Lost Coast Scenic Drive

The Lost Coast Scenic Drive begins in Ferndale, California and takes visitors on a wild drive through some of the backpack country of the state. Victorian Ferndale is part of the drive, which also takes riders through alpine forests towards the King Range. It then leads into Humboldt Redwoods State Park. From Ferndale visitors will need to take Mattole Road or the Wildcat towards Petrolia in the south. From here the high alpine forest will bring visitors to Capetown.

In the old days the road was a stagecoach dirt piece that helped get travelers from various places in California to the Capetown Stage Coach stop. After Capetown is a road that drops to the sea, touching near the Pacific Ocean at Cape Mendocino. There is six miles of road that leads inland again, running along Mattole River on the scenic drive. At Honeydew the river valley of Mattole is seen before going into the state park. Visitors can pick up highway 101 at this point to get back to Ferndale. There are numerous sea views, grasslands, and tiny rural towns along the road that make the scenic drive better than taking highway 101 through California.