67 destinations along the West Coast

3. Old Point Loma Lighthouse

The Old Point Loma Lighthouse at Cabrillo National Monument has been guiding mariners into San Diego‘s harbor since 1855.

Distance: 126 miles

More info:

• Cabrillo National Monument website
• California coast trip, Day 2: Juan Cabrillo, our state’s 1st European tourist   (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

4. La Jolla

La Jolla, an upscale corner of San Diego, includes high-end shops, sandstone formations and this sheltered cove, known as the Children’s Pool but also popular with seals.

Distance: 113 miles

More info:

• La Jolla webesite  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

5. Del Mar

Del Mar holds plenty of private wealth, but it also has Del Mar Fairgrounds, home to the San Diego County Fair in June and July, along with horse racing from July through September.

Distance: 103 miles

More info:

• Del Mar Fairgrounds website
• Del Mar visitor’s information  (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

6. Carlsbad

The plastic beasts and buildings of Legoland have helped make Carlsbad, in northern coastal San Diego County, a popular family destination.

Distance: 91 miles

More info:

• Legoland’s own small world
  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

7. Oceanside

Oceanside has long been known as neighbor to the Marines of Camp Pendleton, but its waves draw surfers, and its pier draws sightseers and fishing folk.

Distance: 86 miles

More info:

• Oceanside Chamber of Commerce  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

8. Laguna Beach

For decades, Laguna has been an artsy pocket of Orange County, hosting a battery of festivals and exhibits every summer.

Distance: 54 miles

More info:

• Laguna Beach vistors bureau
• Photos of Laguna Beach
• Laguna Beach’s Surf & Sand Resort a toss & turn for the worse  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

10. Newport Beach

Newport Beach is known for its fancy houses and high prices, but it also includes the Newport Dunes RV Resort and Marine, where you can sometimes rent cabins for less than $100 nightly.

Distance: 45 miles

More info:

• Newport Beach for kind of cheap family lodging
• Newport Dunes RV Resort and Marine  (Marc Martin / Los Angeles Times)

11. Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific

The Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific, which opened in 1998, is the largest aquarium in Southern California, with hundreds of kinds of sea life, including these jellyfish.

Distance: 26 miles

More info:

• Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach celebrates its 10th year
• Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific website  (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

12. Hermosa Beach

Hermosa Beach is known for its pier, its surfing, the high-quality volleyball games on its sands, and the many runners and cyclists who pass daily on its boardwalk.

Distance: 24 miles

More info:

• Hermosa Beach visitor’s information  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

13. Manhattan Beach

Manhattan Beach, just north of Hermosa Beach, has its own pier and lies along the same boardwalk biking, running and walking route.

Distance: 21 miles

More info:

• Manhattan Beach visitors information  (Perry C. Riddle / Los Angeles Times)

14. Malibu Pier

In a beach community known for its private homes, the Malibu Pier stands out as a public place with an ocean view and two or three restaurants (depending on how you count).

Distance: 30 miles

More info:

• California State Parks website
• California coast trip, Day 3: South Bay bike-riding, Malibu boat-watching, Oxnard hot-tubbing  (Irene Virbila / Los Angeles Times)

17. Carpinteria

Carpinteria, home to about 14,000 residents and a popular state campground, sits at the south end of Santa Barbara County and likes to call itself “the world’s safest beach.”

Distance: 84 miles

More info:

• Carpinteria Chamber of Commmerce
• Camping in Carpinteria, enjoyment comes in waves   (Richard Derk / Los Angeles Times / )

18. Santa Barbara

Besides its many beaches, the red-tile roofs on its downtown, the nightlife on State Street and the well-heeled estates on its hillsides, Santa Barbara can also boast a historic train station, whose Mission Revival design dates to 1905.

Distance: 97 miles

More info:

• Santa Barbara Conference & Visitors Bureau
• Mixing it up in the Central Coast wine country
• Wine events in Santa Barbara wine country   (Robin Rauz / Los Angeles Times)

19. El Capitan State Beach

El Capitan State Beach, north of Santa Barbara, features about 140 campsites and a three-mile hiking or biking trail to Refugio State Beach to the north.

