Alpine is a beautiful road. At the bottom, you start with a couple of (almost flat) kilometers through tall redwoods. As you climb up, the scenery changes to oak trees until you hit the turn to Portola State Park Rd. Here you have a great view to the South over the Santa Cruz Mountains.
You also have the illusion that you are almost at the top. But wrong, there are another 3 kilometers of climbing through open grassland before your reach the top at Skyline Blvd.
Alpine is part of a nice loop which keeps you busy for 2-3 hours: Arastradero, Portola, Old La Honda, La Honda, (the first kilometer of) Pescadero, Alpine and Page Mill.
Redwoods at the lower section of Alpine Rd
View from the false summit
But the road continues uphill
View towards the Pacific
Pond near Skyline