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recipes; vineyards close enough to the coast to catch the salt spray; an old Russian trading fort; handsome Victorian villages; possible glimpses of the elusive creature known as Bigfoot; wealthy, tie-dyed growers of the region's largest cash crop, which Cal- ifornia voters recently legalized; and bouts of creative madness such as elaborate sculp- tures racing across the landscape. For generations, the North Coast was said to be on the far side of the "redwood curtain," the psychological barrier formed by narrow, tortuous Highway 101, which was little more than a two-lane conduit for heavily-laden logging trucks. But Cali- fornia has spent the last two decades improving the road—straightening curves, widening it in many places to four lanes— and now the road is an easy drive. 144 2 0 1 7 T R A V E L G U I D E T O C A L I F O R N I A WOODLEY ISLAND MARINA, Humboldt Bay, top; marveling at the tall trees in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, leV; scoping out the surf at Point Arena wharf, Mendocino County, boXom; Carson Mansion in historic Old Town Eureka, opposite. DRIVE TOUR » FORT ROSS BODEGA BAY SAN FRANCISCO EUREKA GUALALA LEGGETT HUMBOLDT REDWOODS STATE PARK AVENUE OF THE GIANTS MENDOCINO CRESCENT CITY From the GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE , head over to the SONOMA COAST at Bodega Bay (yes, that Bodega Bay: Alfred Hitchcock filmed The Birds there), and follow dramatic, winding Highway 1 north past the old Russian fort, FORT ROSS , and Sea Ranch, GUALALA, MENDOCINO and FORT BRAGG before heading inland to connect with Highway 101—"The Redwood Highway"—at LEGGETT , site of the DRIVE-THRU TREE PARK . Continuing north on the Redwood Highway, you'll come to HUMBOLDT REDWOODS STATE PARK and the AVENUE OF THE GIANTS, EUREKA and the cluster of redwood parks extending almost to the Oregon border. PIERDELUNE/SHUTTERSTOCK ; SERGEY NOVIKOV/SHUTTERSTOCK ; KERRICK JAMES. OPPOSITE: VICTORIA DITKOVSKY/SHUTTERSTOCK