On July 4, 2006 I rode my bicycle from Bonny Doon (above Santa Cruz) to Monterey, then two days later I used public transporation to return. Two months later, I did some of it again. While in the Monterey area, I rode my bicycle on 17 Mile Drive. If you want to do it, this page tells you how. I've also added my own comments. This page was updated in July 2008.
By bike from Santa Cruz: Soquel Drive to Freedom Boulevard (Aptos), to downtown Watsonville. Main Street across the bridge to Pajaro (Monterey County). Porter Drive to Salinas Road, to Elkhorn Road, and past the slough on its eastern side. This route does not go onto Highway 1. Right, then left, on Castroville Boulevard. Take care crossing the bridge across Highway 156, to Castroville. The entrance to the Monterey Coastal Bike trail is at Haro Road, next to the 76 station, across 156 from the Burger King. That takes you all the way to Monterey (details below).
Links:
Santa Cruz County Metro and Monterey-Salinas Transit are the public bus systems, with online schedules. The connecting point is Watsonville. Be sure to pay attention to day of the week, holidays, and seasons. Both systems have bicycle carriers. But since capacity is limited, be sure to have "plan B" in case you cannot carry the bike. Groups are out of the question.
The Monterey Bay Coastal Bike Trail is (mostly) off-road path between Castroville and Monterey.
By bus from Santa Cruz: Get to Watsonville (route 71, 69A, 69W, 91), using "Metro," the Santa Cruz County public buses. At Watsonville, change to MST (Monterey-Salinas Transit), the Monterey County public buses. You will need to transfer in either Salinas or Marina, depnding on route and day of the week. If you are taking a bike and want to limit your riding to the (mostly) off-road bike path, then take an MST bus to the Burger King in Castroville. If you have a Metro day pass, you may be able to get to Castroville by free transfer. If you wish to bike only the best part, start at Marina, or (if you are really selective) Sand City. Both Metro and MST take bikes, in limited number. A solo rider has better chance of boarding. With or without bike, the total cost from Santa Cruz to Monterey (as of September, 2006) is as low as $5.50, even without any kind of pass. It might be as much as $10.50 if you have to take multiple connecting routes.
My own comments: Lately, I've been staying with friends in the Bonny Doon area, in the mountains north of Santa Cruz, California. Bonny Doon is not an incorporated town, but a region of redwoods, ranches, forest preserves, and very expensive housing. Elevation varies, but most of the area is between 1600 and 2400 feet above sea level. From some locations you can see the Pacific Ocean between Santa Cruz and Davenport; from other locations you can see the San Lorenzo Valley, above Felton and Boulder Creek. But in most locations, all you can see is the trees and occasional houses. The houses vary from shacks (built many years ago) to mansions (more recent).
From Bonny Doon, it's about ten miles along Empire Grade road to the university campus, just above town. Many days, there's a morning fog at the lower elevations. But when the weather is clear, as I emerge from the forest to the campus ranchlands I can see across Monterey Bay to the Monterey Peninsula, some 40 miles away. The view is towards the south, not towards the west - a fact that often confuses tourists. I could see Monterey, but could I get to it? I'm no ironman, but I'm in good shape for my age. So on July 4, 2006, I biked from Bonny Doon through Santa Cruz, Watsonville, Castroville, and Seaside, to Monterey.
On the holiday, Santa Cruz County buses were not running, but Monterey County had limited service. My original plan called for bicycling to Watsonville, then taking the bus to Castroville. From there, I could bike to Monterey (or, if lazy, get there on the bus via Salinas). As it turned out, I biked the entire distance, some 56 miles from Bonny Doon to Monterey.
Empire Grade Road emerges from Bonny Doon at the UCSC campus.
View is south, across Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay to the distant Monterey Peninsula.
As usual, I was up and about by 5:30 in the morning. The first ten miles were primarily downhill; I do it frequently. In Santa Cruz, I stopped for morning coffee at my cusomary haunt. Then, I was on the road for real. In Santa Cruz, I took Mission Street to Water Street, then to Soquel Drive.
As I passed the point where Mission Street splits from Highway 1 at the edge of downtown Santa Cruz, I was reminded of the numerous times that lost tourists had stopped me on the street near there. It is a curious feature of Highway 1 that at the top end of Monterey Bay, its overall direction is east-west rather than north-south. Even worse, at the western edge of downtown Santa Cruz, not far from where tourists would take Highway 17 to San Jose, Highway 1 "north" runs due south, and vice-versa. The more that drivers have a sense of geographic direction, the more likely that they will go the wrong way, eventually turning downtown in search of a helpful resident.
