TheBruce

Karl - thats it! I was told to hit it early in the morning before the rangers get out there.

wjk_glynn

Great, it's been added...

North Bay

• From Point Reyes Station out to Limantour Beach - https://goo.gl/maps/YtHLWei8Evn (~9 miles)
  • Recommended by TheBruce

Karl.

wjk_glynn

wjk_glynn

Came across this one earlier today...

Santa Cruz Mountains & County

• Soquel San Jose Rd - https://goo.gl/maps/NAPo78oLx6B2 (~10 miles)
  • The road itself is quite nice (good surface, nice flowing corners in a number of places)
  • Downside is that there's more residential along it than I like

Karl.

jnolan

K_style

This is my usual easy ride for either car or motorcycle.

Aptos BBQ is amazing!!!

wjk_glynn

Parts of that route have been captured in the following...

South Bay / Santa Clara County

• Bailey / McKean / Uvas / Watsonville Rd. to Hwy-152 - https://goo.gl/maps/EfJSBsi9ksL2 (~17 miles)
  • Starts near the IBM Research Lab in Almaden, and continues down to the Hecker Pass Hwy (152)
  • Road surface is more bumpy than expected (though not terrible), and the work rate (i.e. number of corners) is low
  • Upside is that once you get down to Hwy-152, you're near the start of the quite excellent Hecker Pass in Santa Cruz County
  • So it's a decent, but not great back road...

Santa Cruz Mountains & County

• Hecker Pass through Mt. Madonna County Park - https://goo.gl/maps/nmg3VuTR3Vo (~8 miles)
  • Short, but a very nice run

How would you rank the rest of your route?

I presume you mean this place: https://www.aptosstbbq.com/

Thanks for the tip!

Karl.

ylk1

Hi wjk_glynn, Thanks for the compilation!

A few I can think of in:

East Bay:
- Altamont pass road is a decent detour for folks driving to east of I580: https://goo.gl/maps/u8oVjC7oeYk (~8 miles)
Good tarmac. May have a lot of traffic when google maps decides to use it as a detour. Most long radius corners

- Patterson pass road: Another alternative for I580 west : https://goo.gl/maps/THnhcUwBpb72 (~ 9 miles)
You start at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Tarmac is ok at start and gets better later. The road is quite narrow. Almost single lane at some places.
Great scenery with wind mills especially after the hill https://goo.gl/maps/11Y5n4hxpf52 when the grass is green
Great drive to just cruise along.

- Tesla road: Another alternative for I580 west : https://goo.gl/maps/eGL7wPcQW6M2 (~16 miles)
Double lane with ok tarmac but bumpy first downhill twisty section and opens up to smooth tarmac and high speed curves.

Santa Cruz mountains:
- Felton Empire road: https://goo.gl/maps/bCjyCbGAjU42 (~4 miles)
Good fun uphill or downhill with windows open. Road is slightly wider than BigBasin highway 236.
Smooth tarmac with a lot of twisty sections (all 2nd gear).
I usually do Highway 1 -> Boony Doon (which becomes pine flat road) -> Empire grade road (towards felton is quite bumpy and not enjoyable) -> Felton -> Highway 9 north. https://goo.gl/maps/7RMCUFudtYT2

ylk1

Some other great driving roads in California I personally feel worth the visit just for driving there: (Probably outside the scope of this thread)
These are not the usual suspects (Angeles, Rim of the world, Ortega, Palomar ..etc.)

- CA-49 Golden chain highway has some excellent sections:
Coulterville - Bagby : https://goo.gl/maps/8G6XhFfoVq82 (~10 miles)
Excellent tarmac and mix of corners. Little to no traffic but survey the road first for occasional cops.
You can really feel your NA motors losing power at this place & the usual Sierra passes.

Downieville to Sattley: https://goo.gl/maps/q62THDhG59v (~32 miles)
It's good from outskirts of Downieville towards the end. The tarmac gets better and better towards the end.

- CA 36 & CA3: https://goo.gl/maps/gMxENA4955n (~52 miles)
A lot of people like the entire CA36 but, I think the best portion with fantastic tarmac start around Platina where they have resurfaced it recently.
Lot of fantastic 2nd gear corners till you hit CA3 which has almost similar curves when you go towards Douglas city but the tarmac is rough.
Little to no traffic or cops.
CA 299 has some great corners as well but the constant traffic rules it out.

- HWY101 & CA-1: Piercy to Rockport : https://goo.gl/maps/3BuDCwy5mdR2 (~27 miles)
Great tarmac and lot of good technical corners. Mediocre traffic who usually get out of way.
Really great stretch through redwoods.
CA20 from willits to Fortbragg has excellent tarmac and corners as well but almost impossible to enjoy due to traffic.

- Hwy162: Longvale to DosRios (~24 miles): https://goo.gl/maps/qKaVFYRnSJE2
Decent tarmac but super bumpy (Good for rally style cars). No traffic or cops.

- CA33: Ventucopa to Ojai (~46 miles) : https://goo.gl/maps/uf1D5UMQpz42
Probably the single best road in California. Best tarmac (not sure how the recent mudslides & wildfires affected the tarmac though)
Best visuals. Super technical corners. No traffic or cops.

If you are in eastern sierra:
- CA-89: https://goo.gl/maps/CjokqhtpSL32 : (~17 miles)
Fantastic tarmac and views. Little traffic. Really feels like driving on the top of the world.

