Day 15: Crescent City to Boonville, CA

I’ve been looking forward to today’s leg of the trip. The route goes South on U.S. 101 through the Redwood Trees and then over to CA 1 and on down the Northern California Coast Line through Fort Bragg and on to CA 128 that turns East to Boonville.

The Summer brings fog. Sometimes the fog only stays around for a few hours early morning and sometimes it stays all day – you never know.

The Avenue of the Giants (CA 254) exit is a short ways South of Del Rio. Avenue of the Giants is the entrance to Humbolt Redwoods State Park and runs for about 30 miles following the Eel River and through protected old growth Redwoods. Some of these trees are more than 1500 years old, and a few are pushing 2000 years old, and as tall as 300 or more feet.

Avenue of the Giants ends in Garberville, a town of third and fourth generation hippies. You can get macramé or tie-died anything in Garberville.

At Leggett I turned West on to CA 1 – the Coast highway. The first 15 or 16 miles of Highway 1 are tight, twisty, and with very little traffic. The remainder of the Coast Highway is a bit more easy-going and foggy.

As I continued South down the Coast I passed through Fort Bragg. Fort Bragg was once a large logging center, but now days is mainly a recreation area for camping, hiking, cycling and SCUBA Diving. Lot’s of B & B’s and first-rate restaurants in the area. There is still some commercial fishing and you can get fantastic fresh fish in local restaurants.

A ways past Fort Bragg I turned on to CA128 that takes me East towards Boonville. CA 128 follows the Navarro River and winds it’s way through more Redwoods. Eventually, 128 drops down into Anderson Valley where there are some excellent vineyards and wineries. Anderson Valley is not as well know as Napa and Sonoma valleys, and much smaller, but the wine that comes from this region is really excellent.

I passed by the Navarro Winery, but was a little too late – the tasting room was closed. However, I stopped in the next morning and picked up a couple bottles of wine to take to my next destination.

A little farther East, in Philo, I passed by the vineyard where I had the “extremely minority share” in, and was happy to see it was still in operation and looking good. Duckhorn owns the vineyard and bottles under the name Goldeneye – Pinot Noir only – and pretty darn good Pinot at that.

Finally I arrived at the Boonville Hotel where I had both a room reservation and a dinner reservation. The Boonville Hotel is a quaint old hotel, operating more like a B & B. Their restaurant (Table 128) is noted for unique food, with a different single fixed menu Thursday through Monday. I like this place.

Tomorrow off to San Carlos to stay with my close friends Russ and Debbi.