Where to stop between San Francisco and Sea Ranch?
July 24, 2013 8:50 AM Subscribe
My partner and I will be driving from San Francisco to Sea Ranch, California one day soon. Returning a few days later. We'd love some suggestions for places to stop along the way for coffee or lunch and for my partner to take photos. Even some side trips would be possible; we have the whole day. Please tell me what you love along that route! Thank you.
Best answer: Bodega Bay is a nice sleepy fishing village (and the last real town on Highway 1 until Gualala), and if you're a Hitchcock fan it's where they filmed The Birds. My family used to stop for lunch at the Lucas Wharf restaurant when we did this trip, although in my recollection the food was a little pricy and nothing amazing. There are a few other restaurants/coffeeshops on the mile or so south of the town itself.
The Fort Ross reconstruction is a really cool piece of history (a Russian colony! In California!) and definitely worth a stop. It looks like it's only open on the weekend now, although even if it's closed I think you can still park and walk around (there are some awesome bluffs behind it).
The Ocean Cove Grocery is a good pit-stop point for snacks. I don't think they have coffee.
posted by theodolite at 9:11 AM on July 24, 2013
The Fort Ross reconstruction is a really cool piece of history (a Russian colony! In California!) and definitely worth a stop. It looks like it's only open on the weekend now, although even if it's closed I think you can still park and walk around (there are some awesome bluffs behind it).
The Ocean Cove Grocery is a good pit-stop point for snacks. I don't think they have coffee.
posted by theodolite at 9:11 AM on July 24, 2013
Best answer: Have done this exact drive a whole bunch.
For Ross is neat, if you're returning via Rte 1. I've never actually gone inside the buildings there - just wandered the grounds and looked at the ocean.
What we've often done (either on the way there or on the way home) is to go north on 1 and then turn inland on 128. This takes you through some gorgeous redwoods and the Anderson Valley, which is astonishingly lovely. You can stop at wineries (Navarro! Stop there!). You can stop in Boonville for lunch. Or Healdsburg to just walk around the square and get coffee.
posted by rtha at 9:12 AM on July 24, 2013
For Ross is neat, if you're returning via Rte 1. I've never actually gone inside the buildings there - just wandered the grounds and looked at the ocean.
What we've often done (either on the way there or on the way home) is to go north on 1 and then turn inland on 128. This takes you through some gorgeous redwoods and the Anderson Valley, which is astonishingly lovely. You can stop at wineries (Navarro! Stop there!). You can stop in Boonville for lunch. Or Healdsburg to just walk around the square and get coffee.
posted by rtha at 9:12 AM on July 24, 2013
Best answer: As a Petaluma resident (and I think our downtown is kind of picturesque, especially around the turning basin depending on which boat club is visiting on any given weekend), I think you've got basically 4 routes from 101 over to Route 1:
Every little town between Marin and Sea Ranch has some sort of tourism component. I think that Craig and Sharon have closed West Valley Designs in Valley Ford, but I found that a fun little gallery, and there are plenty of others. Depending on the weekend, Guerneville can be "Castro north", which is rather pleasantly unexpected for such a rural place (I'm going up two weekends from now to do some demonstration square dancing with our club to try to drag some folks from the "Bear weekend" into our club and dancing generally).
Some of my recommendations are time dependent. The beach just north of Bodega Bay is wonderful for exploring tide pools if you've got a strong minus tide. If you come through Petaluma between 11AM and 1PM on a Sunday, be sure to stop at the Ghirardelli Barn/River Heritage Center and borrow a boat (free!) to explore the Petaluma River with. Tomales Bay in the early morning can be eerily beautiful.
Much of my exploration of this area has been on bicycle, which means I'm biased towards bakeries with awesome pastries. In Marin there's great hiking or semi-mountain biking (Arch Rock from the Point Reyes visitor's center in Olema is a great combo trail ride and hike, a little tedious for a straight hike).
Plenty of beaches along the way to stop and wander along. The 116 route has some redwood options. I think that to narrow it down we need a little more on what kind of photos and side trips you might want.
posted by straw at 9:49 AM on July 24, 2013 [2 favorites]
- Route 1 at Mill Valley, which can either send you along the back of Mt Tam, or down to the coast along Stinson Beach, up through the Eucalyptus grove by Bolinas, and along the fault line until...
- Sir Francis Drake at San Rafael, which takes you out through San Anselmo and Fairfax, and drops you out on Route 1 just south of Point Reyes Station. Between here and Bodega Bay you get a nice view along the shores of Tomales Bay, and then you're into West Marin for a while as 1 veers inland from the coast for a bit.
