Originally Posted by
Harun
No personal experience with anything north of Bodega Bay or Santa Rosa for me, but two areas that come to mind when I do finally ride up around there are
Avenue of the Giants and
The Lost Coast.
The Lost Coast and the Avenue overlap a bit, so it's kind of hard to do both on one trip. I suppose everyone should ride the Avenue once, but I generally turn off at Fortuna to Ferndale and do the length of the Lost Coast. (The last 24 miles, Usul Rd, is unpaved but very nice.) Ferndale has the Kinetic Sculpture Museum, which is apparently a hoot; it's never been open when I've ridden through.
For the rider who wants it all, maybe ride the Avenue and then head out towards Shelter Cove. The road to Shelter Cove is a bit narrow (and don't ride it on Friday afternoon when people are racing to their second homes), but it's better than the stretch of hwy 101 through Richardson Grove. There's camp grounds at Shelter Cove or one can short-cut over to Usul Rd on Briceland Thorn Rd to shorten the unpaved section to a mere 24 miles by skipping Chemise Mountain Rd. Usul Rd hits hwy 1 thirty miles north of Ft. Bragg.
Of course the best part of the Lost Coast is in Eureka. That would be the Lost Coast Brewery, maker of Downtown Brown ale.