Distance: 115 miles

More info:

• California State Parks website
• Coastal eco-resort at El Capitan Canyon  (Kari Howard / Los Angeles Times )

20. Avila Beach

Avila Beach, about midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, is a small town in San Luis Obispo County with a pier and a Friday fish and farmers market.

Distance: 196 miles

More info:

• Avila Beach vistior’s information  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

21. Morro Bay

You can see 576-foot-high Morro Rock from just about anywhere among the many shops and restaurants of Morro Bay.

Distance: 214 miles

More info:

• California coast trip, Day 5: unexpected rewards in Morro Bay, cranky elephant seals farther north
• California coast trip, Day 5: unexpected rewards in Morro Bay, cranky elephant seals farther north  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

22. San Simeon

San Simeon is best known as the home of Hearst Castle, but just south is the city of Cambria (with many scenic lodgings on Moonstone Beach Drive) and just seven miles north is an elephant seal rookery.

More info:

• San Simeon Chamber of Commerce
• Hearst Castle website
• Behind the scenes at Hearst Castle  (Stephen Osman / Los Angeles Times)

23. Ragged Point

Ragged Point, in Monterey County about 15 miles north of Hearst Castle, is a southern neighbor of Big Sur, and home to the food, lodgings, great flower-framed views and often-expensive gas at the Ragged Point Inn.

Distance: 257 miles

More info:

• Ragged Point Inn website
• Seaside California hotels offering bargain rates  (Rosemary McClure / For the Times)

24. Big Sur

Big Sur’s many scenic highlights include the Bixby Bridge and the overlook just north of there, where this man is standing.

Distance: 307 miles

More info:

• Big Sur vistor’s information
• In Big Sur, Treebones Resort offers simple beauty  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

25. Rocky Point

North of most Big Sur landmarks and 10 miles south of Carmel, Rocky Point includes staggering views, gusting winds and, near the water’s edge, the Rocky Point Restaurant.

Distance: 326 miles

More info:

• Rocky Point visitor’s information  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

26. Carmel

Besides its high-toned shops and cozy little lots, Carmel is home to one of California‘s most handsome missions, where the keepers offer a representation of Father Junípero Serra’s 18th century bedroom (pictured).

Distance: 325 miles

More info:

• Carmel visitor’s information
• A view of Weston country in Carmel, California
• Indulge in quiet luxury at Big Sur’s Post Ranch Inn  (Robert Durell / Los Angeles Times)

28. Santa Cruz

Pacific Avenue, the main commercial drag of Santa Cruz, leads directly the beach and municipal wharf. The UC Santa Cruz campus is north of downtown.

Distance: 345 miles

More info:

• One Wild Ride: Exploring Santa Cruz’s wine country
• In the Santa Cruz Mountains, less-traveled wineries await  (Anne Dowie / For the Times)

29. Half Moon Bay

Half Moon Bay, known for big waves and big pumpkins every fall, is a popular weekend destination for Bay Area residents.

Distance: 389 miles

More info:

• California coast trip, Day 6: From Nepenthe to Half Moon Bay, with stops to chat along the way
• Half Moon Bay: sun, surf and serenity  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

30. Golden Gate Bridge

It may seem as though it’s been there forever, but

San Francisco‘s Golden Gate Bridge wasn’t completed until 1937.

Distance: 391 miles

More info:

• The view from San Francisco Bay’s Cavallo Point? It’s golden
• Golden Gate Bridge website
• San Francisco tourism website   (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

31. Marin County

High bluffs, rugged shores and small towns continue as you advance through Marin County.

Distance: 417 miles

More info:

• Marin County’s Bolinas Lagoon is for the birds
• Marine Mammal Center unveils new Bay Area facility  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

32. Sonoma County

Much of Sonoma County is still open, rugged countryside, with rocky coasts and dairy farms on rolling green hills like this one near Valley Ford.

Distance: 452 miles

More info:

• Sonoma tourism website
• California coast trip, Day 7: North to Sonoma, with old enemy fog  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

33. Timber Cove Inn

On the Sonoma coast, 15 miles north of Jenner, the wood-and-glass Timber Cove Inn rises above the wave-splashed rocks, and next door rises a 93-foot tower designed in the 1960s by sculptor Beniamino Bufano.

