HWY 1 California

I cried for the first 5 miles and kept coming back

By Kimberly Maroon

First Looks are Forever*

I could not believe it until I saw it, literally.

Everyone I knew that had driven on the West Coast talked about the Pacific Coast Highway, Route 1. My first weekend in California and I decided to do the drive from Santa Cruz to Half Moon Bay. I was confused at first, just a narrow 2-way road between the mountains and some trees, where’s the ocean? And then the tree line stopped, the road opened up, and all I saw was bright blue sky touching the water. All the car windows down and still no one heard me flipping out. I cried for the first 5 miles. How could you not? This was the most unbelievably unreal road I had ever seen in my life.

It was fresh air filled with hints of salt and freshly tilled soil, rolling hills on one side, open stretches of land on the other spanning to jagged cliffs that touched the Pacific Ocean. It was wild and untouched.