Northern California:
Off The Beaten Path
(Seventh Edition)
by Mark R. Williams
Published by The Globe Pequot Press
ISBN 978-0-7627-4426-8
Contents:
Introduction
San Francisco
Bay Area
South Coast
North Coast
Central Valley
Sierra Nevada
Shasta-Cascade
Introduction
"California, more than any other part of
the Union, is a country by itself, and San Francisco a capital."
-James Bryce, The American Commonwealth,
1901
How can anyone get "off the beaten path"
in Northern California, you ask? This is the larger half of the country's
most-populous, most-visited state, whose sights and attractions have become
household names. Part of the answer lies in the sheer size of California
and the astounding variety of natural and man-made wonders found here.
Another part derives from the nature of this book. It is not a guide to
Fisherman's Wharf, Alcatraz, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Carmel, Sausalito, or
any other well-trodden destination. We have deliberately chosen to ignore
such people magnets as Napa Valley wineries, the Santa Cruz Boardwalk,
Great America and other amusement parks, the state capitol, and a fistful
of gold-country tourist traps. That's where most people go.
The nice flip side, however, is that with everyone visiting those places, the rest of Northern California is surprisingly crowd-free most of the time. (Try to heed the traveler's motto: "Never on Sunday:') Nor is this book a guide to the rural "back roads" of Northern California, at least not by definition. You will indeed be sampling several country roads, but there are as many little-known, seldom-visited places in urban San Francisco as in the sticks. With this guide you'll be able to explore the dank streets of Chinatown or sip espresso with an aging Beat poet in North Beach. You'll go to an island that was off-limits until recently or follow the bloodstained trail of Sam Spade and other characters from The Maltese Falcon.
San Francisco is only the beginning, just one of seven geographical areas covered by 1his book. More than one hundred different attractions are highlighted in detail, a kind of personal "best of" Northern California based on years of experience. Although this may seem a bit arbitrary, a selective guidebook allowed us to go beyond the "once over lightly" approach to an endless number of places. It was also a lot more fun to research and write. This book will help you discover that California means Chinese Joss houses and a Russian fort as much as Spanish missions, and that Hollywood was really just an upstart when it came to making movies. The first fIlm capital was right in the East Bay at Niles.
Everyone knows about the gold rush, but what about the great "California Coal Rush?" You can visit the mines of black gold and a cemetery with gravestones inscribed in Welsh. And if that doesn't excite you, choose instead to stroll around the ornate mansion that the Reagans refused to live in. You will visit museums on everything from Egyptian history to cartoon art, surfboards to pickup trucks. The book will show you a slew of superlatives: the world's smallest mountain range and tallest tree, matched by a pygmy forest of the shortest full-grown trees on earth, some less than a foot tall. You'll take a behind-the-scenes look at the world's only cable-car system and find out about beer and sake making, orchid and grape growing, and the last lumberjack style cookhouse in the West. And for visitors with adventuresome palates, we describe a restaurant that specializes in artichokes cooked two dozen different ways.
If you equate California with sandy beaches and warm Pacific waves, you may want to take a sharp left when you get to Fresno ( if coming from the east, that is) and head for Southern California. The north, on the other hand, offers spectacular seacoast drives past Big Sur and Mendocino, the hissing volcanic terrain of Lassen and Lava Beds parks, wild river canyons, and a snow-shrouded peak with its own mystical powers. And if California means freeways to you, get ready for a visit to the state's "Empty Quarter:' where you will see more buzzards than cars. Man-made marvels are also included in the bargain, from landmark lighthouses to ultramodern cathedrals and temples. And, yes, we take you along some of those scenic shortcuts and elusive back roads to places called Volcano and Fiddletown and to a region whose name speaks for itself: the Lost Coast.
About the Author
Mark Williams is a freelance
writer currently based in the San Francisco area. In Europe, he worked
as contributing writer for the International Herald Tribune (Paris)
and senior staff writer for Lookout Magazine (Spain). Later, he
was chief editor of the Chevron Travel Club's Odyssey Magazine and
a contributor to the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times,
San
Francisco Chronicle, Westways, Travel-Holiday, and many
other publications. The author's other books include The Story of Spain
and In Search of Lemuria.
Mark Williams has a Masters
degree in History from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
To order the book, go to: www.globepequot.com