Calif / Oregon Highway 1 in January?

[ariaaudio]

I'm planning a two-week cruise up California's central and northern coastal routes, maybe as far north as Oregon, this coming January (in my 84 Westfalia camper, to address another thread), and would love to hear suggestions of beautiful places to photograph.

-- mike elliott

[dobson]

I don't know much about the California coast, but I am an Oregon coast native. The South-Central Oregon coast has a few unique things that shouldn't be missed. The biggest one is the Oregon Dunes area. About 40 miles of costline are bordered by massive dunes with many trailheads throughout for access. Eel Creek and the Oregon Dunes Overlook are good places to check out. Further north, Cape Perpetua along with lesser-known areas give great access to Oregon's rocky shores and tidepools as well as coastal rainforest.


Phillip

[ddolde]

It's gonna be foggy, rainy, and cold in January.  I'd save that trip for better weather.

[dobson]

It's always foggy, cold and rainy. It was when I was there in July last year; just prepare for it and remember that foul weather can do wonders for your photographs if you're willing to make it work.


Phillip

[Hank]

The stretch of California coast between Rockport and Ferndale isn't actually on Hwy 1, but well worth taking in rather than diverting back over to 101 at Leggett.  Lots of private land, but dramatic views and neat old structures.  No place to camp, but a notable day trip.  Ferndale is hot for architecture and arts.  

South of Rockport as far as Point Arena there are plenty of public beaches and campgrounds. along with great scenics.  I haven't spent any time south of Point Arena.

Weather might or might not cooperate, but the plus side of a winter visit is the lack of people.  This area has a lot going for it, including scenics you don't often see posted anywhere.

[Lisa Nikodym]

The redwood forests of the Northern California coast are stunning and like nothing else in the world, though a challenge to photograph well.  The best redwood forests are in Humboldt Redwoods State Park (south of Eureka - the Rockefeller Forest is probably the single best area to see in the redwoods parks), Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park (near Crescent City), and the "Tall Trees" area of Redwood National Park.  Also unique and interesting to see and photograph is Fern Canyon in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park (a vertical-sided canyon with scads of ferns on its walls), though without the summer footbridges up, you should be prepared to do a little ankle-wading in the stream that created the canyon.

And, as mentioned above, it's often damp and foggy in that area.  But the fog just adds to the atmosphere of redwood forests (and reduces the dynamic range for photography inside the forest, making it easier to deal with).

Lisa

[ariaaudio]

It's gonna be foggy, rainy, and cold in January.  I'd save that trip for better weather.
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It's true, but that's the window I got. Last year, the central coast was gorgeous, with blue skies and mild weather. Year before, it rained much of the time. Further north -- who knows? Deserted rocky beaches and headlands with gray scudding clouds. Trees shrouded in mist. A fellow could get lucky.

-- mike elliott

[boku]

It's gonna be foggy, rainy, and cold in January.  I'd save that trip for better weather.
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A full-out Pacific storm rolling onto the Oregon coast in January can be a magnificent experience - stimulating and spiritual. I never tried to photograph it, but I will some day.

[David White]

It's always foggy, cold and rainy. It was when I was there in July last year; just prepare for it and remember that foul weather can do wonders for your photographs if you're willing to make it work.
Phillip
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I've found, at least for the central coast up to San Francisco, that the weather is much better in the winter than the summer.  I think it was Mark Twain who said "The coldest winter I ever had was a summer spent in San Francisco."  The tourists descend on Monterey/Carmel in the summer only to be greeted with temperatures in the 50's with everything socked in by fog.  When I go in the winter, termperatures are frequently in the 70's with no fog.  Along the Northern coast of CA, it may be more problematic.  I spent one miserable November weekend camping in Russian Gulch, near Fort Bragg, and never got warm or dry the entire weekend.

[dobson]

The mild temperature is due to current shifts off of the Pacific Coast. During the summer the current runs north to south, from Alaska; during the winter however the water changes direction and flows south to north. Water temperatures are actually about 4 degrees higher in the winter (at least in OR); this fact helps temper the weather unlike the American East coast.


Phillip

[Richowens]

My idea of "good" weather.



This was just north of Bodega Bay this last April.

[dlashier]

It's gonna be foggy, rainy, and cold in January.  I'd save that trip for better weather.
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Weather on the Oregon Coast is a crapshoot any time of year. My favorite time is the spring because the wildflowers are out and everything is fresh green, but weather is just as unpredictible if not more so as winter. Summer is most predictible sun but this doesn't necessarily mean the best shooting conditions. January, you never know - it might be 60 degrees and sunny or 40 degrees and a nasty storm - but shooting storms is interesting too. One good thing, unlike Washington, it is rarely just dull grey and uninteresting here.

Aftermath of winter storm, taken on January 5 - note the guy with white T-shirt standing in front of the house right center. Those houses are 100+ feet above sea level.


