As Highway 101 nears the Pacific, the dense coastal forest opens onto wide ocean horizons. After many miles enclosed by tall timber, travelers reach the first sweeping views of the open sea, beaches, and offshore rocks, a dramatic visual release as the landscape shifts from forest interior to exposed coastline.
Watch the trees ahead for the first gap of open sky, because the coast is close now and the country is about to crack wide open. For the whole drive you've been hemmed in by green walls, the forest pressing right to the shoulder. Any minute now those walls fall away, the horizon drops flat, and all that pent-up sky comes flooding in over the water. After hours inside the trees, that first wide-open view of the Pacific lands like a held breath finally let go. Keep your eyes left.
Photo: Ron Clausen · CC BY-SA 4.0