Distance: 465 miles

More info:

• Timber Cove Inn website  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

34. Sea Ranch

Sea Ranch was born in the 1960s as a sequestered community of spread-out, site-sensitive home architecture. You can rent houses, and there’s a lodge with a restaurant.

Distance: 483 miles

More info:

• 15 places to visit to see the real California
• Sea Ranch website  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

35. Point Arena Lighthouse

The Point Arena Lighthouse stands in Mendocino County, north of Gualala, south of Elk.

Distance: 503 miles

More info:

• Point Arena Lighthouse website   (Brant Ward / AP)

36. Mendocino

Mendocino is a little grid of Victorian shops and inns on a bluff over the sea.

Distance: 527 miles

More info:

• Mendocino Country tourism website  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

37. Westport and the Howard Creek Ranch Inn

North of Fort Bragg and just south of the roadless “lost coast” of California lie Westport and the Howard Creek Ranch Inn, a rustic 60-acre retreat that includes an 1871 farmhouse and about a dozen rooms and cabins, many built by owner Sunny Grigg.

Distance: 562 miles

More info:

• California coast trip, Day 8: Jabber and jumble in an old Westport barn
• Howard Creek Ranch Inn website  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

38. Leggett

Near the intersection of U.S. 101 and California‘s Highway 1, drivers can pass (for a fee) through this vintage marvel in Leggett: the Chandelier Drive-Through Tree, carved in the 1930s and positioned conveniently close to the 31-mile, redwood-rich Avenue of the Giants paralleling U.S. 101.

Distance: 555 miles

More info:

• California coast trip, Day 9: a Great American drive-through-tree story
• Drive Thru Tree Park website
• Avenue of the Giants website   (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

39. Arcata

Arcata’s downtown plaza is dominated by collegiate commerce (Humboldt State is handy), a statue of President William McKinley, a few tall palms and a clutch of lively bars on 9th Street.

Distance: 653 miles

More info:

• Arcata Downtown Business Community website
• Arcata Chamber of Commerce  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

40. Eureka

The Samoa Cookhouse, born in the 1890s to feed lumberjacks around the clock, lives on at the edge of Eureka as a round-the-clock budget eatery and shrine to the glory days of thetimber trade in Humboldt County.

Distance: 644 miles

More info:

• Be it ever so Humboldt, there’s no place like it
• Samoa Cookhouse website
• Humboldt County website  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

41. Klamath

If you take U.S. 101 through Klamath, Calif., you can’t miss the Trees of Mystery, a vintage roadside attraction that includes a 49-foot-tall Paul Bunyan and his beloved blue ox, Babe.

Distance: 708 miles

More info:

• Trees of Mystery website  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

42. California- Oregon border

In the uncrowded territory just north of Smith River, Calif. (and south of Brookings, Ore.), travelers on U.S. 101 find the California-Oregon border, where, if you’re northbound, sales taxes end and mandatory full-service gas stations begin.

Distance: 745 miles

More info:

• Oregon tourism website
• Oregon to Washington road trip completes a West Coast journey
California coast trip, Day 10: End of a journey, a look back at discoveries en route  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

43. Harris Beach State Park

Harris Beach State Park, just north of Brookings, Ore., is full of seastacks and tide pools, with cabins, yurts and campsites.

Distance: 756 miles

More info:

• Harris Beach State Park website  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

44. Gold Beach

The roadside scenery in Gold Beach, Ore., includes the cool mural work on Tsunami Willie’s.

Distance: 783 miles

More info:

• Gold Beach website  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

45. Port Orford

In Port Orford, Ore., concrete dinosaurs fill the dense greenery of Prehistoric Gardens.

Distance: 811 miles

More info:

• Port Orford website  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

46. Cape Blanco

Cape Blanco, a state park north of Port Orford, Ore., includes the state’s southernmost lighthouse and wide views of the coast, north and south.

Distance: 820 miles

More info:

• Cape Blanco State Park website  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

47. Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area

Parts of Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area are set aside for off-highway adventures (rentals available), and other parts are limited to hikers.

Distance: 866 miles

More info:

• Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area website
• Sandboarding Oregon: You, a plank, a heap of dunes  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

50. Yaquina Bay Bridge

Just south of Newport, Ore., the coast highway crosses the 1936 Yaquina Bay Bridge.