- Bodega Highway from Petaluma, out through Valley Ford and to Bodega Bay.
- 116 out through Sebastopol and up through Guerneville, down the Russian River to the coast, and then north.
Every little town between Marin and Sea Ranch has some sort of tourism component. I think that Craig and Sharon have closed West Valley Designs in Valley Ford, but I found that a fun little gallery, and there are plenty of others. Depending on the weekend, Guerneville can be "Castro north", which is rather pleasantly unexpected for such a rural place (I'm going up two weekends from now to do some demonstration square dancing with our club to try to drag some folks from the "Bear weekend" into our club and dancing generally).
Some of my recommendations are time dependent. The beach just north of Bodega Bay is wonderful for exploring tide pools if you've got a strong minus tide. If you come through Petaluma between 11AM and 1PM on a Sunday, be sure to stop at the Ghirardelli Barn/River Heritage Center and borrow a boat (free!) to explore the Petaluma River with. Tomales Bay in the early morning can be eerily beautiful.
Much of my exploration of this area has been on bicycle, which means I'm biased towards bakeries with awesome pastries. In Marin there's great hiking or semi-mountain biking (Arch Rock from the Point Reyes visitor's center in Olema is a great combo trail ride and hike, a little tedious for a straight hike).
Plenty of beaches along the way to stop and wander along. The 116 route has some redwood options. I think that to narrow it down we need a little more on what kind of photos and side trips you might want.
posted by straw at 9:49 AM on July 24, 2013 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Oh, this is so cool! straw, I'm honestly a bit scared to narrow things down. I hadn't been looking for something like Fort Ross at all, but we will almost certainly do that.
Since we come from the midwest, we do like a lot of ocean: ocean views, walking on the beach, etc.
Thanks so much, everyone. I'm getting really excited for this trip!
posted by BibiRose at 10:05 AM on July 24, 2013
Since we come from the midwest, we do like a lot of ocean: ocean views, walking on the beach, etc.
Thanks so much, everyone. I'm getting really excited for this trip!
posted by BibiRose at 10:05 AM on July 24, 2013
Best answer: Okay, so we who live here become jaded, and I didn't realize this was a "visiting from elsewhere" question, sooo...
I think the big problem is that there isn't a weekend that goes by that I'm not reluctantly choosing one awesome activity over another awesome activity.
Down in Marin, just across the Golden Gate, is the remains of the WWII and Cold War military installations. Explore old gun emplacements tunnelled into the hills, and the Nike Missile site which, if you catch it on a day when the docents are there (don't know current schedule) you can ride the missile lift down into the underground hangar. It's like a supervillain lair and is awesome.
North of that you've got Muir Woods (if you take Route 1 across from Mill Valley) or, if you go up across Sir Francis Drake it's a short detour to Roy's Redwoods, a much smaller grove, but fewer tourists and if you have a local guide or are persistent, you can find the hole to climb down inside a tree (really: super cool, a little freaky).
One of my favorite things in the world is being part of a bicycling paceline cruising at 25MPH along the edge of Tomales Bay, with old boat wrecks, active fishing boats, great views. It's also awesome in a car with the windows down. But Bodega Bay also has much of the boat stuff happening.
Lots of cliffs and Pacific Ocean. I also haven't explored Armstrong Redwoods up near Guerneville, but I suspect that that's got much of the same awesome as Muir Woods and Roy's Redwoods.
I'm planning on spending the rest of my life living in this area, and I don't expect that I'll run out of things to see and do in that time. Really, when you get done with the spectacular beauty dive into the vibrant local cultures and... yeah, I'm raving, aren't I?
posted by straw at 11:01 AM on July 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
I think the big problem is that there isn't a weekend that goes by that I'm not reluctantly choosing one awesome activity over another awesome activity.
Down in Marin, just across the Golden Gate, is the remains of the WWII and Cold War military installations. Explore old gun emplacements tunnelled into the hills, and the Nike Missile site which, if you catch it on a day when the docents are there (don't know current schedule) you can ride the missile lift down into the underground hangar. It's like a supervillain lair and is awesome.
North of that you've got Muir Woods (if you take Route 1 across from Mill Valley) or, if you go up across Sir Francis Drake it's a short detour to Roy's Redwoods, a much smaller grove, but fewer tourists and if you have a local guide or are persistent, you can find the hole to climb down inside a tree (really: super cool, a little freaky).
