Ultimate California Coastal Road Trip | The Lost Coast

Auto-captioned from the film, lightly cleaned. Elena's words, not edited prose.

hi hello i'm in the beautiful state of california and while i've done quite a few road trips here i've never gone past san francisco there's so many like pinterest articles and different videos about like the ultimate california road trip being like san diego and los angeles and big sur and joshua tree which are all incredible areas but also those are all places i've been to many times and i wanted to mix it up and kind of do like a road trip focusing on natural beauty but that's not what you find on like your average like buzzfeed article since i can't travel the world which is what i was supposed to be doing this entire year i figured i'd get to know my home state a little better i decided to create the ultimate you could say northern california coastal road trip to make it to the lost coast focusing on natural beauty along the way so i rented this car from vancraft in san diego grabbed fletcher and came up with a loose plan of what we wanted to do so here's what we're thinking so we're starting at san diego where i'm picking up our rental van we'll make our way through la hug the coast cruise through big sur which you'll definitely read about in all the tour guide blog posts we're gonna head through san francisco and now is where it gets fun there's sonoma county mendocino county and if you look closely there's a secret stretch of land where the road juts out and it looks like there's no way to get there but plot twist there was one windy road that will take you there and this is the lost coast it's a fairly untouched and undeveloped stretch of coast that is just beautiful expansive forest and ocean as far as the eye can see and of course i've got to give you a little van tour before we hit the road welcome to my new temporary home for the next week or so i'm gonna give you a tour let's go we have all the amenities we could need i got the sink right here here we have a working stovetop we got an oven we got all the gear great storage up here for any dry food products and what do you know there is even a refrigerator a lovely little sitting area here which can also be converted into a longer bed because i am six feet and a tall human and i need more space in here you got a mirror oh yourself extra storage for clothing there are unit plugs back here you need to charge your phone at night there's this vent here which is great for cooking slash cooling off the van and there's a light with a dimmer in case you don't want it too bright lots of great storage back here surfboard racks even fit a lot back here and then here there's even a shower let me just help you out with what's cool i'm just going to take over guys one second lena left out the most important detail that solar panel is powering the whole car irrespective of whether the car is on or not and that is epic in the realm of vans currently driving through santa barbara right now it's a little bit gloomy so probably won't stop kind of just charge through like la malibu area because we would love to get to big sur with good amount of lighting still so there are many beautiful options along this part of the coast that i highly recommend looking into just kind of depends on what you're prioritizing for us i think one of the most important elements of a proper california road is just eating copious amounts of mexicans so many people on the road camping this is the year of the camper just caught across from like slow making our way over to cambrian san diego which is kind of like the starting point of mixer listening to some npr what is it this american life uh this is one of my favorite parts of the state this cuts over from maybe 50 miles inland back towards cambria it's just this incredible valley filled with oak trees so we've been hugging the coast along the one finally reached big sur it's safe to say big sur is truly one of a kind it's a 90 mile rugged and mountainous section of central coast that can be found between san francisco and los angeles it's essentially a national treasure and i'd argue that it is one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world i am biased of course but i mean i love it it's incredible well i've done quite a few road trips in this area it honestly never fails to take my breath away with its raw beauty we got the trusty van and big sur is like firing right now why do you say so myself um pretty epic hello we are trying to resist stopping at every vista point because it's absolutely insane it's so beautiful i actually made a picture video like two and a half years ago now surreal to me or two and a half years later because life was so crazy that honestly it might have been three and a half years i don't know but i remember that was the first time i ever talked about moving to new york and now i live in new york technically i've been away because of the pandemic but so crazy to think about past me little or me and now to be here with some time in new york under my belt and just so much of life has changed cheesy but it's a beautiful thing to revisit places that bring you back to just like a different stage of life and remind you of you know how far you've come and kind of forced you to be grateful and appreciative for where you're at this is definitely doing that i mean look at this like how can you not be