Page 110 - 2023-2024 Travel Guide to California

PINK LADY, a Queen Anne Victorian mansion,
above; Battery Point Lighthouse, Crescent City,
center; Roosevelt elk bulls joust during
September breeding season in Redwood
National and State Parks, bottom; sunset at
Centerville Beach, Ferndale, opposite.
DRIVE TOUR
From the GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE,
head over to the SONOMA COAST at
BODEGA BAY (yes, that Bodega Bay:
Alfred Hitchcock filmed The Birds
there). Follow dramatic, winding
Highway 1 north past FORT ROSS (a
former Russian fort), and Sea Ranch,
GUALALA, MENDOCINO and FORT
BRAGG before heading inland to
connect with Highway 101—“The
Redwood Highway”—at LEGGETT,
site of the DRIVE-THRU TREE PARK.
Continuing north on the Redwood
Highway, you’ll come to HUMBOLDT
REDWOODS STATE PARK and the
AVENUE OF THE GIANTS, EUREKA
and the cluster of redwood parks
extending almost to the Oregon
border.
108 2023-24 TRAVEL GUIDE TO CALIFORNIA
recipes; vineyards close enough to the coast
to catch the salt spray; an old Russian
trading fort; handsome Victorian villages;
possible glimpses of the elusive creature
known as Bigfoot; and bouts of creative
madness such as elaborate sculptures
racing across the landscape.
For generations, the North Coast was
said to be on the far side of the “redwood
curtain,” the psychological barrier formed
by narrow, tortuous Highway 101, which
was little more than a two-lane conduit for
heavily-laden logging trucks. But Cali-
fornia has spent the last two decades
improving the road—straightening curves,
widening it in many places to four lanes—
and now the road is an easy drive.
CRESCENT
CITY
EUREKA
HUMBOLDT
REDWOODS
STATE PARK
AVENUE OF THE GIANTS
LEGGETT
MENDOCINO
GUALALA
FORT ROSS
BODEGA BAY
SAN FRANCISCO
VINCE360/SHUTTERSTOCK; JOHN C. BIELICK/SHUTTERSTOCK; TOM REICHNER/SHUTTERSTOCK. OPPOSITE: BLOSSOMCREATIVECO/SHUTTERSTOCK