ROAD TRIP 1990–1992
May 1991. It was an era before GPS and smartphones, when a folded paper map was all you had to navigate by. This is a record from the afternoon of the first day of that road trip, at San Gregorio State Beach. The long-awaited drive along California Route 1 was finally about to begin, but just before it did, an extraordinary view from the parking lot stopped me in my tracks.
The free California afternoon sun burned steadily against my skin. I was standing in the parking lot of San Gregorio State Beach, where Route 84 comes to an end. Spending time there with the roar of the Pacific washing over me was pure relief, emptying the fatigue from my mind. Salt in the wind, the merciless sun overhead, and that overwhelming sweep of blue stretching to the horizon. Somewhere along the way, the anxieties I’d carried with me had quietly disappeared.
I opened the car door and lowered myself into the driver’s seat. The seat, baked by the California sun, radiated an uncomfortable heat as if it were telling me, “Quit lingering and hit the road.” But with the key in the ignition, I stopped short of turning it. The scene beyond the windshield was simply too dramatic to leave behind. I wanted one more look at the ocean—one more frame preserved on Velvia. Reaching for my faithful Canon T90 from the passenger seat, I raised it to my eye.
The Boundary Between the Journey That Had Ended and the One About to Begin
The moment I looked through the viewfinder, I caught my breath. You don’t come across photographs that compose themselves this perfectly very often.
Travel has a way of making people rush ahead. Back then, I was no exception, always eager to press harder on the accelerator. But this time was different. The landscape before me held too much gravity to simply say, “I’ve reached the ocean—time to move on.”
The few moments of silence before starting the engine felt like a deep breath, a chance to swallow the excitement of whatever lay ahead and hold it inside for just a little longer.
Saying Goodbye to the San Gregorio River
In the foreground, just beside the sand, a narrow ribbon of water slipped quietly toward the sea. It was the mouth of the San Gregorio River.
“Oh, right,” I thought to myself.
This river had been my companion all along Route 84.
It had been there through the towering forests of Woodside, beyond the crossroads at Four Corners, past the red barn veiled in the coastal mist of La Honda, and alongside the peaceful country roads of San Gregorio. Sometimes close by, sometimes hidden from sight, it had remained somewhere near, flashing silver through gaps in the greenery.
Now, before my eyes, it disappeared soundlessly into the vast blue of the Pacific.
The river had finished its journey before I had finished mine. It had descended from the mountains, crossed the hills, and reached the sea it had always been destined for.
“Thanks. It was a good trip.”
I took a sip of the warm RC Cola I’d been carrying around and silently toasted the little stream. As the river’s journey ended here, so too did my time on Route 84.
The Cypress Shaped by the Wind
Lifting my gaze slightly, I couldn’t ignore the enormous tree dominating the center of the frame. It was a Monterey cypress, an icon of the California coast.
It looked as though it had spent years absorbing uppercuts from the Pacific winds blowing in from the right, frozen forever in the aftermath. Every branch leaned inland, stretched almost to the breaking point.
The force that had sculpted it was the very wind now striking the side of my face. Year after year, decade after decade, the relentless breath of the Pacific had shaped the tree into what it had become.
I had noticed similar trees earlier among the quiet ranchlands of San Gregorio. But this exaggerated form revealed a harsher environment. It was proof that I had stepped into a tougher landscape, one where nature demanded respect. I could feel the excitement working through my body, slowly turning into adrenaline.
Route 1 Beyond the Hill
My eyes drifted to the massive rocky hill in the distance.
A concrete bridge crossed before it, and beyond that, the road climbed upward until it vanished into the sky.
There it was—the true star of this road trip.
California Route 1.
I followed the smooth approach to its first steep ascent and couldn’t help thinking of the anticipation before a roller coaster crests its first lift hill: the tightening in your chest, the thrill of not knowing exactly what waits on the other side.
What lay beyond that ridge?
What landscapes had I never imagined?
What unexpected detours?
What chance encounters?
Route 1 stood before me as if to say, “All right. Your turn.”
I caught sight of my sunburned, slightly foolish face in the rearview mirror.
Okay. Time to go.
Pressing the Accelerator Toward 1991
I glanced down at the film counter. It read 36. One final frame remained on that roll of Velvia. The dry click of the shutter marked the end of Route 84.
I tossed the T90 onto the passenger seat and turned the ignition key with conviction. The car shuddered to life, its faint vibrations running through the chassis as the smell of exhaust drifted into the ocean breeze.
The cheap digital clock on the dashboard kept time with one of the freest afternoons of early summer, 1991. The sun still hung high in the California sky. There was time yet. I would keep driving south until it finally slipped beneath the horizon.
I eased off the brake and pressed down on the accelerator. The tires chirped softly as they bit into the gravel. Cutting through the wind of 1991, the journey along Route 1 began to move once more.
▶ 1991 American West Road Trip Day1｜Road Map – Sacramento to Santa Maria
Articles from Day 1
- The Beginning of a Road Trip Across the American West (1991)
- The San Mateo–Hayward Bridge and a Quiet Silicon Valley (1991)
- Woodside: The Cowboy Who Appeared in a Supermarket Parking Lot (1991)
- Woodside: Where Silicon Valley Meets Cowboy Culture (1991)
- The Red Barn of La Honda Creek Preserve (1991)
- San Gregorio: Chasing the Memory of the Wind (1991)
- San Gregorio: The Story of the Stage Stop (1991)
- San Gregorio General Store 94074: A Living Time Capsule (1991)
- San Gregorio State Beach: Where Route 84 Ends and the Pacific Begins (1991)
- San Gregorio State Beach: Past, Present, and Future at the End of Route 84 (1991)
- South San Mateo County Coast: My First Drive on California Route 1 (1991)
- Santa Cruz: Coffee, Doughnuts, and a Full Tank of Freedom (1991)
- Santa Cruz: The Day a Payphone Changed the Journey (1991)
- Monterey and Carmel: The Places I Never Reached (1991)
- Big Sur to Santa Maria: The Final Stretch of Day One (1991)