California Touge.Best driving roads in California

Highway 1 · Coastside

The coastal highway from Pacifica toward Santa Cruz, via Half Moon Bay, Pescadero and Davenport. Town sections are slower.

High speedDifficulty 1/3 · RelaxedCoastside / Santa Cruz

Road shape

Length
66 mi
Bends
37
Switchbacks
5
Bends per mile
0.6
Turning per mile
71°
Curviest rank
84of 85

Measured from the OpenStreetMap centreline at a 20 m sampling step — road shape only, not a safety or speed judgement. How bends are counted.

Elevation

Low 14 ft47.6 mi · longest continuous section, 72% of the roadHigh 474 ft
Total climb
8,597ft
Climb per mile
130ft
Highest point
928ft
Steepest grade
6.8%

Sampled every 100 m from USGS 10 m elevation data, a public-domain federal dataset. Total climb counts vertical change in both directions, so it does not depend on which way you drive. How elevation is measured.

Speed limits

55 mph

Mapped limits

Open stretches; lower limits through towns and some coastal sections.

OpenStreetMap tags cover approximately 99% of this trace. These values have not been checked against current signs.

Speed-limit source ↗

Posted signs always govern. How speed evidence is handled.

Sources

Difficulty 1/3 (Relaxed) is our editorial rating of width, bends and sightlines; “High speed” describes character, not a target speed. Full method. Identified from:

Reviewed 2026-09-08. The trace shows selected road sections, not a navigation route.

Drives that include this road

Roads nearby

View on the Bay Area map →Check road conditions ↗Open in Google Maps ↗All 85 roads →