We are about to take our first trip out to the coast and will be staying in Bodega Bay for a week or so. Having never driven the motorhome on Hwy 1, was just wondering if anyone has driven between where Hwy 12 West comes into Hwy 1 and where Bodega Bay RV Park is located just north of Inn at the Tides? I've googled the road and it looks okay but there is one curve that could be a tight fit for a Class A and a logging truck if both are into that curve at the same time. I'm not concerned about driving on Hwy 1, just wanting to get someone else's opinion of that area whose driven it before. Thanks to anyone who can reassure me that we won't go off the road and end up turning our motorhome into a cabin cruiser.................
Was hoping to get at least one reply from someone who has been brave enough to drive on Hwy 1 with a large RV but it appears as tho I'm going to just have to wing it and take my chances. We leave on 3-8 so if by chance anyone reads this thread before then, and would care to jump in and let me know how far the drop into the Pacific is off of one of those high cliffs, at least I'll be able to calculate our speed on the way down and when to pop the chute...............
BankShot - sorry I can't offer any help on Rt 1 but we are heading to Napa from Boston end of Sept 2016 and looking for travel advice from Billings, MT through Yellowstone, Jackson Hole then on to Salt Lake.
I would take 101 and cut over to Bodega Bay. Several years ago we did Hwy 1 all the way up from San Diego. Parked in a campground and then would drive Hwy1 as there are a lot of turn outs for views too small for a 38 foot fifth wheel. I felt I could ave driven 1 pulling the fifth wheel but wanted t be able to stop at the views. We stayed in at a park in Bodega Bay and after looking at the map I probably took 12 over from 101. Here's my notes on Bodega Bay. 6-30-05 We are in Bodega Bay CA for the 4th of July. It is a nice campground but a bit pricey. It seems everything in California is a bit pricey. Bodega Bay seems to be a nice area and there are a lot of large eucalyptus trees. Tomorrow we are going to go to the visitor center here to see what there is to do in the area. It seems there is not a lack of workamping jobs. At Bethel Island I mentioned we had worked near Yosemite and was offered a job. Same here. We had to take Mr. Kitty to the vet in Bethel Island as he has had some intestinal problems and lately he has been drinking LOTS of water and peeing a lot. Well, it seems the boy has diabetes. I guess that is sorta common in male cats from what we have read. The vet did a number of tests and we have had to get a different cat food and we will need to give him insulin shots twice a day. He is to be retested in a couple of weeks to see how he is doing and to get the amount of insulin regulated. 7-1-05 Bodega Bay is a small fishing village on the California coast north of San Francisco. The sign at the town limit says a pop of 950. It is a nice area with a small peninsula that juts out into the ocean that forms Bodega Bay. There is a sand bar that extends almost out to Bodega Head that forms the inner bay. The interesting fact of all this is Bodega Head is part of the Pacific Teutonic plate and the mainland is the North American plate which means the San Andreas Fault cuts through there and the Head is moving North 1 1/4 inches a year while the mainland moves South a lot slower. The epicenter of the 1906 earthquake was in Olema near Point Reyes and Bodega Head moved up 3 feet in elevation and North one foot. That is a huge movement of a huge piece of granite. Where all this info came from was our tour of the Bodega Marine Lab which is part of the University of California at Davis. We went on out on the Head as it is called and enjoyed the Pacific Ocean from Ocean View and walked around the Head to see some sea lions on a rock out in the outer bay. Tomorrow we have to move down to dry camp for 3 days and we want to go down to Point Reyes National Sea Shore. 