8 places on the California coast worth the drive, and when to go

California has more than a thousand miles of coast, and most of the famous views sit on one road. Highway 1 runs from the redwoods to the Mexican border, and in the north it clings to cliffs above a cold, rough ocean that's hard to beat for drama. These eight spots run from Mendocino in the north to La Jolla in the south, and for each one we've worked out when people really go, and when they should.

For every spot below we went through the most interesting public photos on Flickr taken nearby, and counted each photographer once per day, so one person's hundred frames from a single afternoon count as one visit. That shows which months people go. The camera data of the best photos, each by a different photographer, shows how they shot it.

Two things decide a day on this coast: fog and tides. From June to August, warm air inland pulls a bank of sea fog over the north and central coast, often all day; locals call the month "June gloom" in the south. September and October are usually the clearest months, and they were the busiest at two of the three Big Sur spots in our sample. In winter the light is lower, the air is cleaner after rain, and the lowest tides of the year fall in the late afternoon, just in time for sunset. That's worth knowing at the two southern beaches, which are much better at low water.

The village of Mendocino sits on a flat headland almost surrounded by water, and the state park wraps around it: a path along the top of the bluffs, with sea caves, arches and little coves cut into the rock below. You can walk the whole loop in an hour, and there's a new view every few minutes. The best of it is on the west side, where the swell breaks into the caves and blows spray up through holes in the rock.

It faces west, so come for sunset, and come in spring if you can: from April the bluffs are covered with wildflowers, which make the foreground for you. In our sample, though, the busiest months were September and August, and February was the quietest, though it's in the middle of the season when gray whales pass the headland on their way south and back. Most photographers here shot wide: nine of the eleven photos with camera data were taken with a wide or ultra-wide lens.

Best light

Sunset, with wildflowers from April to June

Busiest months

August and September (quietest: February)

Typical shot

30mm, f/4, 1/1000s, ISO 200

Getting there

Park on Main Street or Heeser Drive in the village; the path is free

The lighthouse was built in 1870 at the very tip of the Point Reyes peninsula, and to keep its light below the fog it was put on a ledge partway down the cliff. That means about 300 steps down to it, and the same back up. The headland is one of the windiest and foggiest places on the Pacific coast, and the stairs close when the wind is too strong, so check with the park before you drive out; it's a long road.

Our sample says what anyone who has been there in summer knows: July is the quietest month, because there's nothing to see in the fog. August, April and December were the busiest. From December to April, gray whales migrate past the point, and the wildflowers come out in spring. On the way, stop at the Cypress Tree Tunnel, the double row of trees over the drive to the old radio station, and if you have time, drive out to Tomales Point for the tule elk.

On the way back, stop at Inverness on Tomales Bay for the Point Reyes shipwreck, an old fishing boat lying on the mud behind the general store. It's one of the most photographed boats in America. Go at twilight or under the stars, and at high tide if you'd like water around the hull.

Best light

Clear winter afternoons; whales from December to April

Busiest months

April and August (quietest: July)

Typical shot

38mm, f/4, 1/1000s, ISO 200

Bring

A windproof layer, and the energy for the steps back up

Point Lobos is small enough to walk around in a morning, and it packs in most of what makes this coast special: coves of green water, granite headlands, sea lions on the rocks offshore, and one of the last two native groves of Monterey cypress, twisted by the wind. Edward Weston photographed here for years, and you can see why.

China Cove and Gibson Beach, at the south end of the reserve, are the coves in the postcards, and they're best around the middle of the day, when the sun is high enough to light the water. For the cypress trees, go on the Cypress Grove Trail early, before the crowds, or in the fog, which suits them. The tide pools at Weston Beach are best at low tide.

Bring a long lens as well. Half of the ten photos in our sample with camera data were taken with a telephoto, and the median focal length was 100mm, the longest on this coast: Point Lobos is a wildlife reserve as much as a landscape, with sea otters in the kelp, harbor seals hauled out on the rocks and cormorants nesting on Bird Island. May was the busiest month, with a fifth of the year's visits, and September the quietest.

Parking inside the reserve is limited and fills early on weekends. If it's full, you can park on Highway 1 and walk in.

Best light

Midday for the color of the coves; fog for the cypress grove

Busiest months

May and December (quietest: September)

Typical shot

100mm, f/8, 1/250s, ISO 200

Getting there

The entrance is on Highway 1, three miles south of Carmel; there's a fee per car

Bixby Bridge was finished in 1932, a single concrete arch across Bixby Creek Canyon, about 260 feet above the creek. It's the picture of Big Sur, and it's easy: there's a pullout on the north side, on the ocean side of the road, from which you see the arch side-on with the coast behind it.

The bridge runs north to south, so from that pullout you're looking south and the sun is to your right all afternoon, lighting the face of the arch. Toward sunset the light turns warm and the canyon below falls into shadow, which separates the bridge from the hills behind it. For a different view, take the Old Coast Road, the dirt road that starts at the north end of the bridge, a few hundred yards inland: from there you look at the bridge from the canyon side, with the ocean beyond it.

