Huh, that’s funny. I used to live in Ft Bragg, so I always thought of Mendocino as the tourist zone.
We used to go to the Indycar race at Laguna Seca every year. It was always after the race inVancouver so we would either fly to Portland and drive south or to LA and drive north. The drive south through the redwoods is still one of my favourite memories of when we used to go.
We once stayed in a log hotel somewhere between Mendocino and San Francisco that was basically perched on the rock overlooking the ocean. All I remember is that the food was really good, the racoons can open your balcony door to steal your chips and that it was at least a 20 minute drive to the nearest store but I can’t find it again onGoogle. Anyone know which hotel I mean?
Definitely. It’s the tourist zone for a reason.
Is the first half of November the rainy season yet? That’s the earliest this year I could go, wondering if I should drop the idea for now and do something else. I don’t mind if it’s cold but if it’s cold and wet I’d rather forget it.
Chances are, depending on where you’re staying, you’ll be driving in the opposite direction from the rush hour traffic. In the morning, you’d be driving outbound while most everyone else is driving inbound.
If the weather is good and you walk over the bridge and it’s a weekend, you might see a million little sailboats out on the bay. Well, I saw that once. Maybe they were having a regatta or other such event that day.
Check out the above-mentioned visitor center at the north end of the bridge, but don’t waste any pixels on photos from there. Instead, just notice the mountain immediately across the highway from the visitor center. You can drive up that mountain (it’s a recreation area called Fort Cronkhite) for a REAL photo op! The view is like seeing the bridge and San Francisco from a low-flying airplane. NOT to be missed! There are ruins of WWII forts up there too.
Redwood Highway is none other than U. S. 101, from the north end of the bridge on northward. Did somebody mention that it’s a fabulous drive?
But don’t omit to check out all the side trips and by-roads. From San Rafael, you can take Sir Francis Drake Blvd. to Highway 1 on the coast. Or, from Cotati or Santa Rosa, there are highways west to Sebastopol – check it out – and from there on to Hwy 1. These roads all go through redwoods. Or, all the way up in Cloverdale (north end of Sonoma County), there’s Hwy 128, mentioned above.
Are you into hiking? Take the road past Sebastopol towards Guerneville. At Guerneville, take side-road to Armstrong Redwoods State Reseve – plenty of trees, hiking, picnic areas. Are you into boating, kayaking, fishing, or other river recreations? Check out the Russian River in that area.
Sonoma County has wineries galore, if you’re into that, and B&B’s – tremendous amount of touristy attractions like that.
(Note: I’m writing this post, without having read the entire thread yet. I’m just noticing that there’s already a lot of suggestions. Seriously, this is fabulously beautiful area. And yes, a drive along Highway 1 is the best of the best. A bit of confusion about the names: I don’t think you’ll see the phrase “Pacific Coast Highway” in that area – that phrase is used more in Southern California.)
The thing to do is take Redwood Highway (U. S. 101) most of the way, but cut over to Hwy 1 for some portion of the trip. I suggest: Heading north, cut over to Hwy 1 at Sausalito (just north of the bridge), follow Hwy 1 to Jenner (at the mouth of the Russian River), then cut back to 101 from there. This is the road through Guerneville and Sebastopol and Santa Rosa (or Rohnert Park or Cotati).
The skeeviest part of Hwy 1 is north of there, which you can skip. The portion I suggest is just fine and fabulously pretty.
(missed edit window.)
Yeah, if your plan is drive from S.F. to the Oregon border, you’re not talking about a one-day trip. This is an ALL-DAY drive just ONE-way, and that’s if you stay on 101 and don’t stop much. If you actually want to do any sightseeing or recreational activities, you could spend two or three whole days without ever getting beyond, say, Ukiah. Plan on making it a several-day excursion.
ETA: Consider this as a possibility: Stay in Santa Rosa (Sonoma County), and make that your base of operations. Reasonably short drive south to S. F. when you want to go there, and you’ve already got a good start on your northern adventures. And it’s right in the midst of a very attractive area itself to begin with.
It’s possible that at least the season’s first rain will have happened by then, but a serious deluge or extended string of storms in November is pretty unlikely.
The plan was to fly into San Francisco, drive over the Golden Gate Bridge, then spend the night on the Marin Peninsula, taking the Sausalito ferry the next day into downtown San Francisco, and then the next day head north on the Redwood Highway.
I did some checking, and the only Holiday Inn Express on the Marin Peninsula is absolutely astronomically priced. Is there something similar that’s cheaper (not much more than $100 a night including breakfast and parking) Otherwise I’ll probably stay in Vallejo and take BART in, or else do San Francisco on the return from Redwood Park (staying in Sonoma the first night), and stay in Vallejo upon our return to the bay area.
