Chase the sun: discover a hidden California along Highway 20

Sunset, July, 2004 by Lisa Taggart

The layers of fog off the coast of Fort Bragg amplify and diffuse the light from the setting sun, each becoming a luminous streak on the horizon. I've driven 214 miles across California to arrive at this spot on Glass Beach.

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After hiking in the High Sierra, wine tasting in Nevada City, sipping a smoothie in sweltering Marysville, and picnicking by Lake Mendocino--crossing six counties and about 60 creeks, dropping nearly 6,000 feet, and cutting through forests, foothills, flatlands, and fog--I sure do appreciate soaking my feet.

Much has been written about traveling up and down California, tracing its coast or mountains. But an east-west voyage offers a more expansive and more reflective experience. From Yuba Gap in the Sierra to State 1 on the coast, State Highway 20 meanders through a less-glorified cross section of the state, past small mining, farming, timber, and fishing towns that have quietly shaped California.

Start in the Sierra

At the edge of the Bear River in the High Sierra, a hike through the landscape that drew thousands of Gold Rush miners is a good place to start. Brown needles underfoot give the Sierra Discovery Trail a spring, the air is scented by pines, and the river murmurs, sparkling and clear.

After gold was found nearby, weary settlers and prospectors on the Emigrant Trail beat a path to what became Nevada City. The route they created after thousands of journeys west formed the beginning of Highway 20.

More a traveler's refuge than a mining town today, Nevada City is a place to linger. Wine-tasting rooms dot a downtown of well-kept Victorian brick buildings. There are also good restaurants, antiques stores, and the greatest concentration of bookstores in the Sierra.

One detour here lets someone else drive for a while: At the Nevada County Traction Company, you can ride narrow-gauge diesel trains on a forested 3-mile route, stopping for a walk through a privately owned Chinese cemetery dating to the 1860s. It's a spot layered in history, from the Maidu Indian grinding stones to the brick grave markers etched in Cantonese to the Mohawk gold mine that tunnels under the surface.

Traction Company engineer Albert Flores says that the characters inscribed in the cemetery's entryway read "'Villa in the Clouds.' Or it might mean 'Villa Screened by Clouds,'" he says. "We're not sure."

Across the great valley

Descending from the foothills, Highway 20 enters the valley of many rivers: Yuba, Feather, Sacramento. These waterways are the reason this place is so fertile, why the area is full of leafy walnut and fruit orchards, rice fields, and rippling fields of hay.

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Highway 20 lingers for about 75 miles in the Sacramento Valley, passing the twin cities of Marysville and Yuba City. To appreciate them, you need to get off the highway. Once away from this busy section of Highway 20 (where it merges briefly with State 70), you'll find that Marysville has a stately, old-fashioned downtown and gorgeously ornate civic buildings and houses.

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The center of the action here is the Brick Coffeehouse Cafe. The heat has risen and the street is still, but inside, fans whir while fruit smoothies and iced lattes energize.

Lifelong area resident Don Blaser opened the cafe in May 2003 with his wife, Lavina. His goal was to enliven Marysville's downtown by giving it a center, and it seems to be working. "The cafe has grown faster than we thought," he says. "The response has been--well, at times, it's been embarrassing, people have been so complimentary."

Lake country to the coast

West of Interstate 5, the transition into the rolling hills of lake country is gradual. The road takes on a gentle grade, and I see more oaks and fewer farms until the steel blue expanse of Clear Lake appears. It's enormous, spanning 44,000 acres, with Mt. Konocti looming behind. The road hugs the water's edge, and I can hear waves batting at the piers.

Beyond the lake, a detour to Fife Redhead Vineyards rewards with a key picnic ingredient. The tasting room has a glorious view of shining Lake Mendocino, set off by the dusty chaparral all around. It's a quick drive down the hill to the water, where winding Shakota Trail leads to another winery, this one abandoned and overrun with wild grapevines.

At Willits, Highway 20 begins a last long climb over the Coast Range. Laurels edge in among the oaks, the fuzziness in the air soon gels into fog, and I'm in the middle of a redwood forest. Spanish moss drips off low oaks; the afternoon darkens and the forest seems to quiet even the roll of my car's tires. Many winding turns later, the ocean finally appears, hulking, gray, and truncated by clouds.

Highway 20 ends a mile short of Fort Bragg, but I continue north to Glass Beach, where there's no road left to drive. As the sun sinks, I follow a path to the sand, stepping over limpet-covered rocks and dried sea palms. The sun, screened by fog, slips below the horizon. Waves fling themselves at my ankles, marking the limit of their eastward journey and the end of my travels west.