For breakfast, I had in mind a place in Aptos that would probably be open by the time I got there. But as I passed through Soquel, I noticed that a particular restaurant was open. I'd passed the place many times, but never when it was open, since it had limited hours. The food was reportedly very good. So I stopped in, and was glad I did. Waffles with bananas, strawberries, almonds, and sweetened sour cream. Mmmm. When I did get to Aptos, the town was soon to begin its Fourth of July parade. I thought of staying to watch, but I'd seen many such parades before, and did not want to lose momentum.
From Aptos, I took Freedom Boulevard to Watsonville. Fortunately, there was a park with restroom open along the way. I arrived in Watsonville around 10:00 AM, and decided to persist. Although I generally knew my way around, I hadn't troubled to look at the road map for this area. So I followed a sign that pointed to Castroville, via Pajaro. You can see the aerial photo on Google Maps. If you choose "hybrid" then you will see the photo with main roads superimposed. This region is the heart of the Pajaro Valley, noted for its fruit and vegetable farms. It is also noted for the predominantly Mexican labor force. As I traveled through Watsonville past Pajaro, I noticed several things: (1) Not many businesses were flying an American flag on the Fourth of July; (2) The businesses that were open generally were small restaurants with autentica comida mexicana; and (3) Many of the restaurant signs were written only in Spanish. Of course, while I was pleasantly riding my bike, there were farmworkers in the fields. No holiday for them. Yet I wondered what another country (such as France) might say, if there were a section of restaurants offering authentic American food not translated into French.
There was a fair amount of traffic along the road. I knew that from Pajaro, I could take Salinas Road to Highway 1, which allowed bikes on the shoulder south of there. But Highway 1 would be very crowded, and frankly I did not wish to bike beside a mixture of farms trucks and tourists looking at the scenery. So I decided to look for an alternate route. Surely it must be possible to get to Castroville without going out to the highway, I reasoned.
A fire station was open, so I asked for directions. They told me to take the road that goes along the east and south of Elkhorn Slough, past Elkhorn, until I reached Castroville Boulevard. Then, turn right then left into Castroville. Good thing I asked: I would have guessed the road past the slough, but turned the wrong way when I reached the boulevard. For those of you who are not familiar with the area, the boulevard is a farm road at that point.
Elhorn Slough is a muddy, swampy tidal area that reaches inland from Moss Landing. It's a nature preserve popular with kayakers, when the tide is in. I had imagined that the road past the slough would be flat, just above sea level. Wrong. The road actually ran along the elevated area next to the slough, so it went up and down as it traversed its side-canyons. I doubt if the highest point was as much as 200 feet, but it went on for some 8 miles of up and down. If you drive along Highway 1 between Watsonville and Moss Landing, you can see a line of low hills a few miles eastward. That's where Elhorn Road runs; the slough is between those hills and the highway.
When I finally got to Castroville, it was noon. There was a World Cup soccer game on television, and I though that perhaps with a little luck there would be someplace open where I could grab a bite and watch the game. No luck. Few places were open, and none of them were along the lines of a sports bar. So I had a snack and water, and was shortly on my way.
The stretch past Elkhorn had been tiring. If I had been more tired, or if the weather had been less perfect, I could have boarded the bus at Castroville. But I was not in a hurry, and had plenty of time and energy to finish by bike - slowly. The second time I did this, two months later, I took the bus to Castroville.
At Castroville, I picked up the Monterey Coastal Bike Trail. More about this on page 2. The link is at the bottom of this page.
On July 5, I rode the bus to Big Sur. During summer season every day, MST runs a bus from Monterey to Nepenthe, in Big Sur (weekends only during off-season). I left the bike in Monterey, had lunch at Nepenthe (just south of the town of Big Sur), and walked around. I do not recommend bicycling along Highway 1 through Big Sur (unless you are an idiot; being an idiot, I did it in 2007, as described here). There is no shoulder, there are numerous hills (and wind), and plenty of traffic looking at the scenery rather than at you. Some areas might be more favorable to bikes, and perhaps some seasons are more favorable, but I wouldn't know. If you wish to bike around, it is better to do it on the Monterey Peninsula.