Why You May Want To Avoid Packing Fresh Produce On Your California Road Trip

Wipe down the windshield, check the oil gauge, and prepare to strike a line from the bucket list, because road trips in California are nothing short of epic. This cut-out of the West Coast is home to some of the most legendary asphalt routes on planet Earth. There are the hot springs and jaw-dropping mountain landscapes of U.S. Route 395. There are the wave-splattered rock stacks of Big Sur. There's even a monumental route that links up every single national park in the state! Raring to set off? Thought you would be. Just one word of warning first: You may want to think twice about packing a picnic.

Something a lot of drivers crisscrossing the Golden State might not know is that there are actually rules on what you can and cannot pack on your trips. The focus here is very much on weeding out (no pun intended!) organic material that has the ability to harbor invasive species, pests, and other bad things that could do damage to California's all-important agricultural industry or environment. You can see why those things need protection, too — farming alone brings a whopping $59 billion to the local economy each year.

Specifically, these rules apply to drives that involve traveling into California from neighboring territories. That means you're free to plan whatever elaborate picnics you like if you're driving solely within the Golden State itself. However, there's more to consider if your adventure whisks you over a border into Oregon, Arizona, or Nevada and back again, since everything from apricots to avocados and persimmons to pomegranates are subject to inspection under the current Department of Food and Agriculture regulations.

Here's the thing: There are stacks of awesome road trips that involve hopping across borders from California to neighboring states. You've got the daring Death Drive from Nevada into Death Valley National Park across wild desert landscapes scarred by mountains. There's also the salt-sprayed odyssey of the 1,650-mile Pacific Coast Highway through Washington and Oregon. And that's just naming two!

The good news is that all those drives are still very much doable — just make sure you comply with any and all import rules and then cruise into one of the 16 California Border Protection Stations as you arrive in the land of sourdough and Sierra Nevada. The folks there are adept at picking out vehicles that seem high risk, but you can still smooth your stop by ensuring you have organic matter and fresh produce packed together and easily accessible. You'll usually be ushered through and on your way in seconds. As one Reddit user puts it: "I give them a courtesy window crack and they always nod me through. I never see them stop NV, OR plates, mainly east coast plates." Easy.

California Border Protection Stations, or BPS for short, typically sit on major highway routes. You'll find them at the 101 crossing at Smith River in the north, on Interstate 80 as it wiggles into the under-the-radar mountain hub of Truckee near Tahoe, and right down to Winterhaven beside the Arizona-California state line in the south.