- DL

[larkvi]

It has been several years since I took this route, but I would suggest that highway 1 from LA to San Francisco is nice, but until Oregon, it is rather forgettable--perhaps take in Point Reyes and skip the coast until after the Redwoods.

North of LA, take in Santa Barbara--a perennial shooting favorite. Hearst Castle is further North, then the next major point of interest in my opinion, is the area between Monterrey and San Francisco. Wind-swept cypress is the Monterrey Peninsula cliche, there is some fun to be had in the city itself and along the road to Santa Cruz, which has some charm, but not as much as Half Moon Bay, in my opinion (quickly fading due to development, sadly). The stretch between Monterrey and San Francisco is also home to the classic highway 1 fog shot, if you are so inclined and so favored.

San Francisco is of course an excellent subject, as are the Marin Headlands, Muir Woods, and Point Reyes, north of the gate. From there, go up highway 101 until you get to Humbolt. Lisa has already given good information about that. North of Eureka, and especially just after you get into Oregon, the coast really gets nice. There is one beach that I particularly remember, though I have forgotten the name: a state park in the south coast with a light house--otter point? (I know that lighthouses and beaches are hardly uncommon there, but does anyone know which one I am talking about?)

Were the dogwoods in bloom, I would reccommend the road between Crescent City and Salem, but I think in Winter you should stick to the coast and hope for just the right amount of fog.

[joedecker]

It's gonna be foggy, rainy, and cold in January.  I'd save that trip for better weather.
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I don't agree with the conclusion.  Bad weather makes good photographs,
e.g.,.

  [a href=\"http://www.rockslidephoto.com/cgi-bin/leaf.pl?id=517&gallery=3]http://www.rockslidephoto.com/cgi-bin/leaf...d=517&gallery=3[/url]

Do prepare for difficult conditions, but some of my favorite coastal
and forest images have come from difficult conditions.

A few central California quickies:   McWay Falls in Julia Pfeiffer Burns
State Park is a tenth or so of a mile walk off the parking lot right
off Highway 1, it's classic, nearly a cliche, but still well worth the stop.

Pebble Beach, not of golf course fame but along the San Mateo County
coast south of SF has some really nice tidepool structures when the
tide is sufficiently low.

Northern California:  Jed. Smith SP near Crescent City is my single
favorite redwood park.  Very difficult to work if you don't have overcast,
preferably foggy weather.

No specific recommendations on the Oregon Coast, there was so much,
and I've spent so little time, but I found more of interest in the Southern
half of the Oregon coast than the N half.

Have a great trip!

--Joe

[Jerry Kurata]

I'm planning a two-week cruise up California's central and northern coastal routes, maybe as far north as Oregon, this coming January (in my 84 Westfalia camper, to address another thread), and would love to hear suggestions of beautiful places to photograph.

-- mike elliott
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You might try the Shelter Cove area.  If you are camping there is a very nice campground on the water.

[elkhornsun]

January can often be a warm weather month. Think about the poor marching bands from the midwest in their heavy wool uniforms suffering in 85 degree weather during the Rose Parade in Pasadena.

The state parks are many and all along the coast, but during the winter months lock the gates at sundown. For bird photos the Morro Bay area and Monterey County, in particular Elkhorn Slough, has set records for most species counted in a single day (over 400) in the winter when the migrating species can double the populations.

Elephant seal populations just north of San Simeon on Hwy 1, at Ano Nuevo on Hwy 1 north of Santa Cruz, and a few coves in the Big Sur area are worth visiting and the populations are at their highest level in January with pups and mating going full tilt.

Prairie Creek Park in Northern California about 60 miles north of Eureka has two herd of elk in the redwood and meadow area along Hwy 101 and at Gold Bluff beach. Great beach with huge breakers for very dramatic beach shots and huge logs and stumps washed up on shore.

Wilder Ranch in Santa Cruz county and Natural Bridges, dunes in San Luis Obispo county, and especially Pt. Lobos in Monterey just south of Carmel on Hwy 1 is worth a visit. At Pt. Lobos you will see rocks and scenery photographed by the likes of Adams and the Westons.

For pastoral countryside the area around Ferndale in Humboldt county is the type of dairy country seldom found in California. To the east is hundreds of miles of wilderness in the Trinity and Marble Mountain areas.

Two side trips worth considering is the road from Big Sur and Hw1 to Hunter Liggett and on to Hwy 101. Well preserved old mission with bats in the belfry and open expanses of oak woodland areas with a good deal of wildlife including migrating tarantulas and wild boars or javalinas as well as bobcats and mountain lions.

[howiesmith]

Weather can change and does,  Pasdena is more likely to be upper 60s in January than 85, and lows in the mid-40s.  Warm?  You decide.  But ever stand around waiting to take a picture when it's 45?  Be prepared.  You can always take off your coat if need be.

Pasadena is inland and cooled by air from the mountains.  The coast is moderated by the ocean - never very warm or cold.  Mark Twain once said something like he had never been so cold as during a summer in San Francisco.