Ferndale
A fairytale come to life, this remote village features carefully preserved Victorian-era century homes, a visual and architectural feast. On a peaceful foggy morning or sunny afternoon, stroll Main Street to see buildings in all their gingerbread finery; many buildings now house B&Bs, artisan chocolatiers, galleries, and craft shops. (Holidays are especially magical, with locals stringing twinkly lights everywhere, and horse-drawn carriages giving clip-clop rides around town.)
"But no, this is no façade dressed up for show only."
But no, this is no façade dressed up for show only. Ferndale is very much a working town, the provenance of Scandinavian, Swiss-Italian, and Portuguese immigrants who settled the tucked-away community in the mid-1800s, drawn here by the booming dairy industry. Read their names in Ferndale’s 1868 cemetery, one of the state’s most beautiful burial sites. Take in sweeping views of the one-square-mile town. Let your eyes follow the Eel River westward to the sea, five miles away—a view little changed since those settlers came here long ago.
Northern California
Discover the North Coast
Romance finds a home in this idyllic coastal region, where ocean fog rolls in from the ocean to blanket hushed redwood forests, and whales spout offshore. Along the coast, artists set up their easels to paint scenes of crashing surf and whitewashed cottages wrapped in rose-filled gardens.
Each year, December through May, look to the sea to witness roughly 15,000 gray whales swimming south for the summer.
It’s also a place where a new generation of farmers and winemakers focus on preserving the land as well as producing amazing food and wine. Favorite escapes include the romantic hamlet of Mendocino, roughly a 3-hour drive up the coast from San Francisco, and Eureka, a former logging town 2 hours further north, and the gateway to breathtaking Redwoods National and State Parks.
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Clear Lake
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Mendocino National Forest
Spanning 330,780 acres of public land, Mendocino National Forest became...
Spotlight: Mendocino
5 Amazing Things to Do in Crescent City
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Klamath
Klamath is so far north that many people assume this tiny town is in Oregon, not California. Set along its...
Winter rains signal the beginning of the North Coast’s astounding mushroom season. Celebrate the harvest of one of the region’s most loved bounties—and a few other products of the libation variety...
Spotlight: Redwood National & State Parks
Hugging California's northwestern edge, a spectacular network of parks protecting nearly half of the world’s coast redwoods, the world’s tallest...
North Coast Wine Country
From quiet vineyards bounded by lush redwood forests along the Mendocino Coast, to the sun-drenched rolling hills of rugged Lake County, the North...
With more than 4,000 wineries statewide, California lets you sample award-winning wines almost anywhere you go. These classic and up-and-coming wine roads—some too packed with wineries to tackle...
You can learn a lot about a place at its local festivals, and California’s North Coast is no exception. Consider the...
Wild North Coast
Famous for grand-dame Victorians, classic cable cars, dynamic diversity, trend-defining, Michelin-starred cuisine, a beautiful waterfront, and a soaring crimson bridge, San Francisco, aka the “City by the Bay”, truly has it all and stands...
Crescent City is home to California’s northernmost lighthouse stations. The 1856 Battery Point Lighthouse...
Wine & Dine in the North Coast
The North Coast might just be the perfect place to eat. Few other places in the world can offer such a harmonious blend of chefs, farmers,...
Creativity, contraptions, and costumes—those are the mantras for this wacky three-day Memorial Day weekend event on an out-there stretch of the North Coast. Dubbed the “triathalon of the art world...
Fort Bragg
With its century-plus history as a military garrison and then a gritty lumber town, Fort Bragg skirted under the radar of most...
Skunk Train
Originally built in 1885 to transport redwood logs from the rugged backcountry to the coast, the...
Eureka
This lively seaport town, the largest coastal city between San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, has split-personality charm: a sense of history in...
Think of a river, and chances are you’ve got your own daydream. Maybe you want to float on inner tubes, or maybe your style is to careen through raucous rapids in an eight-person inflatable raft....
