Neither one of us had ever been to Lompoc, CA, before despite driving by on US-101 numerous times in the past. I learned in school that Lompoc was home to the world’s largest deposits of diatomaceous earth and maybe that’s why I had never gone that way. In any event, we decided to pop on over that way just to see what was there.
We started by driving back to CA-154 northbound until we reached a roundabout where we could go west on CA-246 through Santa Ynez and Solvang where we picked up some cheap diesel fuel before continuing across US-101 and toward the coast, Vandenburg (the town) and Vandenburg (the military facility). Probably due to recent rains, the countryside along the highway was just gorgeous with large expanses of emerald green pastures and hills. It reminded me of Ireland which is strange because I have never been to the British Isles but it did look like I speculate Ireland may look.
We drove through Lompoc which is a nice little community with dreadful traffic management caused primarily by traffic signals which seemed to be permanently red in all directions. The traffic is not quite as horrible as Solvang but there is not much to see in Lompoc and maybe that’s why cursing from motorists is not as prevalent.
After spending an inordinate amount of time in Lompoc at a dead stop, we turned south on CA-1 which is bordered by spectacular scenery. We were obliged to pull over a few times to allow those less appreciative of the surroundings pass us. CA-1 wanders around the south side of Point Conception for a ways before intersecting US-101 at Gaviota, north of Santa Barbara. On the way south, we tried a route called Refugio Road but the road started out crummy and went downhill as we progressed. If we had a four wheel drive or motorcycles we may have been able to use Refugio but we didn’t so after about 3 miles, we chickened out and turned around headed back to 101. We turned south on 101 until we could again turn north on CA-154 and return to our campground in the Santa Ynez Valley. It was a very nice drive today.
There are some pix if you click here