Help me plan my road trip! San Diego - San Francisco

[dicknards]

Ok. Looking at sometime in June, thinking I can pull off 5 days total. Would be starting in San Diego and heading north to Monterey or San Francisco. Help me plan out a nice camping/disc golf trip up the coast! I don't know much about a lot of the courses in California, but I should. I have just stuck to Morley Field in San Diego but really want to start exploring more and need a vacation bad. The goal is to camp every night and disc golf every day.

 

[bdog]

SHOTGUN!!!

 

[mashnut]

June might be early to hit Sunrise up in Wrightwood, it's on a ski hill so it might still be to snowy for them to put in the other two loops of 9. If it is open, it's definitely worth going out of your way to play.

 

[JHern]

Must-play courses...

San Diego region: Morley
Los Angeles region: La Mirada, Lake Casitas
Central Coast: Waller Pines
Monterey Bay: Ryan Ranch, DeLaveaga
San Francisco Bay: Golden Gate Park, Stafford Lake

If I were you, I'd make my schedule with these, and try to fit in any others when you have an opening in your schedule.

FYI: Wrightwood is way off the path.

 

[lion]

Day one I would play:

Huntington Beach
Long Beach
La mirada front 18
La miraada back 18

drive to Lake casitas and camp .

day two :

Lake casitas
Goleta
Santa Maria
Presiker Park

then drive a few hours and camp in Monteray.

Ryan's Ranch
CSUMB The Cypress
CSUMB The Oaks
Pinto Lake

then drive into Santa Cruz and camp.

Aptos High School DGC
Black Mouse in Felton
Delaveaga = play it slow and take it all in. wow

then the last day I would play

Hellyer Park
Parque De La Raza
Golden Gate Park
if you have time drive to Stafford Lake, its my favorite in California = worth the drive from Golden Gate

All this is possible especially in June with the most daylight of anytime in the year.

 

[dicknards]

Thank you for your suggestions so far. We have been internet researching too and will post up our thoughts shortly.

I think we want to avoid any courses we could normally do in a day trip from San Diego. We might save an orange county course for the drive home, but we can play Morley any day of the week and any of the OC courses on a weekend. Know what I'm saying?

 

[dicknards]

Any recommendations on the best camp sites in Big Sur and Monterey?

 

[bazillion]

Big Sur: Monastery Beach

Monterey: ??

Watsonville: Zmudowski State Beach

Santa Cruz: Up in the Them Thar Hills

 

[bazillion]

Here's what I'd do:

Day 1:
Oak Grove (Pasadena)
Sylmar
Casitas (camp & play)

Day 2:
Santa Maria (Waller)
Monterey (Ryan Ranch)
Camp @ Zmudowski

Day 3:
Pinto Lake (Watsonville)
De La Veaga (Santa Cruz)
Camp somewhere up around Ben Lomond

Day 4:
Golden Gate (San Francisco)
Stafford Lake (Novato)
(camp up around Clear Lake)

Day 5:
Shoot down I-5 to Bakersfield, cut east into the high desert (not sure of the roads, too lazy to look) and hit Sky High. You'll have enough daylight for at least 18 and still make it home before 0-dark-30.

 

[bneely]

I'd cast my vote for bazillion's plan. You can do any of LaMa/Huntington/ElDo on a pretty easy day trip from SD. The only consideration is that Day 5 will be a large amount of driving, but it's worth it for the incredible amount of fun you'll have on days 1/2/3/4, in my opinion.

 

[roadtripstuff]

Baz is dead on, at least that is what I would hit if I were you. La Mirada is okay, but imo way overrated, it's just a nice park course, but you can play those just about anywhere. The best thing about La Mirada is there being two courses in the park.

 

[dicknards]

I am going to try to get a few extra days to make this a little bit better.

My idea is to mix camping, relaxing and disc golf so I think I want to limit it to 2 courses per day.

Initial plan (highly changeable, just wanted to get something on paper to adjust. Camping spots were picked quickly just to have something on paper and am very open to suggestion. Ideally somewhere with less kids, but hard to predict I know)
Courses in the LA area are off the list as I can play those on a Saturday with a little drive in the morning. I want this to be something I can't normally do on a 2 day weekend.