incredibly grateful we decided to drive through it was starting to get dark but if you have the time you could honestly spend days exploring the many state parks and beautiful hikes here maybe i'm just like you good morning good morning oh let's return the camera but honestly slept much better than i anticipated this was a very comfortable bed and now i'm waking up to the beautiful slightly gloomy views of santa cruz i feel like it's kind of like the very beachy surfery town of the north let's check it out so we're in san francisco right now uh we drove through pescadero and then we actually stopped to check out mavericks real quick in half moon bay and now we're in the wonderful one and only san francisco the first two days are kind of just like long haul days to get up past sf um into that really like pretty northern coastal part of california so we're just still pushing through to get there and spend a couple days there but honestly being in a van makes it feel significantly shorter i guess makes the time go quicker i took a little cat nap earlier um you can kind of like move around and like you have food i don't know it just feels different it's nice to have that space to kind of stretch out if you haven't been to california you may not know that there's quite a big difference between the north and the south the weather and the wildlife to the culture style and lingo you can expect the two different regions to feel quite dissimilar and you might even come across a bit of competition on who is superior says you're feeling all right hello how's it going from sonoma coleman overlook let me just show you do you remember what you told me when we were standing in the bathroom midnight baby we were so messed up oh we're in sonoma county but farther up in sonoma county along the coast it's a big county so you have parts of it that you might know from wine country but the coast is completely live and it starts out kind of looking more like southern california and then as you get more north it's really deep beautiful woods and then by the time you're in mendocino it's thick redwoods we wanted to keep our plan open and stress-free so we decided to go without camping reservations for the majority of the trip somewhere along the mendocino coast we noticed a clearing on a sea bluff with dozens of campers and we pulled in for the night oh my god this is crazy so in all honesty uh we really don't have set spots for every day we're kind of figuring out as we go and using the apps and we literally like stumbled across frames good morning way between jenner and point arena just woke up and it's beautiful outside i know i'm upset oh my god oh my god oh my oh my god oh oh my god excuse me mendocino is about the tiny town in a sizable county of the same name known for its wine rugged coastline and temperate wet forests this may sound crazy to some but fletch and i both agreed that some of the sections of the pch here rivaled and perhaps even beat out big sur for its sheer beauty hello from a new day shower this morning absolute game changer if you can get a camper van with a shower you will just feel like a million bucks i could live in this thing for months so we just have pulled up into the little town of manchester they're just kind of cruising through slowly here it is so so cute gonna get a little coffee and then head further north i actually filmed a whole separate day in my life video from exploring mendocino and driving towards the lost coast on my channel if you want to check it out the only way to get to the lost coast is by plane boat or a single out and back very windy and tedious road that takes you the only town along its length shelter cove we made it we made it after a very long drive through the forest lots rhodes my stomach kind of hurts we are at shelter cove coast california what is up let's check it out make fun of me there's three at your table this is the furthest north we will be going on this trip it's absolutely insane it's just like endless forests and cliffs meeting the ocean side as far as the eye can see it's it's unreal it's a real is so good morning so beyond exciting to be somewhere that's like semi uncharted to me as in like i've never been here before well i feel like i was transported to a new country here it feels very very special to be here right now okay i'm gonna make the bed i need some coffee i can't clearly conversate very well right now look at that coastline look at that i can't believe i'm here it's absolutely stunning and there's not a soul to be seen the only footsteps on the whole beach high seas collide with the volcanic rock and iron of the cliffs leaving largely untouched black sand beaches to be explored for miles and miles fletch and i walked for hours along the sea without seeing a single person which is truly a rarity in america's most populated state change my shirt let's get a little sweaty in the last one if we're being honest here but this is insane there's not a soul to be seen i don't think i've ever experienced anything like this before to be here is a reminder of the true vastness and diversity of california a place with everything from some of the world's largest cities to high mountains and low deserts sunny beaches and dense redwood forests what california might mean to one person could be a universe away from the experience of another for me i love it all and i'm so proud to call it home