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On the Road: San Francisco to Albion

On the Road: San Francisco to Albion
Posted 04-04-2007 12:11 am by Admin Admin
After a great layover day in San Francisco (highlighted by a couple excellent meals with friends: brunch at Greens in the Marina and dinner at Gary Danko, which was truly amazing and, while not inexpensive, an excellent value, I thought), I headed back up to the Mendocino area.

This time, I took Rt. 101 (or "the 101", as they say here in CA) to Rt. 128, so it was much faster--about 3 hours from Union Square to the Mendocino coast. I stopped in the charming little town of Boonville in the Anderson Valley. I took a peak at some rooms at the cute Boonville Hotel, but unfortunately the hotel's highly regarded restaurant doesn't serve lunch, so I went across the street to the Boonville General Store and had a delicious salad with Point Reyes blue cheese and beets.

Taking 101 is much faster but it's not nearly as scenic as Hwy 1, at least not until you get off 101 and onto Rt. 128. The area is dotted with dozens of wineries, and the last stretch before you hit the coast is particularly scenic as it winds through a stand of second growth redwood trees (Navarro River Redwoods State Park). My destination for the night was the Albion River Inn, about six miles south of Mendocino. This wonderful inn is probably been my favorite of the whole trip so far. It sits up on a bluff above Albion Cove and the rooms are in small cottages, some of which are single units, others of which have 2-4 units. The rooms are very spacious and the sense of privacy is excellent. The foghorn is audible as has been noted in many of the reviews of the inn but it really just becomes ambient noise along with the sounds of the surf after a while. The rooms aren't perhaps top of the line luxury but they are very, very nice and have every creature comfort (including wood-burning fireplaces and nice touches like coffee creamers in the fridge and the newspaper delivered to your door in the morning). No wireless internet though or cell phone reception, which of course isn't necessarily a bad thing! It was tempting to stay sitting on the balcony in the comfortable Adirondack chairs in the warm afternoon sun, but I had more research to do, so I changed into hiking clothes and drove a few miles north to Van Damme State Park. Here the Fern Canyon Trail stretches for about 4-5 miles up the Little River. I didn't have time to do the whole trail but I really enjoyed the stretch I did. It's quite flat and follows the river so you get the lovely sound of the babbling water.

Back at the Albion River Inn, I enjoyed a very good dinner in their restaurant (which is open to non-guests as well).

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