Californians will argue, but a prime contender for classic Highway One is the stretch between Monterey and Morro Point. This drive combines captivating scenery with historical interest and challenging driving.

Monterey makes a good landing point—at least the Spanish/Mexican colonizers thought so. This colonial capital of California is home to some of the oldest buildings in the state. Like many historically important towns, it tends towards the over-explained, but scratch beneath the gratuitous interpretation, and the town makes for some great ambling and corner peaking, particularly if you've read John Steinbeck's Cannery Row. The Monterery Bay Aquarium is a fun, innovative teaching center, where you're guaranteed a gander at a family of cavorting sea otters as well as sharks, octopi, and 5,000 other marine species.

Carmel, three miles down the coast, used to be considered an artists’ colony. Its residents included photographers Ansel Adams and Edward Weston and writers Jack London, Upton Sinclair, and Mary Austin. Now it’s mostly a place for people whose art form is golf. and whose pockets are as deep as the former town mayer, Clint Eastwood. (A GORP staffer recently shelled out $30 apiece for burger and fries at a Carmel pub.)

Things pick up after you cross the Carmel River. Carmel River State Beach is a sandy romp and is great for beachcombing and letting the kids loose. Birders will want to grab the binoculars and see what they can at the river's marsh delta.

But you might want to hold out for Point Lobos State Reserve, a little further on. The writer Robert Louis Stephenson called this "the most beautiful meeting of land and sea on earth," which is not an understatement. There might be places as beautiful, but not more beautiful. Only 450 people are allowed in the reserve at any one time. On the weekends there is frequently a line of people waiting to get in—so plan to arrive early or go during the week.

Grab the binoculars. The reserve's 1,276 acres stretches for six miles down the coast, taking in tidal pools alive with starfish, anemones, and sea urchins; sheltered coves with colonies of barking sea lions; and many birds, notably brown pelicans, herons, and sea gulls. Kelp beds lie just off the coast, providing romping grounds for sea otters. The California Sea Otter Refugebegins at the southern end of Point Lobos and extends south to Big Sur.

The land area above the reserve is called the Carmel Headlands. Soon, the headlands end and the Santa Lucia Range begins, turning Highway One into a thrilling stretch of road. The drive twists and turns between sheer cliffs above, stretching to the sky, and sheer cliffs below, plummeting to the violently churning ocean. Also, there are many pull-outs along the way so that you can get out to enjoy the view.

Nearly 3000-acre Garrapata State Park makes for a good leg stretcher, a place to explore white sand beaches filling in between rococo stone grottos, arches, and buttresses. A good 1.5-mile trail climbs through the chaparral hills along Sobranes Creek to a grove of redwoods.