State Scenic Highway 101 101

State Scenic Highway 101 designates two officially recognized stretches of U.S. 101 in California, in Santa Barbara and Del Norte counties. One runs through Santa Barbara County between Goleta and Las Cruces, and the other is a redwood-shaded segment through Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park near the Oregon border. The Santa Barbara section skirts the coastline below the Santa Ynez Mountains, passing beach towns and ranchland on the Gaviota Coast before the freeway turns inland toward Santa Barbara. Up north, the Del Norte County stretch cuts through old-growth coast redwoods and coastal bluffs above the Pacific, one of the most heavily forested sections of the entire highway. Both are the officially designated pieces of a route where much of the rest of 101 through California is only eligible, not designated, for scenic-highway status, since designation requires local governments to adopt a corridor protection plan limiting development along the road. Together they show 101 at its two extremes: mild coastal ranchland in the south, dense temperate rainforest in the far north.

• Goleta to Las Cruces, Santa Barbara County
• Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park segment
• Gaviota Coast ranchland
• old-growth coastal redwoods
• two of California's few officially designated 101 segments