North Coast weekend getaway: 10 adventures on the Sonoma-Mendocino coast

Northern California’s coastline has always been a remedy for the stresses of everyday life. The briny air, craggy cliffs and crashing waves are good for whatever ails you – which in 2025 is pretty much everything everywhere all at once.

Most Bay Area denizens take 101 north, then dart across to Mendocino or Sea Ranch, making one their sole destination. But there are plenty of adventures and tales to be had on the coast in between.

Head for the Mendocino-Sonoma coast, and you, too, can stroll sandy beaches, hike woodsy trails and enjoy tasty bites, everything from passionfruit doughnuts to huckleberry vodka, bowls of chowder and biscuits filled with eggs and chile-glazed bacon.

Consider this guide a chart-your-own adventure with nine ways to fill your days on the NorCal coast.

REFLECT: At a Sea Ranch chapel

It sits off Highway 1, just before you cross the border from Sonoma into Mendocino County, a biomorphic structure of startling curves and shiny colors looking like a massive sea snail that crawled out of the ocean.

This is the Sea Ranch Chapel, a non-denominational sanctuary in the rustic-Modernist community of The Sea Ranch. It was designed by artist and architect James Hubbell – whose dwellings have been described as “hobbit houses” – to pay tribute to a local’s son, Navy aviator and artist Kirk Ditzler who died in 1982. His sketches of seashells and wings inspired the organic appearance of the chapel, which was built three years later by local artisans, including a woodworker whose boat-building skills helped form the curvilinear roof.

The chapel is an excellent starting point to shake the clutter of big-city living from your mind. It’s open year-round, sunrise to dusk, free to enter for anybody seeking a haven for quiet reflection. Approaching the building feels like stumbling upon a forest-wizard’s home in the Tolkien universe.

It’s even quieter inside the chapel – the whistling wind is gone, the ocean a dull roar, just your footsteps on the stone floor. Rainbow light filters through stained glass, and the wood-slat ceiling has symphony-hall grandeur. Take a seat on a polished wood bench or at the wrought-iron prayer screen and let your mind ponder great questions. Does it matter that the atomic Doomsday Clock is now set to 89 seconds to midnight? Did you remember to turn off Slack notifications? What’s for dinner? You’ll leave refreshed and ready for the adventure ahead.

Details: Open sunrise to sunset daily at 40033 Highway 1 in Sea Ranch — at mile marker 55.66, across the highway from a street named Bosun’s Reach; thesearanchchapel.org.

EAT: Fairy cakes and croissants

Twenty miles north, the historic town of Point Arena offers a few restaurants and bars, a vaudeville-era theater from the Roaring Twenties that shows oldies and first-run flicks and miles of hiking trails, thanks to the Point Arena-Stornetta Lands of the California Coastal National Monument. And the Point Arena Lighthouse is a 10-minute drive away.

Even if you have no interest in lighthouses, hiking trails or “Mufasa” screenings, Franny’s Cup & Saucer is all the reason you need to stop here. Run by Franny Burkey Robbings and her mother, Barbara Burkey, this tiny, cash-only bakery is buttery pastry heaven. Enter through the whimsical, pale blue facade and you’re greeting by an explosion of color – pink walls, colorful paper lanterns, toys of all sorts and a patisserie case and racks filled with cupcakes, flaky croissants, danishes and fruit-filled puff pastry. There are frittatas, calzones, biscuit sandwiches — with eggs, cheese and chile-glazed bacon, yet — and more than a dozen types of cookies, as well as coffee from the Little Green Bean Roastery next door.

We’re not even sure what our breakfast choice was called  – we just pointed – but it tasted like the pastry progeny of a chocolate croissant-cinnamon roll romance.

Details: Opens at 8 a.m. Wednesday-Sunday at 213 Main St. in Point Arena; frannyscupandsaucer.com.

EAT: Pastrami on the coast

Any Highway 1 road trip needs a stop in Elk, a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it enclave halfway between Point Arena and Mendocino. This was once a bustling lumber town with a sawmill, its own railroad and shipping fleet, 10 hotels, 15 saloons, multiple dance halls — and a great back story.

Elk is a two-name town, originally coined for the four Greenwood brothers who settled the area in 1852. But when the town tried to register its post office in 1887, trouble ensued. Turns out the Greenwoods’ father had already named another town after himself in El Dorado County. So this one was renamed Elk, a postal-appeasing move that pleased pretty much no one. The solution: The town is Greenwood. The post office? Elk.

Today, the two-name town has a population of just over 200 — and it’s home to the wonderfully retro Elk Store, where you can buy everything from paella pans and puzzles to picnic inspiration. The deli offers breakfast panini at all hours and deli sandwiches ($12-$16.50) that range from Caprese sammies and turkey-avocado to the irresistibly named Four Mules Named Maude for pastrami fans. (We are major Four Mules fans.)

Load up your picnic basket, then head for the access trail across the street. It leads down to Greenwood State Beach, where you can dip your toes in the chilly waves, take in the views and drink a toast to the original Maude quartet, four hard-working mules who pulled the heavy lumber carts from that 19th-century sawmill to the wharf.

Details: The Elk Store is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday-Monday at 6101 S. Highway 1 in Elk/Greenwood; theelkstore.com

SLEEP: At a Cafe Beaujolais-style inn

Margaret Fox first opened the doors of her iconic cafe nearly 50 years ago, delighting locals and wooing besotted Bay Area weekenders. These days, Cafe Beaujolais is owned by restaurateurs Peter and Melissa Lopez and their son and chef, Julian, who also run the alfresco pizza-centric Brickery out back, the Waiting Room, a coffee and wine bar next door, and a charming boutique hotel they opened in 2022 on the same block.

Dubbed Nicholson House, the Victorian dates back to 1891, but it’s been redone so thoroughly and so tastefully, you won’t find a creaky floorboard anywhere. The tile floors in the chic green-tiled bathrooms are heated. The furniture is a mix of vintage and handcrafted, and the welcoming touches range from fluffy bathrobes to madeleines and whiskey waiting in your room. And in the morning, mosey over to the Waiting Room for a latte and a scone.

Nicholson House: Rooms start at $250. 951 Ukiah St., Mendocino, nicholsonhouse.com.

STROLL: Down Mendocino’s lanes

Lattes and pastries are the perfect kickoff for a day of rambling along clifftop trails and exploring the little shops that dot Mendocino’s picturesque lanes. Village Toy Store, for example, brims with picture books and cuddly stuffed creatures — soft blue whales and other, huggable sea creatures. Gallery Books serves up ocean views along with fiction and non-fiction volumes. You’ll find kid-pleasers in the Bookwinkle’s section.

Feeling peckish? Head for Patterson’s Pub, the town’s venerable Irish bar, which is open for lunch, dinner and socializing until 10 p.m. If you find yourself praising the heavens at this pub, that’s not only warranted – the beer-battered fish and chips ($22) is delish – it’s appropriate, too. The historic building was erected in 1866 as a Catholic church rectory, “so all our spirits,” say owners Tony and Mary Anne Graham, “are sanctified.” That goes for the beer and wine, too.

Details: Village Toy Store opens at 11 a.m. Tuesday-Saturday at 10450 Lansing St. in Mendocino. Gallery Books and Bookwinkle’s opens at 10 a.m. daily at 319 Kasten St. gallerybookshop.com. And Patterson’s Pub opens at 11 a.m. daily for guests ages 21 and up at 10485 Lansing St., Mendocino; pattersonspub.com.

EAT: Fishy fare