A Very Good Day! A Santa Ynez Wine Country Tour
By Olaf G. Wolff
AllAboutBikes.com Sr. Staff Writer
Editor’s Note: This is the second installment in a three-part series of Wolff’s travels.
The Santa Ynez Valley is located in Santa Barbara County, between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the San Rafael Mountains. The valley has a population of just over 20,000 residents living in the communities of Santa Ynez, Buellton, Ballard and the aforementioned Solvang and Los Olivos.
Lately though, the valley is best know for the 2004 film “Sideways,” which was set and shot on location in the Santa Ynez Valley. Since then, visits from tourists looking to recreate the experiences of the fictional characters Miles and Jack, have become common. The tale of two middle-aged men and the women they meet on a week-long wine tasting adventure brought world-wide recognition to the area.
Fans of the movie can often be seen making a pilgrimage from the Buellton Days Inn, (decades before my wife and I spent our honeymoon night there – but that’s another story), to the Hitching Post restaurant depicted in the movie. The movie ended up winning several awards including an Oscar and two Golden Globes.
A Clearer Picture
If I gave the wrong impression up front, I need to clarify something, few things in life bring me more joy then motorcycling two-up with my wife. She’s been my passenger since before we were married, so that’s like, well, huh, more then a few years ago. Anyway, we spend many weekends exploring new roads and nooks-and-crannies within a 100 miles radius of our home and often we ride with other people. But at some point the road always forks and we ride apart, happy and sometimes enriched, to have met strangers with motorcycles in common.
It’s not that I’m categorically against group rides, just the ones that have unwilling participants along under digress simply to appease a spouse or loved one, and it happens. Those are the situations ripe for potential ugliness. With only a few thousand rides left – who has time for that?
Moving On
Leaving Los Olivos headed north on Highway 154, it’s a quick quarter of a mile to the Foxen Canyon right turn. Foxen Canyon is where the majority of the vineyards and tasting rooms are located – it’s where you find some of the best riding and it’s where I spent most of my day.
I still consider my Suzuki V-Strom one of the most practical, nimble and just plain enjoyable bikes engineered for a day of sport touring. The perfect weather – my motorcycle – and Foxen Canyon had me jacked.
Foxen Canyon starts slowly, cruising past huge, grassy horse ranches, and then gently rolls over yellow hills dotted green with vineyards. There are ‘need-to-stop’ views in every direction. The first section of Foxen ends at a ‘T’ in the road, at a wooden sign listing twelve vineyards and tasting rooms, turn left, you’re on Zaca Station Road, turn right for more Foxen Canyon – right it was.
