumerable towns and villages.

US-101 along the Pacific Coast begins in tiny Port Townsend, one of Washington's oldest towns with a wealth of natural beauty, architecture, and tourism. Cross-Country Adventures on America's Two-Lane Highways

From Malibu and Topanga Canyon, Hwy-1 swoops along the shore, running along the beach as far as the landmark Santa Monica Pier before bending inland through a tunnel and metamorphosing quite unexpectedly into the I-10, the Santa Monica Freeway.

Running right along the beach, the Pacific Coast Highway (Hwy-1) heads south from Oxnard around the rocky headland of Point Mugu (pronounced “ma-GOO”), where the U.S. Navy operates a missile testing center and the Santa Monica Mountains rise steeply out of the Pacific Ocean. Most of these chaparral-covered granite mountains have been ...

The coast of Washington is a virtual microcosm of the Pacific Northwest, containing everything from extensive wilderness areas to Native American fishing villages and heavily industrialized lumber towns.

Stretching along the Pacific Ocean for more than 800 miles (1,290 km) from top to tail, the California coast includes virgin wilderness, the cutting edge of cosmopolitan culture, and the full spectrum in between.

South of Santa Barbara, US-101 widens into an eight-lane freeway along the coast. Looking out across the Pacific, beyond the partially disguised offshore oil wells, you can’t miss seeing the sharp outlines of the Channel Islands, whose rocky tide-pool-packed shores are protected as …

At the top end of the scale, the Montage (30801 S. Coast Hwy., 866/271-6953, $745 and up) has everything you could want from a hotel. South of Laguna Beach, Hwy-1 follows the coast for a final few miles before joining up with the I-5 freeway for the 65-mile drive into San Diego.

The amazing thing about the Pacific Coast is that it is still mostly wild, open, and astoundingly beautiful country, where you can drive for miles and miles and have the scenery all to yourself. The historic capital of California under the Spanish and Mexican regimes, Monterey (pop. 28,289), along with its peninsular neighbors Carmel and ...