Where is GUALALA?
Fronted by ocean and backed by redwoods, Gualala, Calif., a former logging town, draws visitors who view nature as an opportunity for art and meditation. Only slow, winding roads lead to Gualala, which is a three-hour, 120-mile drive north from San Francisco. Gualala, usually pronounced wa-LA-la, is said to come from a Pomo Indian word meaning “where the water flows down.” The village, with its arresting mustard-colored 1903 hotel, sits where the Gualala River empties into the Pacific Ocean in a banana belt—a several-mile stretch where the leaden coastal fogs usually burn off to reveal blue sky.
While other North Coast hamlets are crowded to the edge of the continent by timbered heights, this one has Gualala Point Regional Park nearby to open up the land for easy solitary walking or beachcombing on a wide sandbar. After you’ve discovered the surround-sound ocean, tide pools, shorebirds, sea lions, and maybe whales (migrating north in February), treat yourself to a river excursion. You can get a canoe or a kayak in town from Adventure Rents and float lazily on the Gualala, whose mouth forms a “lake” rimmed by chapel-like groves of redwoods.
The remoteness may have once slowed progress in Gualala—electricity didn’t arrive here until 1952—but today it’s a blessing for travelers who want to get away from it all.
Donna | 
July 1, 2009 7:55 pm
Subscribe