October was the busiest month in our sample, with 13% of the year's visits, and January the quietest. Highway 1 through Big Sur is closed by landslides every few years, sometimes for months at a time, so check Caltrans' road conditions before you plan a loop. The pullout is small, and people park badly on both sides of the road: take care, and don't stand on the highway for the shot.

Best light

Afternoon, from the pullout on the north side

Busiest months

July and October (quietest: January)

Typical shot

33mm, f/4, 1/200s, ISO 200

Getting there

The pullout is at the north end of the bridge, on the ocean side of Highway 1

Pfeiffer Beach is at the end of a narrow, unsigned road that leaves Highway 1 just south of the Big Sur Station. It's a cove of purple-streaked sand with a big rock just offshore, and through that rock the sea has cut an arch.

For a few weeks around the winter solstice, the sun sets low enough in the southwest to shine straight through the keyhole for the last hour of the day, and a beam of light falls onto the spray and the wet sand. The data shows it: December and January together brought a quarter of the visits in our sample, and April the most of any month. The beam is sharpest when the waves are big and the air is full of spray, and it's best at low tide, when you can get close to the rock. Expect company, and expect a line of tripods.

The camera data here was the most varied of anywhere on the coast: four of the eleven photos with camera data used a telephoto, picking out the arch from along the beach, and the median aperture was f/6.7. The road is too narrow for trailers and RVs, and there's a fee to park at the end.

Best light

The last hour before sunset, from mid-December to mid-January

Busiest months

January and April (quietest: September)

Typical shot

42mm, f/6.7, 1/250s, ISO 200

Getting there

Sycamore Canyon Road, off Highway 1 south of Big Sur Station; parking fee

McWay Falls is a waterfall about 80 feet high that drops from the cliff straight onto a beach, in a cove of turquoise water. It didn't always land on sand: until a landslide in 1983 it fell into the sea, and the slide filled the cove with sand. The beach is out of bounds, so the shot is from the trail on the cliff opposite, a short walk from the parking lot under Highway 1.

The cove faces west, and the falls are in shade in the morning. The best time is the late afternoon, when the sun lights the water in the cove, and the sunset over the ocean beyond it. September was the busiest month here, with 14% of the year's visits, after the summer fog lifts. Photographers here stopped down for depth: the median was f/9 at ISO 100, and four of the eleven photos with camera data were taken on an ultra-wide.

Best light

Late afternoon and sunset, in September and October

Busiest months

May and September (quietest: January)

Typical shot

29mm, f/9, 1/320s, ISO 100

Getting there

Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, on Highway 1, 37 miles south of Carmel

El Matador is a small beach at the foot of a bluff west of Malibu, scattered with sea stacks and arches that you can walk between at low tide. A steep path and a flight of stairs lead down from the parking lot, and on the sand it feels a long way from Los Angeles.

It faces southwest, so the sun sets over the ocean behind the rocks in winter, and the winter's afternoon low tides open up the caves and arches just when the light is best. The data agrees: December and January were the busiest months in our sample, and June, the month of the gloom, the quietest. The median exposure was f/10 at ISO 100, and the median focal length was 50mm, one of the longest on this coast: with stacks and arches at every distance, people were framing one against another.

The beach is a favorite for engagement and fashion shoots, and commercial shoots need a permit. Parking is in a small paid lot on the Pacific Coast Highway, and it fills before sunset on weekends.

Best light

Sunset at low tide, from November to February

Busiest months

January and December (quietest: June)

Typical shot

50mm, f/10, 1/250s, ISO 100

Bring

A tide table; the arches are cut off at high water

The pier at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography is a research pier, closed to the public, and it's at its best from below. Walk onto the beach at La Jolla Shores and stand under it, between the rows of concrete pilings, and you get a corridor of legs running out to sea, with the sunset at the far end.

This is the long-exposure spot of the guide. Five of the eight photos in our sample with camera data were exposures of a quarter of a second or more, and the median was six seconds at f/11. A long exposure turns the waves around the pilings into mist and makes the corridor look endless. As at El Matador, December and January were the busiest months, and for the same reason: in winter the lowest tides come in the late afternoon, and you can walk under the pier at sunset without getting your feet wet. Watch the waves all the same, and don't leave a tripod alone at the water's edge.

Best light

Sunset at low tide, in winter

Busiest months

January and December (quietest: May)

Typical shot

50mm, f/11, 6s, ISO 200

Getting there

From Kellogg Park at La Jolla Shores, walk north along the beach

If you have more time

In San Francisco, Point Bonita Lighthouse is reached by a small suspension footbridge at the tip of the Marin Headlands; our guide to San Francisco has the rest of the city. Between Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay, Pigeon Point Lighthouse is one of the tallest on the West Coast. And in Santa Cruz, Natural Bridges State Beach has the last of its three sea arches still standing, and monarch butterflies in the eucalyptus grove from October to February.

How we worked it out

For each spot we took up to 500 of the most interesting public Flickr photos taken nearby, counted one visit per photographer per day, and added them up by month. The typical settings are the medians from the camera data of up to twelve of those photos, each by a different photographer; some compact cameras only record the real focal length rather than the 35mm equivalent, so treat the lens figures as a guide. Every spot has its own page on ShotHotspot with all its photos, a map and the sun and moon tool, so you can check where the sun will set on the day you're going.