We’ve just got back from our holiday in the western US, including 4 nights in SF for under $110 a night. We travelled north from SF, mostly on 101, to Willits then Fort Bragg, stayed the night and then drove north to the Avenue of the Giants.
I don’t know if it would suit you, but we stayed at La Luna Inn on Lombard Street, near Divisadero Street. Breakfast parking and WiFi included. We only had one queen bed, so if you have additional people, then it will be more.
Paul’s in Klamath (north of the bridge with the bears on it) has the best smoked salmon anywhere. Everyone else seems to think smoked salmon needs sugar.
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I did some checking, and the only Holiday Inn Express on the Marin Peninsula is absolutely astronomically priced. Is there something similar that’s cheaper (not much more than $100 a night including breakfast and parking) Otherwise I’ll probably stay in Vallejo and take BART in…
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Unless they built a new line recently, BART doesn’t go to Vallejo. Or we’re you planning to drive across the Carquinez bridge into Richmond and pick up BART there? Between bridge tolls, BART fare and your time, that may not be cost-effective.
A hotel for not much more than $100 with breakfast and parking? Maybe down in Salinas? The SF area is notoriously expensive - FWIW, my company’s per diem for hotels is $230/day, and we’re not expecting breakfast or parking to be included at that rate.
If you are going as far north as Eureka, I suggest you go just a bit farther north to Trinidad and Patrick’s Point for the spectacular views of the ocean. Then just go a tiny bit farther to the Lagoons. See the Elk and take stunning pictures of the landscape, during the magic hour if you can. It’s maybe an hour north of Eureka, if you drive slowly.
AFAIK, the nicest and best priced hotels are in the casinos near Eureka.
The restaurants in the casinos are also nice.
I don’t necessarily recommend the actual casinos.
Other hotels are nice, but not in the best crime areas. Unfortunately Eureka has a large population of drug addicts and an overcrowded jail. Don’t leave anything in your car. On the other hand, there are quite a few laid back friendly and genuine people who will share their favorite secret hiking spots with you.
We do plan to drive all the way to Oregon on US 101 since it’s not much beyond Redwood Park and we can claim another state. Probably stay two nights in Eureka and drive to the park and Oregon and back in the day.
The things I want to do for sure are in the downtown / north bay / Redwood park trip this time, so it makes sense to look for lodging in the northern area. The Holiday Inn Expresses that we can afford seem to be well north and west of the cities, in American Canyon, Benicia, and Walnut Creek. That is the plan to drive to a BART lot and park and ride as I don’t want to drive and park in downtown.
I’m still sketching things out, One idea I had was to go around through Grant’s Pass driving the entire Redwood Highway then back down I-5, another idea was to spend some time in the south bay area at yet another hotel and see Carmel and Monterrey, although doing LA and the south bay area in a future trip is something else I’m thinking of.
Correct, BART does not go to Vallejo. There is, however, a ferry from Vallejo to SF that you might look into. If you’re driving to BART, note that the Richmond station is way out of the way – go to El Cerrito del Norte.
Eureka to Brookings, OR is maybe an hour drive, and it’s through Redwood National Park. Stop at the Lady Bird Johnson Grove, Prairie Creek, and/or Jedediah Smith.
Eureka to I-5, via Crescent City to Grant’s Pass, is about 3.5 hrs. Personally, I’d take Carmel/Monterey over Grant’s Pass any day.
The nice thing about Oregon is that in the '60s, Gov. McCall made the beaches part of the state highway system: there are no private beaches in Oregon. The Oregon coast is PF nice.
For what it’s worth…an alternative to Redwood National Park would be Humboldt Redwoods State Park. It’s on Hwy 101 but farther south (closer to SF) and has taller trees…at least, at one point the world’s tallest tree was in HRSP.
I’m thinking it almost makes more sense to stay in Crescent City, even though my choice of hotels isn’t here.
How does my proposed itinerary sound:
Sunday: Fly into SFO, drive to Sonoma and overnight
Monday: Drive to Eureka/Crescent City, maybe stop someplace along the way
Tuesday: See Redwood National Park
Wednesday, Drive to Sacremento over the mountains to I-5.
Thursday, See the state Capitol in the morning, a Napa winery in the afternoon, drive to Vallejo.
Friday: take the ferry to see downtown San Francisco and Alcatraz
Saturday: Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
Sunday: Drive to SFO and fly home.
Driving The Redwood Highway sounds like a euphemism. You can choose for yourself what for.