Day 1(F): San Diego - Big Sur
(Stop in SLO to play a round, ctbd)
Camp at Julia Pfeiffer Burns SP in Big Sur

Day 2(S):Monterey:
CSUMB The Cypress
CSUMB The Oaks
Camp at Julia Pfeiffer Burns SP in Big Sur

Day 3(S):Monterey 2
Ryans Ranch
Pinto Lake
Camp at Henry Cowell Redwoods SP (Santa Cruz)

Day 4(M):Santa Cruz
Delaveaga
Black Mouse (in Felton)
Camp at Henry Cowell Redwoods SP

Day 5(T):Rest Day/Enjoy Redwoods

Day 6(W):Golden Gate Park
Stafford Lake
Camp in Half Moon Bay, or just north of SF

Day 7(T):San Francisco
Hellyer Park
Parque De La Raza
Camp in Half Moon Bay, or just north of SF

Day 8(F)rive Home

 

[dicknards]

And I really appreciate everybody's input so far. Thank you.

 

[bazillion]

Re your plan - I'd suggest trying to make it so that Day 7 is on a weekend (either Sat or Sun). The reason is that during the week you'll be driving through San Francisco and down the peninsula to San Jose, which is a truly hellacious drive during the work week.

Better plan is to do that stretch of road either Sat or Sun morning, before folks wake up & start to roll out of bed.

Just my 2¢ - don't spend it all in one place.

 

[roadtripstuff]

Skip SLO and play Waller in Santa Maria, its definitely worth the stop and while I've never played the two in SLO, but from the pics and reviews Waller blows them away.

 

[bneely]

My thoughts on that itinerary -

Day 1 - Stop in Santa Maria and play Waller Park instead of anything in SLO

Day 2/3 - Maybe do Ryan Ranch + CSUMB Cypress on Day 2, then do CSUMB Oaks + Pinto on Day 3. Ryan + Pinto are both long 27 hole courses, so you'd find Day 3 to be much longer than Day 2 if you do your current itinerary. Not a big deal either way, though.

Day 7 - If you're staying north of SF on the evening of Day 6, I highly recommend you hit Skyline Wilderness Park in Napa. It doesn't get as much pub as Golden Gate and Stafford, but absolutely a gem of a course. Given that Hellyer and La Raza are both 9-holers right next to eachother, you could easily do Napa in the morning, then Hellyer + La Raza in the afternoon.

 

[lion]

I have played every course mentioned so if you need maps, or any additional info let me know. I would agree with others and play Waller in Santa Maria. Ryan's Ranch and the cypress would be better then playing pinto and ryans ranch. To much back tracking. The San jose courses are great, but I would not back track to go camp in San Fransico and then drive back. If you have a chance you should drive back and stay a day in Visalia. There is two very nice courses in one park that are highly rated and you can camp at the park. Also there is a newer course pretty close in Kings River. Those three 18 holers are all unique and have there own character. just a thought.

 

[Rescue]

Day one I would play:

Huntington Beach
Long Beach
La mirada front 18
La miraada back 18

drive to Lake casitas and camp .

day two :

Lake casitas
Goleta
Santa Maria
Presiker Park

then drive a few hours and camp in Monteray.

Ryan's Ranch
CSUMB The Cypress
CSUMB The Oaks
Pinto Lake

then drive into Santa Cruz and camp.

Aptos High School DGC
Black Mouse in Felton
Delaveaga = play it slow and take it all in. wow

then the last day I would play

Hellyer Park
Parque De La Raza
Golden Gate Park
if you have time drive to Stafford Lake, its my favorite in California = worth the drive from Golden Gate

All this is possible especially in June with the most daylight of anytime in the year.

Lion nailed it! If I were to alter one thing. I'd skip the two nines in San Jose (Heyller and De La Raza). They are nice, but you could use the extra time to check out Stafford in Novato and Skyline Wilderness Park in Napa and you can camp at the course (Napa). The other cool thing is it sets you up for the I-5 ride home. One other course to consider this time of year is Lagoon Valley in Vacaville. It's a very seasonal course (condition wise) and this time of year it's in great shape. You have to deal with some goose poo, but only on the front 6 or 7 (28 holes) and if the wind is blowing. It makes for a VERY challenging course and once again it sets you up well for your trip home (hwy 12 to I-5). That's if you go that way?

 

[Rescue]

Any recommendations on the best camp sites in Big Sur and Monterey?

Phifer State park is awesome! If you have time there use to be a little creek that runs through the camping area. I meen like "who left the water spigot on?" but If you follow it up about a mile it turns into a huge watering hole. It's been years since I've been, so I'm sure it's well travelled/marked by now.

 

[TempleOfDoom]

If you're camping at Henry Cowell, please be aware that alcohol is prohibited. So, if you're going to drink, bring cups to drink out of. If the camp hosts see bottles, they will roust you.