Cruz-ing Destinations

Click on images to enlarge

The one thing I love the most about living in the Bay Area are the Santa Cruz Mountains. Not only does it provide some great shady roads to ride on, it also leads out to the coast away from all of this summer heat. This next segment of roads I’m about to describe isn’t all about the road itself, but more or less about the destination. However, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a section of twisty roads that I want to point out as the highlight of the trip for all motorcyclist out there. I believe this stretch of road really defines what it means when someone says taking the back roads to get somewhere.

I am going to start the ride route at the bottom of Mt. Madonna’s Hecker Pass. (Intersection of Hecker Pass Rd & Carlton Rd, Watsonville, CA - Please refer to the article “One Sweet Ride” for a more detailed explanation of the ride up to this point.) From here, there are a lot of inside roads that need to be taken through Watsonville itself, so make sure to heed speed limits in this area. Continue heading straight down Hecker Pass until you reach Holohan Road and then you will turn left. Continue onto Airport Blvd, and from there head Northwest onto Freedom Blvd. After about 4.5 miles down Freedom Blvd, you will turn right onto Day Valley Road. Be careful here because not only is this turn really easy to miss, there is usually a good amount of debris going into the turn, so please be sure to take it easy. (One way I remember this turn is just by looking at the landmarks around me - there is a bus stop on the right right before you have to make the turn) Starting from Day Valley Road, you will find yourself in an intricate maze of inside roads that just go from one turn to the next.

The first time I went through this section of roads I was just following the rider in front of me. I honestly had no idea where I was going and if I was left there by myself I would be lost for hours. The roads link up and branch off in so many directions giving any rider so many different routes to explore. The typical route that I take goes along Day Valley Road, which eventually turns (literally) into Valencia Road. Continue south on Valencia road for another mile and it will merge into Trout Gultch Road. From here, continue untl you reach the busy main street of Soquel Drive (land mark of mention will be train track that you will have to cross). Turn right onto Soquel Drive.

From this point you can probably continue up Soquel and make a turn up Old San Jose Road/ Soquel San Jose Road - which will bypass Santa Cruz and take you back up north. However, I wanted to provide a nice detour which through Santa Cruz for those who are looking for more than just a morning ride, but instead looking for an out-of-town day trip. From Soquel Road, make your way to Highway 1 by making a left onto State Park Drive. Heading north on Highway 1 from here will take you to Santa Cruz after about 6 miles. Follow Hwy 1 onto Hwy 17 south until it merges onto Ocean Ave. Heading south from here, you will see Santa Cruz Diner on your right hand side. Since I was on a role in providing ride routes to good eats, I figured this one was close enough and definitely worthy of mentioning.

The resturant was featured on Food Network in an episode of Dinners Drive-in & Dives with Guy Fieri. I’m a huge food lover, so of course I had to make a detour here if I was passing through Santa Cruz. This is a pretty unique dinner where you see your typical American diner favorites as well as some classic Vietnamese dishes?! I didn’t personally try their Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup dish) but I did have my share of Spring rolls and a clam chowder bread bowl, which was delicious! Another reason I might find myself coming here again is because their menu had so many items that sounded so good on there, it was so hard for me to decide what I wanted to eat.

After having a meal there, I highly recommend continuing to ride south from here. You can continue on Ocean, until it dead ends and you can make your way around to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. However, if you want to continue the trek of taking the path less traveled, make a right onto Water Street after leaving the restaurant. Continue onto Mission Street, and turn left onto Swift Street. Take the 2nd right onto Deleware Ave, and first left onto Swanton Blvd to Natural Bridges State Beach. You will have to pay to park/enter inside the park, but if you also have the choice of pulling into the look out parking lot for your viewing pleasure.

It’s true that you can probably visit the restaurant and the beach in a car on any other hot summer day, but you can also look at it this way - you can take your bike out on an awesome ride, and just so happen to reap the benefits of where the roads have taken you. ;)

Please keep in mind this route can also be enjoyed in a counter clockwise fashion; however, when taking it in the opposite way that I have described above, it is not very group friendly. The riding group that I usually ride with have attempted to run many trial rides with the exact route in reverse and it always seems to become a little more complicated than anticipated, so we just stick to the clockwise direction for the route.

Cruz-ing Destinations

Leave Comments

Own the Road ... Share the Journey™