Reunited with the Pacific Coast

Published by

Caitlyn

on

October 8, 2025

To say that I was excited to see the Pacific Ocean again would be a huge understatement.

The last time we were here was in September 2023, and this part of the Pacific Coast kicked off our first-ever epic road trip through the West/Southwest. It was the first time we were ever trying “car camping” in a mini van, first time we were ever road tripping, first time we were ever in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah together… On that first night, many mishaps were made, we were kinda miserable, and we learned a lot.

So it was really fun to know we were going to be retracing those steps and hopefully rewriting over that comedy of errors haha.

We landed in San Francisco a little after noon and took the train to the parking garage where the hunt for our Turo car began. We always talk about how much we miss sleeping in the Chrysler Pacifica (it’s honestly the best), so we were psyched to be in one again. Earlier this year, we camped in an SUV and even though it was totally fine and I’d do it a million times over, I did miss having the space to do gymnastics.

By the time we got the car and made a few quick stops in San Francisco for supplies, it was approaching 4PM and I wanted to make as much headway as possible before (again) getting stuck in the dark with no sleep spot.

Bodega Bay

The scenic pull-offs for Bodega Bay are about an hour from the Golden Gate Bridge.

We stopped here to stretch our legs, take in our first lung-fulls of Pacific breeze, and chow down on some much-needed Panda Express.

Goat Rock State Beach

Twenty minutes down Shoreline Highway from Bodega Bay is Goat Rock State Beach in Jenner.

The drive down to Goat Rock is really fun but also kinda treacherous, at one point becoming a one lane gravel/sand road along the hillside – if a car was coming toward you, one of you would have to back up the entire way. Nice to do in a mini van haha.

The tiny parking lot is right up against “Goat Rock” and you can see the “Arched Rock” in the distance.

It was so moody and beautiful while we were here. I was imagining that the giant bleached tree trunk was a whale bone. There were some rusty ruins of what was probably a bulldozer, and a memorial to someone whose anniversary of going missing (and birthday) were coming up.

Sleeeeeep

We left Goat Rock at 6PM and drove about another 90 minutes before finding the most perfect sleep spot ever, tucked in a private area away from the highway and with 360 degree views of the ocean. The soundtrack we had for sleep was *chef’s kiss* and by the time the sun set in the cloudy grey sky, it was 8:30PM. We were wiped out.

It felt like the biggest privilege to be able to crawl into my cozy sleeping bag (and yes we brought regular sized pillows from home, vacuum-sealed, it’s a life changer) and basically unplug from “real” life and fully embrace the journey we had planned for the next nine days.