Highway 46 West: Templeton to Cambria

Highway 46 West is the road from Paso Robles wine country to the sea. It leaves US 101 north of Templeton and heads west through rolling oak country and hillside vineyards, past the 46 West cluster of wineries, among them Niner Wine Estates and Grey Wolf Cellars, and Jack Creek Farms, a long-running pumpkin farm right off the highway.

Then it climbs over the Santa Lucia Range. This stretch, the Eric Seastrand Highway, was built in the 1970s to replace the steeper, curvier Santa Rosa Creek Road, so it's a fast road of long sweepers rather than tight bends. Turnouts near the top look down the range toward the Pacific, and the long descent ends at Highway 1 just south-east of Cambria, about a mile from the ocean.

It's driven west from US 101, so the ocean comes into view on the way down. Near the summit, Old Creek Road leaves to the south for Cayucos, and Santa Rosa Creek Road to the north winds down to Cambria: either makes a slower alternative.