Highway 58, Paso Robles to McKittrick

UC San Diego held its graduation ceremony a couple of weeks ago, so it was time to travel to Southern California to see our eldest son get his diploma. He is still on the parental payroll for the summer, but there is hope this will come to an end. The trip was an opportunity to revisit what is probably my all-time favorite Porsche Road in California. Highway 58 offers a combination of smooth curves, long straights, dramatic mountain passes and infrequent traffic that make driving a pleasure, pretty much irrespective of the price of gas.  

If you are on your way south from the Bay Area, take 101 instead of Highway 5, and exit in Paso Robles. As usual when exploring Porsche Roads, have lunch and gas up in town before heading out to the good bits. Take Niblick Road east over 101 and the Salinas River, and then at the top of the hill, make a right onto Creston Road. As soon as you leave Paso behind, the housing developments are replaced by wineries and farms. In Creston, the Windfall Farms and their extensive horse installations seem right out of Kentucky .  

At the intersection with Highway 41, go straight on to La Panza Road. This road is wide and fast. Watch out for farm vehicles and bicyclists. After 10 miles, La Panza meets Calf Canyon, and you are now on Highway 58.  

(For those readers with some knowledge of the German language, "La Panza" is not a female armored vehicle, but rather the small mountain range east of Santa Margarita. The Salinas River starts there and flows northward all the way to Moss Landing, where it ends up in the Pacific Ocean .)

Highway 58 first goes over the La Panza range, with its typical coastal landscape of oak trees, tall grasses and yellow rocks. The pavement is in great shape, the visibility is good and the sweepers are smooth. This section is a real treat, but it is only the beginning of a great road. About 50 miles from Paso Robles, the road enters the Carrizo Plain, originally the El Chicote Spanish land grant, the largest single native grassland remaining in the State. In the old days, its remoteness made it a perfect hiding area for bandits, and to this day there are no gas stations, no store, no restrooms, no lodging -- nothing, except for a few cattle ranches and a public school. As the highway enters the plain, the straight-aways run flat across the grasses, until you get to two sharp turn signs with 15 mile per hour limits. If your normal expectation is that you can corner at twice the posted number, you are in for a major surprise. These are 90 degree corners, off camber and full of gravel.  

Past the "town" of Simmler -- population too small to count – is the roller coaster section of the trip. Rather than grade the road bed, Caltrans just went over the natural undulations. One particular Boxster has been known to fly in this area, but before you are tempted to see if you can get air, keep in mind that the dips are really deep and can hide very large vehicles. When I took the picture nearby, there was a Suburban between the hills. Can you see it?

After the roller coaster, on the western side of the plain, you arrive at the San Andreas Fault, this section of which is much studied by scientists. Highway 58 goes over the aptly named Tremblor Range and rises up to 3750 feet before descending into the Central Valley . The driving is pure mountain fun. Once again, the pavement is in superb shape, and the curves are nice and smooth. A few are very sharp, as the road follows the natural contour of the terrain. If the weather is clear, you can pull over and enjoy a great view of the Central Valley and maybe see the Santa Barbara Mountains , the Tehachapis and the Sierras in the distance.  

After going around the McKittrick Summit, you head downhill all the way to Highway 33. There are a couple of stretches with outstanding visibility where, unbeknownst to you, your car might be tempted to stretch its legs.  

 If you are on your way to Los Angeles , you will want to turn right on Highway 33. Time permitting, the West Kern Oil Museum, in Taft, tells the story of this oil rich area which was once covered with 7000 wooden derricks. Then in Maricopa, Highway 166 will take you through miles and miles of orchards back to the incomparable boredom of Highway 5.  

If LA is not on your program for this trip, stay on Highway 58 to get to Buttonwillow, famous destination for many Time-Trialers, and further east to Barstow . But that's another story.