Fort Bragg and the Skunk Train: A Mendocino Coast Guide

From San Francisco, plan on 3.5 to 4 hours. The fastest route is Highway 101 to Willits, then Highway 20 west. The slower option is Highway 128 through Anderson Valley to Highway 1.

Summer is often foggy; September and October are clearest. March brings the Mendocino Coast Whale Festival.

The Skunk Train runs from two depots: Fort Bragg on the coast and Willits on Highway 101. Every ride is an out-and-back trip.

Railbikes are two-seat, electric-assist carts on the old tracks. A guide leads the group and the motor handles the grades.

Glass Beach is a set of coves north of town where Fort Bragg dumped garbage until the 1960s. The surf ground the bottles into pebbles.

There is less glass than old photos show. The best color is in the wet gravel at low tide.

Noyo Harbor is a working fishing port at the Noyo River mouth, south of downtown under the Highway 1 bridge.

Walk the waterfront along North Harbor Drive. The overlook at Noyo Headlands Park on the south side looks over the harbor mouth.

• Eat: Noyo Fish Company for fish and chips or chowder
• Eat: Princess Seafood for a sit-down lunch on the docks
• Drink: North Coast Brewing Company downtown, maker of Old Rasputin and Red Seal
• Treat: Cowlick’s Ice Cream on Main Street

MacKerricher runs for miles up the coast just north of town. The Haul Road is an old logging road, now a flat, partly broken asphalt path above the dunes for walking or biking.

Jug Handle is off Highway 1 between Fort Bragg and Caspar. The Ecological Staircase trail climbs marine terraces, each about 100,000 years older than the one below.

The full walk is about 5 miles round trip, ending in a pygmy forest of head-high cypress and pine.

Mendocino is about 15 minutes south. Do the Skunk Train, Glass Beach and Noyo Harbor on day one, then the Mendocino headlands, Russian Gulch and Point Cabrillo Light Station on day two.

See my weekend in Mendocino guide for the village. To keep driving, the Northern California coast road trip heads north to Humboldt, and the Northern California road trips hub has more routes.

• Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, just south of Fort Bragg
• Point Cabrillo Light Station, a short walk from the parking lot
• Mendocino headlands trails and the Russian Gulch State Park sea cave viewpoint

The Inn at Newport Ranch sits on an oceanfront ranch north of town toward Westport.

Most classic inns are around Mendocino village. Sea Rock Inn, Agate Cove Inn and Brewery Gulch Inn have ocean views, and The Stanford Inn takes dogs. Heritage House Resort & Spa in Little River has cliffside grounds.

See also historic hotels in Northern California and pet-friendly coast hotels.