NorCal to SoCal Canyon Detour
 

Looking for suggestions for a road trip. San Jose to LA.

Any recommendations? Best stops along the way too.

Unfortunately, Highway 1 is closed in several spots due to landslides. Thus, consider Highway 25 aka the 'Airline Highway."

That looks like a great detour! Only adds half an hour to the total trip. And I've never been on it!

Is there a good alternative to the grapevine?

Don't take the 5 from the 580 and head South....No. It is the most boring drive ever. 101 is better. Detour onto 154 through Santa Ynez and back onto the 101 is a nice drive. 101 and off to Kanan Rd and branch off to the canyon roads like Latigo Canyon to PCH in Malibu. Take PCH all the way to Santa Monica.

Back from my road trip and it was some great driving!

This is the Airline Highway in California. The green line is the rout taken going south and the red is the one going north. Did the full length from 101 to 198

Going south, I got off 101 onto 25 around 7:30 Sunday morning. Once I got out in the boonies, I only had to pass one guy the whole way. Took this picture at the end of 25 and the start of 198 west. 25 has 2 sections. Going south, the first 5-10 miles are high speed sweeper turns. Then it settles into good straights and a mix of 50-70 mph turns. Occasional turns marked between 25 and 35 that you need to pay attention and slow down for. There are 3-5 turns that should have been marked that were not. Pavement is fresh and smooth. No large humps that will set you air-born. (which was very nice) 198 west is a little faster. I slowed way down for all of the blind rises on both because they make me really nervous.

From 101 I headed south and took hwy 1 towards Malibu. Here's a nice pano pic where I pulled off to have a snack with a view. Not too much excitement here. There is one really awesome downhill on 101 where I think it was 5 lanes wide and hardly any traffic. Opened it up a little down that. :tup: There's a speed meter at the bottom that I think was broken. I think I was doing the speed limit but it read 13 when I went by. Turn at the bottom is pretty sharp so I needed to give the breaks a good stomp before it. Couple miles later I saw a guy in a pickup pulled over. Glad I wasn't there a few minutes earlier. From Malibu, I headed over to Venice Beach and hung out there for about 2 hours before going to my hotel.

Headed back Tuesday. Got to the Coalinga while it was still light. The sun was just about set when I hit the summit on 198. I ended up getting about half of 25 in the light and half in the dark. It's just as good going North as it is going South. Had to pass a group of 3 on 198 and only 1 car on 25. What a great road!

Forgot to mention...
Saturday afternoon I checked my front brakes because I knew they were getting low. They were done. Those slotted rotors and XP8 pads from Z1 I had on the shelf had to go in. Couple hours later I was bedding them. Now I didn't have to worry about brakes. :happydance:
Other thing I was really happy about was the 34row Oil Cooler from Fast Intentions kept the oil at or below 180 during the whole canyon cruz. Granted it was in the 70s outside but no oil temp worries either!