One of my favorite things in the world is being part of a bicycling paceline cruising at 25MPH along the edge of Tomales Bay, with old boat wrecks, active fishing boats, great views. It's also awesome in a car with the windows down. But Bodega Bay also has much of the boat stuff happening.
Lots of cliffs and Pacific Ocean. I also haven't explored Armstrong Redwoods up near Guerneville, but I suspect that that's got much of the same awesome as Muir Woods and Roy's Redwoods.
I'm planning on spending the rest of my life living in this area, and I don't expect that I'll run out of things to see and do in that time. Really, when you get done with the spectacular beauty dive into the vibrant local cultures and... yeah, I'm raving, aren't I?
posted by straw at 11:01 AM on July 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
Best answer: ocean views, walking on the beach, etc.
Sea Ranch is excellent for this. But there are quite long stretches of 1 between Bodega and Sea Ranch where there are basically no accessible beaches, because it's all high bluffs that fall directly into the ocean.
Also, how are you with driving winding, two-land roads? One of the reasons I recommended Fort Ross is that when we take that route home, it's a good place to stop and walk around and recover from being a little car sick. I've gotten kind of car sick - when I'm the driver! If either of you has issues with driving along a drop-off, negotiate beforehand who will be driving south on 1 (if that's the way you return to SF). Much of the way will have pastures between the road and the cliff, but some portions won't, and that can be nerve-wracking.
Oh: cows! Yes, some parts of the drive take you through working cattle ranches, and the pastures are not all fenced. We have encountered cow-caused slowdowns in traffic.
For groceries at Sea Ranch, go a little north into Gualala. We always go to the grocery store that's on the west side of 1. I'm sure the store on the east side is nice, but we never go there because...habit.
You should also visit the lighthouse at Point Arena (north of Sea Ranch). It's small and beautiful and the photography possibilities are endless, barring fog.
posted by rtha at 11:23 AM on July 24, 2013 [2 favorites]
Sea Ranch is excellent for this. But there are quite long stretches of 1 between Bodega and Sea Ranch where there are basically no accessible beaches, because it's all high bluffs that fall directly into the ocean.
Also, how are you with driving winding, two-land roads? One of the reasons I recommended Fort Ross is that when we take that route home, it's a good place to stop and walk around and recover from being a little car sick. I've gotten kind of car sick - when I'm the driver! If either of you has issues with driving along a drop-off, negotiate beforehand who will be driving south on 1 (if that's the way you return to SF). Much of the way will have pastures between the road and the cliff, but some portions won't, and that can be nerve-wracking.
Oh: cows! Yes, some parts of the drive take you through working cattle ranches, and the pastures are not all fenced. We have encountered cow-caused slowdowns in traffic.
For groceries at Sea Ranch, go a little north into Gualala. We always go to the grocery store that's on the west side of 1. I'm sure the store on the east side is nice, but we never go there because...habit.
You should also visit the lighthouse at Point Arena (north of Sea Ranch). It's small and beautiful and the photography possibilities are endless, barring fog.
posted by rtha at 11:23 AM on July 24, 2013 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: This is all wonderful! I'm going to save this thread to my tablet for the trip and will keep gathering ideas. Hopefully we will be spending more time in that general area-- family moving there, plus we often fly through SF and have been meaning to start staying for more than just a layover when we do.
Thanks, everyone!
posted by BibiRose at 9:25 AM on July 25, 2013
Thanks, everyone!
posted by BibiRose at 9:25 AM on July 25, 2013
Best answer: If either or both of you are fans of beer, there are also many microbreweries along the way. Let me know (here or via memail, or you can search my askme history for North Coast, Bear Republic, Boont, or Lagunitas) if you want more details!
posted by rtha at 9:50 AM on July 25, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by rtha at 9:50 AM on July 25, 2013 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: Wow, that was a wonderful trip-- many thanks to everyone! We stopped at Muir Woods and a number of scenic outlook spots; Bodega; Fort Ross. We checked out Fort Ross in some detail. Also The Marshall Store a lunch spot recommended by our locals. We drove through Petaluma and it was lovely. We didn't visit any wine or beer makers but probably will another time. I feel lucky that family members are retiring there and we will hopefully have other occasions to visit. Honestly, for a midwesterner you could just drive around that area randomly and it would be enjoyable. The views are stunning. I will not soon forget driving above the clouds on Rte. 1.
posted by BibiRose at 9:11 AM on August 21, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by BibiRose at 9:11 AM on August 21, 2013 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by parmanparman at 9:02 AM on July 24, 2013