- Pine Creek road: https://goo.gl/maps/6A8rThRQivJ2 (~7 miles)
Good tarmac but surroundings feel kinda creepy by the end of road. No traffic
Shown in Motortrend's Ferrari GTC4 Lusso video:
- Horseshoe meadow road: https://goo.gl/maps/Y9DN8ZnW6oJ2 (~9 miles)
Good tarmac but quite dusty and may have large rocks around. Survey it first.
Views are fantastic. Mentioned in Everyday driver's midship shootout: around 9 mins

- 9 Mile canyon road: https://goo.gl/maps/ZVKtffFwby52 (~9 miles. )
Decent tarmac but a little bit dusty. Good mix of corners. No traffic. At the summit gets narrow.
Drives around old LA aqueduct for a while.

- CA168: Zurich to Deep springs (~25 miles) : https://goo.gl/maps/fdwieXPsdZM2
Good tarmac. The corners here don't just go left and right, they go up and down as well.
A real roller coaster ride.

wjk_glynn

wjk_glynn

Added the following to the top post...

East Bay

• Calaveras Rd - https://goo.gl/maps/FoigDtGTUaT2 (road closed at the time of writing, can't generate a proper Google Maps URL)
  • Recommended by derbo, with additional comments here
• Altamont Pass Rd - https://goo.gl/maps/u8oVjC7oeYk (~8 miles)
  • Recommended by ylk1
• Patterson Pass Rd - https://goo.gl/maps/6si4Hpijfov (~9 miles)
  • Recommended by ylk1
• Tesla Rd - https://goo.gl/maps/wfuJeXuA7d22 (~16 miles)
  • Recommended by ylk1

Santa Cruz Mountains & County

• Felton Empire Rd - https://goo.gl/maps/fHcAcU1Wo4y (~3 miles)
  • Recommended by ylk1
• Run up from Hwy-1 to Bonny Doon, over to Felton, up Hwy-9 to Saratoga - https://goo.gl/maps/7RMCUFudtYT2 (~41 miles)
  • Recommended by ylk1

Points further away from the SF Bay Area

• North
  • CA-36 & CA-3, west of Platina - https://goo.gl/maps/sQ1jGtbEFEG2 (~52 miles)
    • Recommended by ylk1
  • Piercy to Rockport (north of Fort Bragg) - https://goo.gl/maps/zwkrWDTMk1P2 (~29 miles)
    • Recommended by ylk1
  • Longvale to Dos Rios - https://goo.gl/maps/XJY5FK5xSNL2 (~16 miles)
    • Recommended by ylk1
• East
  • Parts of the CA-49 Golden Chain Highway
    • Coulterville to Bagby - https://goo.gl/maps/oQUSDvrhMXr (~10 miles)
      • Recommended by ylk1
    • Downieville to Sattley - https://goo.gl/maps/GZSxTA7HVjE2 (~31 miles)
      • Recommended by ylk1
  • CA-89 in the Eastern Sierra - https://goo.gl/maps/LsmpDkpF6av (~17 miles)
    • Recommended by ylk1
  • Pine Creek Rd - https://goo.gl/maps/aEAAZR6VzMP2 (~7 miles)
    • Recommended by ylk1, and shown in Motortrend's Ferrari GTC4 Lusso video - YouTube
  • Zurich to Deep Springs on CA-168 - https://goo.gl/maps/fdwieXPsdZM2 (~25 miles)
    • Recommended by ylk1
• South
  • Ventucopa to Ojai on CA-33 - https://goo.gl/maps/aAJisLRkW1K2 (~46 miles)
    • Recommended by ylk1, noting that it's "Probably the single best road in California"
    • Also featured on Jalopnik's "This Is America’s Greatest Secret Road" - YouTube
  • Horseshoe meadow Rd - https://goo.gl/maps/aXFcwoxMKF32 (~8 miles)
    • Recommended by ylk1, and mentioned in Everyday Driver's midship shootout - YouTube
  • 9 Mile canyon Rd - https://goo.gl/maps/UrecnyPzKNJ2 (~9 miles)
    • Recommended by ylk1

Karl.

wjk_glynn

First ylk1, thanks for all the recommendations (and esp. for providing the links).

As regards...

I looked, but didn't see/hear a reference at that point. Is it an explicit mention of that road, or do you happen to know it's at the 9 min mark?

Thanks.

Karl.

ylk1

I just meant to say that's the point in video where you can find them driving on that particular road.

wjk_glynn

Understood, thanks.

mrjonger

We got stuck, about 10 minutes. On the way back, we had the top down and a wasp came close several times to stinging my 4 year old in the face just when the light turned green. We had no choice but to move forward and my wife was turned around awkwardly swatting at the wasp to keep it away from our daughter until I could pull over. We were able to pull over, and after having explained the importance of bees to the life cycle over the weekend, I squashed this emphatically one instead of shooing it away. Oh well, do as I say and not as I do eh?

On to relevance. I would avoid Marshall Petaluma Rd between Marshall and Hicks Valley Rd. It's really rough.

I really enjoyed the stretch on Hwy 1 from Tomales to Stinson Beach. I'd do it early in the AM to avoid traffic. I was bummed I didn't get to go to Hog Island Oyster in Marshall (raining and it's only outdoor seating), but highly recommend people stop if they can.

For those making their way to Point Reyes Lighthouse, I was meh on that drive (bumpy). But there's a decent photo opp at Cypress Tree Tunnel...I'd get there early, a ton of Instragrammers trying to get their shot (not that I was any different lol).