Distance: 951 miles

More info:

• Newport tourism website  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

51. Otis

The Oregon hamlet of Otis lies right on the route from Portland to the beach at Lincoln City, and the Otis Cafe (on Oregon Highway 18) is known for its baked-goods. No website, though.

Distance: 969 miles

More info:

• Oregon and Washington coast: where to eat  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

52. Netarts

Quirky little Netarts, Ore., lies along the Three Capes Scenic Loop between Pacific City and Tillamook, along with Capes Mears, Lookout and Kiwanda and the town of Oceanside.

Distance: 995 miles

More info:

• Three Capes Scenic Drive  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

53. Tillamook

In Tillamook, the creamery tour is free, self-guided and draws about a million tourists every year.

Distance: 992 miles

More info:

• Tillamook visitor’s information
• Tillamook Cheese website
• The OrWa road trip diaries, Day 4: I see cheese, cross into Washington and flop in a silver bullet  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

55. Ilwaco

Ilwaco sits near the south end of Washington‘s Long Beach Peninsula, and the China Beach Retreat sits at water’s edge with a view of Cape Disappointment.

Distance: 1,065 miles

More info:

• Ilwaco tourism website
• China Beach Retreat website
  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

56. Seaview

The Depot restaurant, which sits in Seaview on the Long Beach Peninsula, offers fancy dinners (wild boar Florentine, Peruvian mango sea scallops) in a century-old train station.

Distance: 1,068 miles

More info:

• The Depot restaurant website
• Oregon and Washington coast: where to eat  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

58. Olympic National Park

Olympic National Park is mostly dense, damp inland greenery, including the Hoh rainforest, but it also reaches west to include this trail near Beach 4, about two miles north of Kalaloch.

Distance: 1,193 miles

More info:

• Olympic National Park website
• Washington: Olympic National Park’s gold   (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

59. Ruby Beach

Ruby Beach, 27 miles south of Forks, is where U.S. 101 veers inland and Washington‘s coast becomes largely wild again. It’s also the scene of some epic rock formations, driftwood and stone-stacking by visitors.

Distance: 1,185 miles

More info:

• Ruby Beach tourism website  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

60. Forks

Author Stephenie Meyer set her 2005 vampire novel, “Twilight,” in the damp little town of Forks, and ever since then, tourists and sequels have been turning up.

Distance: 1,212 miles

More info:

• Stephenie Meyer website  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

61. La Push

La Push, Wash., is a Native American beach town on the Quileute Reservation, and every summer the community throws a Quileute Days celebration with food, music and craft stands.

Distance: 1,227 miles

More info:

• Quileute Reservation website  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

62. Cape Flattery

Cape Flattery, at the tip of the Olympic Peninsula on the Makah Reservation, is the northwesternmost point in the continental U.S. On a clear day, the short trail to land’s end is spectacular.

Distance: 1,238 miles

More info:

• Cape Flattery tourism information  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

63. Pike Place Market

Pike Place Market, which dates to 1907, is the tourist-friendly waterfront hub of downtown life in Seattle. It remains open through major renovations that authorities say will continue to 2012 or 2013.

Distance: 1,136 miles

More info:

• Seattle tourism website
• Pike Place Market website
• An interactive guide to Seattle’s Pike Place Market  (Kevin P. Casey / For the Times)

64. Port Townsend

A ferry carries people and vehicles between the artsy town of Port Townsend (which is full of Victorian buildings) and Whidbey Island (which is a scenic spot on the way to Everett or other points north in Washington state).

Distance: 1,170 miles

More info:

• Port Townsend tourism website
• The OrWa road trip diaries, Day 6: Stacked stones, bared fangs and the end of the new world  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

65. Deception Pass

A soaring bridge, a state park and deep green water make Deception Pass, between Whidbey and Anacortes islands, Wash., a popular stop for drivers and kayakers alike.

Distance: 1,216 miles

More info:

• Whidbey Island tourism website  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

67. Blaine

Blaine is the last city in Washington before the Canadian border, and local leaders have laid out an immaculate grassy park to mark the meeting of the countries.

Distance: 1,244 miles

More info:

• Peace Arch International Park website
• The OrWa diaries, Day 7: Finish line  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)