Ben_ca
Contributor
Thanks to Jim M for finding this out...
Hotels will be in short supply and traffic will be bad.
Hotels will be in short supply and traffic will be bad.
Monterey Traffic Alert - 23-24 July - Red Bull US Grand Prix
- Thread starter Ben_ca
- Start date
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Peter_C
Contributor
That might throw a wrench into the mix. For a brief moment the thoughts of diving and whale watching made going to Monterey a temping proposition.
OP
Ben_ca
Contributor
There's always the North Coast...
While the race will probably impact hotel room supply, usually divers arrive and leave before the race traffic arrives and leaves.
Peter_C
Contributor
Any idea roughly when the high traffic times for the races are? Does it affect 156 in a bad way?
Dig up the website for the race and check the schedule. All heck will break loose after the last race. They dribble in over the course of the morning and early afternoon. 156 will be a disaster.
Me, I have to stay down in Marina until Monday night for a homeowners board meeting, so no problem.
Chuck
Me, I have to stay down in Marina until Monday night for a homeowners board meeting, so no problem.
Chuck
Peter_C
Contributor
Thanks Chuck. I looked at the race schedule and it looks like 4:30 pm is about when the last race will end.
We got on Hwy 1 at 6 p.m., headed north. It was blocked completely by the time we got to Imjin Pkwy! After crawling for 30 minutes, we finally got off on Del Monte, just south of Reservation Road, and slowly made our way over to 101. That was also jammed, so we painfully made our way north to Blackie Rd. over the next hour, then gave up. We took Blackie back over to Hwy 1 and found it was still jammed down past Imjin Pkwy. In two hours, we travelled a total of 14 miles, and most of that was along back roads trying to find something open. We finally slept on the floor in the shop last night. That was about the ugliest traffic headed to the bay area I've ever seen.
mikemill
Contributor
We got done packing up the car at about 4:30 and decided to grab dinner first and hopefully let things thin out. We got on Hwy 1 at 6pm and hit traffic soon after. It was slow going all the way to 101 and cleared out after red barn which took us about 2 hours to reach. We reached Santa Nella in 3 hours and it is normally and hour and a half drive. While it was slow as hell it wasn't bad. Traffic was moving and I didn't see anyone being really stupid. It ended up taking me 5 hours to get home 
Peter_C
Contributor
The only reason I really wanted to come down to Monterey was to see a blue whale up close. We had committed to going caving in the foothills Saturday, so we stayed in Morgan Hill at at a nice hotel for cheap thanks to Priceline.com you name your own price. Actually it was better than staying in Montery since I am not sure after a brutal 4 hour hike thru heavy brush and big rocks, while carrying a backpack loaded with gear, and a hundred feet of rope, then crawling around underground for a couple hours, I couldn't have driven much further. We left our hotel room at 7:20am and made it to Monterey like any other day. BTW there wasn't a hotel in Monterey left for under $200 a night, well unless you wanted a smoking room. Arrived at the Safeway to find more people wearing motorcycle attire than I have seen anywhere else. (Although it has been a while since I have seen the Redwood Run pass by). We found the first line of traffic at the sandwich dept, and the second at the check out line.
We got back to the dock well after 5:00pm, and I had meant to be on the road by 3:40pm. I guess we found a lighter break in the traffic though. Left BW and started up the hwy to see it coming to a halt in Monterey. Using my cars GPS and my Iphone we were able to map our way around quite a bit of the traffic mess. Had to deal with the bad traffic as it went from 2 into one lane, then quickly jumped off onto the back roads. Got to 101 and it was moving but not very fast. A little past the red barn it opened up. We grabbed some food in Gilroy and the traffic wasn't too bad the rest of the way home. Was it worth it? HECK YEAH! We had an encounter in the ocean few will ever get to see. Take a look at Jim See's post of the basking shark!!
We got back to the dock well after 5:00pm, and I had meant to be on the road by 3:40pm. I guess we found a lighter break in the traffic though. Left BW and started up the hwy to see it coming to a halt in Monterey. Using my cars GPS and my Iphone we were able to map our way around quite a bit of the traffic mess. Had to deal with the bad traffic as it went from 2 into one lane, then quickly jumped off onto the back roads. Got to 101 and it was moving but not very fast. A little past the red barn it opened up. We grabbed some food in Gilroy and the traffic wasn't too bad the rest of the way home. Was it worth it? HECK YEAH! We had an encounter in the ocean few will ever get to see. Take a look at Jim See's post of the basking shark!!
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