Page 100 - 2024/2025 Travel Guide to CALIFORNIA

98 2024-25 TRAVEL GUIDE TO CALIFORNIA
SUNSET ON CENTERVILLE BEACH in Ferndale, above; Pink Lady, a Queen Anne Victorian man- sion, center; Downtown Old Town Eureka, bottom; walking with sheep in the vineyards of Pennyroyal Farmstead, Boonville, Mendocino County, 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.
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
MENDOCINO
GUALALA
AVENUE OF THE GIANTS
LEGGETT
FORT ROSS BODEGA BAY
SAN FRANCISCO
BLOSSOMCREATIVECO/SHUTTERSTOCK; VINCE360/SHUTTERSTOCK; CALIMEDIA/SHUTTERSTOCK. OPPOSITE:KERRICK JAMES