Sunset over the Pacific seen through a windshield, a single wind-bent tree silhouetted against the orange sky

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Coast Drive and a Charcoal Grill After Dark

California·March 6, 2025·2 min read

Driving down Highway 1 with the sunset in the windshield, then a small charcoal grill in the dark — skewers, a fire too small to keep your hands warm, and the smell of yakitori carrying across the campsite.

Some trips are just a drive and a meal. This was one of them.

The drive south on Highway 1 catches the sunset the entire way. Around the south end of Santa Cruz County the road runs through farmland with the ocean visible past the fields, and the only thing on the horizon is one of those Monterey cypresses bent permanently by the wind.

Sunset through a car windshield with a bent tree silhouetted against the orange sky, agricultural fields on both sides — The sunset was already running ahead of us by the time we got past Davenport.

By the time we set up the grill it was fully dark. We brought a small Japanese-style binchotan grill — the kind that's basically a metal box with a mesh top, the right size for one or two people. Charcoal lit and waited until the white ash showed.

Black charcoal pieces glowing orange in a small portable grill at night — Charcoal ready. The orange glow is the only light source within ten feet.

Yakitori skewers cooking on a small charcoal grill at night, the meat browning over the coals — Skewers on. The smell carried much further than the light did.

This kind of night doesn't photograph well. The light is wrong, the camera struggles, and most of what you remember is the sound of fat dripping on charcoal and the cold wind on your back. But that's the point of it.

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