Up The Road (http://new-wp.uptheroad.org/?tag=north-coast)
Said it before and will surely say it again: Hostels are among the best travel bargains around, for travelers of all ages. And hosteling now, during the off-season, is ideal for Californians. You won’t meet as many international travelers, always an appeal of hostel stays. But you’ll have an easier time getting reservations where and when you want them—with the possible exception of special events such as whale-watching and the annual return of the elephant seals. (more…) Continue Reading →
Following Hwy. 1 north from Mendocino County leads to Leggett and the junction with Hwy. 101. The big attraction here is the Drive-Thru-Tree Park, as schlocky as it sounds, but for some reason we humans just love driving through trees. They carved this car-sized hole in the Chandelier Tree in the 1930s, and for a fee you can “drive thru” it, or bike or walk (RVs won’t make it). Continue Reading →
Dust off the backpack, get new laces for those hiking boots. This is the place. California’s isolated “Lost Coast”—virtually uninhabited and more remote than any other stretch of coastline in the Lower 48—has been found. Here steep mountains soar like bald eagles, their domes tufted with chaparral, a few redwoods tucked behind the ears, and sink their rock-knuckled, grassy talons into surf that surges onto black-sand beaches. Local people, of course, snort over the very idea that this splendid stretch of unfriendly coast was ever lost in the first place, even if area highways were intentionally routed away from it. They knew it was here. Continue Reading →
It’s not as if there are no redwoods before you get to Humboldt and Del Norte Counties. Stranded stands of coast redwoods can be found along the Central Coast, in protected, wetter areas as far as the southernmost reaches of Big Sur. But here, along the North Coast, is where the tribe truly thrives. They once numbered an estimated two million, but even here the native population of coastal redwood trees has been reduced through logging and agricultural clearing to isolated groves of virgin trees. (more…) Continue Reading →
The Gualala River forms the boundary between Sonoma and Mendocino Counties. Travelers heading north will find that most Bay Area weekenders have by now tailed off, leaving this stretch of coast highway for the locals and long-haul travelers. It’s a little greener (and wetter) here than in Sonoma County, but the crescent coves and pocket beaches you appreciated along the wild Sonoma Coast continue north across the county line, one after the next, like a string of pearls. (more…) Continue Reading →
Alfred Hitchcock considered the quaint coastal fishing village of Bodega Bay and associated inland town just perfect for filming The Birds, with its rather ominous suggestion that nature will avenge itself one day. But people come to Bodega Bay and vicinity to avoid thinking about such things. They come to explore the headlands, to whalewatch, to kayak, to beachcomb and tidepool, to catch and eat seafood (including local Dungeness crab), to peek into the increasing numbers of galleries and gift shops, and to relax. (more…) Continue Reading →
The coast will be even clearer in Fall if you can travel during the week, when families with kids are otherwise occupied (though you may encounter those kids on field trips). But even weekends are lighter in terms of fellow travelers, at least once you get well north of Marin. You may even find it possible to pitch a tent at state park campgrounds without a reservation. Kind of like California in the 1950s. (more…) Continue Reading →
Keep in mind, though, that fog created California’s north coast, and still defines it. Fog is everywhere, endless, eternal, there.Even on blazing, almost blinding days of sunshine when the veil lifts, the fog is still present somehow, because life here has been made by it. Stands of sky-scraping coast redwoods need fog to live. So do many other native north coast plants, uniquely adapted to uniformly damp conditions. The visual obscurity characteristic of the coast also benefits animals, providing a consistent, year-round supply of drinking water and, for creatures vulnerable to predators, additional protective cover. (more…) Continue Reading →