7-2-05 Nicholas Green may not mean much to any one and it didn’t to me until I walked down to this strange looking thing in the field next to the RV Park here in Bodega Bay and saw it yesterday at the visitors center. Nicholas Green was a 7 year old boy who was killed by bandits in Italy in 1994. Instead of being full of hate and resentment his parents donated his organs to 7 children that were waiting for transplants in Italy. The tower here is a bell tower that has bells donated by children, families and schools in Italy. The large bell at the top was made and donated by the Marinelli Foundry which has been making bells for the papacy for 1,000 years and was blessed by Pope John Paul II and has Nicholas's name on it. There is a plaque dedicated to him and all around it are flowers and stuffed animals. It is a very touching and emotional place to be. From here we drove down Highway 1 to Reyes Point National Seashore. It is a very interesting place. In the 1906 earthquake the San Andreas Fault runs right through the area. There is an earthquake walk that goes around and along side the fault that tells of the fault. In one area the San Andreas Fault is marked by blue markers and in one place there is a fence that was there in 1906. One part of the fence is on the Pacific Plate side and the other on the North American Plate side. The two halves of the fence are 20 feet apart! That is how much the Pacific Plate slid. Point Reyes moved Northwest 20 feet in 45 seconds! To give you an idea how big Point Reyes is it is about 25 miles out to the Point Reyes Lighthouse. The Point moves about 2 inches a year they say. The drive down highway 1 is a beautiful drive and the drive out to the lighthouse is nice. The area has a lot of dairy farms and the contented cows you see in the California cheese commercials live that life out on Point Reyes. The parking out there is, well, there really isn’t any except along side the narrow road. It was about a mile from where we parked to the 380 steps that lead down to the lighthouse. You would think they would build it on top of the point but in summer here there is always a fog bank due to warm air that blows over the cool water. The water temp here is about 58 degrees and the temps are cool. The high here today was about 65 degrees and that is what is forecast for the week. Inland about 20 miles it is in the 90’s. Anyhow, the reason the lighthouse is built below the peak is to get down below the fog bank. 7-3-05 California Highway 1 is probably the most scenic road we have been down. Yesterday we took it down to Point Reyes and today up to Fort Ross. Ft. Ross was originally a Russian fur trading outpost. Yes, the Russians had a major trade business in the 1700 and 1800’s. Remember the US bought Alaska from the Czar. The highway is a winding up and down road that follows the coast through rolling hills with some turn outs that give a magnificent views of the cliffs leading down to the rocky Pacific coast. There are several beach access areas and we went down a beautiful flower lined path to the beach. The beach was a mix of coarse sand and pebbles like the ones we saw down at St. Simeon. We have traveled Hwy. 1 quite a ways up the coast only missing a few areas so far. It is way to narrow and winding to take the trailer up so we have been taking 101 which parallels Hwy. 1 and then driving 1. 7-4-05 There is a coastal bird watching trail near here that we decided to walk. It is a short walk around some fresh water ponds on one side of the trail and the bay is on the other side of the trail. We saw a pretty green bird with black on it’s head that isn’t in our Audobon book. The Audubon book is a great bird book but it doesn’t show a lot of birds we see so the little green bird is unknown to us. We did get to see a Great Egret eat a snake though.
We are going to take Hwy 101 north up to Santa Rosa and then cut over to the coast using Hwy 12. In rechecking the stretch of coast hwy north from where Hwy 12 ends and into Bodega Bay, there is only one curve that appeared to be a tad scary for anything bigger than a car but I talked with a guy here in town that has driven thru that same curve in a motorhome a few feet longer than ours and he said not to be concerned about it at all. He said when he was coming south and was on the ocean side, they met a large semi truck entering the curve and coming towards them. He thought that they'd end up scraping sides and them being sideswiped and off and over the edge they would go. Instead they had plenty of clearance. Just looks tighter than it really is. I've driven on many tight roads and curves but none with drop offs on one side down into the ocean and a straight up cliff on the other, making for a really narrow area for two large vehicles to pass. I rarely if ever take chances driving on roads I don't feel safe on and if that makes me a "wuss" then I guess I be one................. Hey, thanks nedmtman for all that neat info on Bodega Bay. You wrote a book about it for me it appears. I almost hate to tell you this but we've been to Bodega Bay many times over the years and know the area very well, just never have taken the motorhome there. But I read your entire post and enjoyed it immensely as it brought back some nice memories of all our past visits there............... Regards, BankShot PS: Sure hope that old fog horn is still working..............
