Day 3: Monterey to King City — Pacific Coast Bike Tour

Day 3 · Monday, September 7

Monterey → King City

Distance: 70.5mi113.5km

Elevation gain: 3987ft1215m

Elevation loss: 3885ft1184m

Max elevation: 2397ft731m

Monterey → King City Switch basemap (elevation / vegetation / plain) top-right; click any point for Google Maps, Apple Maps or Street View.

Download GPX — Day 3 Open in Google Maps Open in Apple Maps

Route options still being decided

Day 3 has 2 candidate tracks. Choose one to highlight it on the map and see its elevation profile — the day’s stats above stay on the current pick either way.

Via Carmel Valley Current pick

70.5mi113.5km · 3987ft1215m climbing · 24% shaded

Carmel Valley Road inland — longer, more tree cover.
Download GPX — Via Carmel Valley
Alternate 1

65.5mi105.4km · 1717ft523m climbing · 8% shaded

Shorter inland line, more exposed.
Download GPX — Alternate 1

Elevation profile

Climbed 3987ft1215m Descended 3885ft1184m

Vertical scale exaggerated ~20× for readability.

Notable climbs

mi 0.56–1.93km 0.9–3.1 369ft112m 5.1% avg
mi 10.56–11.0km 17.0–17.7 133ft41m 5.8% avg
mi 21.87–22.18km 35.2–35.7 70ft21m 4.2% avg
mi 22.62–23.18km 36.4–37.3 80ft24m 2.7% avg
mi 25.91–27.4km 41.7–44.1 499ft152m 6.3% avg
mi 30.51–34.3km 49.1–55.2 825ft251m 4.1% avg
mi 45.11–45.42km 72.6–73.1 89ft27m 5.4% avg
mi 51.7–52.13km 83.2–83.9 76ft23m 3.3% avg

Afternoon shade

Measured at 15:00 on Monday, September 7, with the sun 49.5° above the horizon.

Tree cover: 24% of the route
Blocked by terrain: 0% of the route

Terrain shades nothing at this hour — the sun is still too high for a ridge to block it. Tree cover is the only shade on offer while you are riding.

Tree cover from OpenStreetMap, within 30 m of the road; terrain from a horizon-angle test against elevation data. Both are estimates — unmapped woodland reads as no shade.

Conditions

Near King City, where the day ends.

Air quality

AirNow smoke map

Weather

NWS forecast

The day at a glance

Begins in the Carmel Valley AVA, a warm pocket that sits behind the coastal fog, then crosses the Santa Lucias and drops into the Salinas Valley at Greenfield around mile 56. This is the ground that gets called America's Salad Bowl — lettuce, broccoli, spinach and celery, a large share of the national crop, grown in long flat blocks between the two ranges. The bench above Greenfield and Soledad is the Santa Lucia Highlands AVA, planted mostly to pinot noir and chardonnay.

Worth looking up for

Carmel Valley Road is a well-known cycling route — the run out of Monterey and Carmel to Carmel Valley Village is ridden constantly by local clubs.
Carmel Valley Village is on the route early; Carmel-by-the-Sea is 0.6 mi off.
The shadiest of the inland days at 24% tree cover — three times the alternate route.

What to watch for

You ride well past the popular section. Beyond Carmel Valley Village the road narrows — OpenStreetMap has it dropping from four lanes to one — and empties out through Jamesburg.
Longest day so far at 70.5 mi with 3,987 ft. The long grind is mi 30.5–34.3, 825 ft at 4.1%, out in the remote eastern stretch.
Only two mapped water points, and a 57 mi stretch without one. Carry for the whole day.

Towns along the way

0 Monterey 0.8 mi off
3 Carmel-by-the-Sea 0.6 mi off
6 Hacienda Carmel
9 Carmel Valley Manor
16 Carmel Valley
30 Jamesburg 1.2 mi off
45 Millers Ranch 0.5 mi off
56 Greenfield 0.6 mi off
60 Metz 1.2 mi off
64 Coburn
70 King City

Stops along the way

Mapped in OpenStreetMap and carried in the GPX as waypoints, so they show on a head unit too. Distances are miles from the start. Tap a name for Google Maps, or the arrow for Apple Maps. Not verified on the ground — opening hours and whether a tap actually runs are anyone’s guess.

Pacific Coast Bike Tour

Monterey → King City

Route options still being decided

The day at a glance

Worth looking up for

What to watch for

Towns along the way

Stops along the way

Water 2

Shops & markets 4

Food & coffee 3

Tasting rooms & bars 3

Parks 3

Restrooms 3

Historic 1