I want to get away from it all alongside the ocean. I mean really away from it all. But with a few restaurants and an internet connection too.
So far Shelter Cove seems to fill the bill, but it’s hard to tell just from websites. It’s a hell of a long way off the beaten path, which is a plus in my book.
But I’m curious as to whether any dopers have been there in the flesh. If so, what’s it like?
I can’t vouch for the restaurants or internet, but I can vouch for “away from it all.” The area immediately north of Shelter Cove is known as the Lost Coast, a 25-mile stretch of coast with no “civilized” access. It’s possible to walk that entire 25 miles on the beach at low tide; there’s a bluff-top trail for high tide, and then a steep mountain slope to keep out the rest of civilization. My only visit there was a backpack trip where we walked north along the ridgetop, dropped down to the beach, then walked back south to where we started; hence I can’t vouch for the local amentities. But it’s definitely spectacular country.
I’ve never even heard of it, and I grew up in Northern California. Must be pretty damned BFE. Sounds like a good choice for getting away from it all.
Drove down there about 15 years ago. When I saw the seaplane coming in, I realized it was way too rich for my blood. It looked like any other small town alnog Highway 1 north of Bodega bay. Turned around and left. Now I see they are selling lots and trying to create a housing development around there.
I’ve been spoiled by the remoteness of Western Alaska. I prefer Cape Mendicino myself. Nothing but a herd of cattle. The road follows the beach for about 5 miles. Interesting tide pools by the big rock. During the day you see about 4-6 vehicles per hour and rarely see anyone stop.
I also love the countryside from Honeydew to Petrolia and back through to Ferndale (Nice little Victorian style town). I drive through the area every year just to refresh myself with the remoteness.
Twoflower, sounds good so far!
Old Goat, I thought it’d have to be different from other towns off of Hiway 1 in the north of the state because it was so damned far away from Hiway 1 and all other access to anywhere and/or anything.
And I like seaplanes. I haven’t flown one in a while, though.
Any other opinions/info?
I have to wonder whether** Old Goat** may be confused about where Shelter Cove is … it’s definitely a long way from Hwy 1; and is actually at the southern end of the Cape Mendocino area.
Seaplane might be a good way to get there, though. IIRC the road out to the coast from Garberville (Hwy 101) is about an hour’s drive, and 1.5 lanes wide.
It is definitely remote; during the winter it is not unusual for the road to get snowed in. I don’t know about internet connections–I didn’t stay in a hotel, but I don’t remember any mention–but the restaurants I went to were meh. It’s kind of in transition between being this sleeply little summer cottage town and a sort of reclusive retirement development; there’s a lot of home building going on. Nice tide pools but you can get that long the whole coast. IIRC, there’s a road that runs right off the bluff at the north end of town, where the ground collapsed. There’s really not anything to do there. I gave it eight hours and saw all the sights twice, plus breakfast and lunch and a nap. ::yawn::
It was okay to see it once, but not the sort of place I’d go back to. There are better spots along the coast. The King Range National Conservation Area and California’s “Lost Coast” are a great area for hiking and camping, or just sitting by the seashore and letting time seriously pass. Man, I need to head back up there…soon.
Stranger
Qadgop, I’ve not been to Shelter Cove myself, but a good female friend (whose opinion I trust) dated a guy who had a house there, and she was very unimpressed. It’s certainly remote, but according to her it’s more “gated community” remote than “quaint fishing village that time forgot” remote. She met lawyers and doctors from San Francisco, not one-legged Sea Captains going “Aaaargh, matey”. (I understand that you may not be looking for either of those, but you have to admit that the latter are more interesting than the former). She also said that the restaurants and cafes had the pretensions of Bay Area establishments with none of the quality, and had no “local” flavor whatsoever. Overall, she was rather disgusted by the place.
To put things in perspective, I’ve spent many a happy day in Arcata, Eureka, Fort Bragg, and Mendocino. You can easily drive from any of those places to some pretty wild countryside and ocean scenery. However, no-one is going to claim that any of them are “miles away from civilization”.
Here is the California Coastal Records Project image of the Shelter Cove Airport. You can scroll the images all the way up the coast to Oregon or down to Mexico, so if you have patience you should get a pretty good idea of what the Lost Coast has to offer (I consider the CCRP one of the most fascinating projects on the Web, even though Barbra Streisand disagrees).
Speaking purely personally, if I were traveling from Wisconsin and wanted remote Pacific coastline I’d avoid California entirely, and go straight to British Columbia or Alaska (or perhaps Washington, with Oregon bringing up the rear).
I’m somewhat curious about the seaplanes that previous posters have mentioned. Where on earth do they land? There’s no sheltered inlet, lagoon, estuary, lake, etc… just the Pacific Ocean, which is rather wild and rocky at that point. Plus, of course, the landing strip in the photo to which I linked, but that’s a litttle rough for seaplanes unless they’re dual-purpose.
If you’re counting votes, this Northern California resident would vote thumbs down on Shelter Cove.
*That *link was worth the price of admission alone! Thanks Antonius!
You’re welcome, Twoflower!
I really like the way the CCRP site is laid out. Navigation up and down the coast is easy using the zoom feature on the map window, and there’s a link on the page to Google Maps (this link is specific to the current photo view, so you can easily flip from photo to map to satellite image). I can spend hours on there… The high-res photos are 6MP, so show a lot of detail – which is why Babs got so upset. There are also several photos from decades ago, so you can see how the coastline has been eroded and developed over the years.
Well, I’ve been to shelter cove and I liked it. I was there to camp and hike and loll around on the beach, and I got to do all of that. So I can’t really vouch for restaurants or anything like that. But I will say that it is remote and tremendously beautiful. And extremely far from civilization as I know it. I never met any yuppies up there, but I didn’t meet anyone in general. If you are into camping and hiking, I’d recommend it.
Thanks, Antonius! That’s a hell of a link.
I was sort of turned off by the picture that made it look like a subdivision around an airport by the sea.
And thanks Ghanima and Stranger for your firsthand recollections!
I might just have to visit it one day.
I’d consider BC or Alaska (I’ve visited both), but after decades in Wisconsin, while I can do wild, wooly, desolate, and cold, I just don’t like snow so much anymore, and I like more hours of daylight in the winter!
A local TV show called Bay Area Backroads did a piece on Shelter Cove and the Lost Coast:
Part 1
Restaurants and lodging
There isn’t a Part 2 that I could find.
Interesting! Thanks, gotpasswords!
I think I’ll have to check out the area, if I’m ever able. But as a retirement getaway place, I expect it’ll be too rich and elite for my blood, by the looks of it.