Santa Monica to Carmel-by-the-Sea

You're near the western terminus of Route 66, the famous highway that once stretched 2,400 miles from Chicago to this spot on the Santa Monica Pier.

You're passing through Sawtelle, one of the oldest Japanese American communities in Los Angeles, established around 1920 when returning veterans from a nearby soldiers'…

That massive white complex visible on the hillside is the Getty Center, and at one point three billion dollars was its adjusted cost, making it one of the most expensive…

You're crossing the San Fernando Valley, one of the most densely populated flatlands in the United States.

Mission San Fernando Rey de España was founded in 1797 as the seventeenth of California's twenty-one Spanish missions.

At 6:01 a.m. on February 9th, 1971, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck the Sylmar area and collapsed sections of five freeway interchanges in this corridor.

You're passing through land where California gold was first found — not at Sutter's Mill in 1848, but right here in 1842.

You're climbing through Tejon Pass, one of the most critical mountain crossings in the American West.

Fort Tejon, just off the interstate here, was the site of one of the strangest experiments in U.S. military history.

Kern County produces more oil than any other county in the United States. About seventy percent of California's oil output comes from right here.

The flat expanse opening up ahead is the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, part of California's Central Valley, which stretches over 450 miles and produces more…

The town of Buttonwillow got its name from a single button willow tree that once served as a landmark for Yokuts people and later for ranchers.

Lost Hills is the unlikely capital of America's pistachio industry.

This stretch of CA-46 earned the nickname Blood Alley after decades of fatal head-on collisions. Between 1994 and 2006, over 100 people died on this two-lane road.

The flat terrain around you sits on top of one of the most productive oil regions in the United States.

On September 30, 1955, James Dean died near this spot when his Porsche 550 Spyder collided with a 1950 Ford Tudor driven by Cal Poly student Donald Turnupseed at the…

Shandon has never had more than a few hundred residents, but it played an outsized role in California's cattle industry.

The vineyards spreading across these rolling hills sit on ancient seabed.

You're entering Paso Robles, whose full name is El Paso de Robles, meaning the pass of the oaks.

Sulphur Springs Road tells you exactly what's underneath this area.

Mission San Miguel Arcángel, founded in 1797, sits just off the highway here and holds something no other California mission can claim: completely original interior…

Camp Roberts processed over 450,000 troops during World War Two, making it one of the largest infantry training centers in the entire country.

You're passing through San Ardo, home to one of California's largest oil fields.

King City was founded in 1886 when Charles King donated land for a Southern Pacific Railroad station, a common strategy ranchers used to guarantee a rail stop on their…

The Salinas River flowing alongside you is one of the largest underground rivers in the United States.

Soledad is named for Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, founded in 1791 as the thirteenth California mission. It was notoriously unlucky.

You're driving through Salinas, which produces more lettuce than any other place on earth.

You're entering Monterey, which served as the capital of California under both Spain and Mexico for over seventy years.