A Bay Area adventurer heading for the bluffs and redwoods of California’s North Coast will almost certainly take Highway 101. Through Marin and Sonoma counties, it’s a blur of 65 mph zones, GPS-guided drivers and sound-dampening retaining walls. The North Bay’s towns — Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa — often flash by as forgettable signposts on a fast-moving freeway.
But about 3 miles before reaching Hopland, 10 miles past the Sonoma-Mendocino county line, the four-lane highway drops to two. The speed limit falls to 35. And suddenly, drivers aren’t just passing through — they’re in the heart of the town.
There are no sound barriers here. Instead, there’s a stretch of rustic storefronts, a recently restored frontier hotel with gold-lettered windows, a tie-dye stand glowing in neon hues, and a breakfast diner cut from roadside America’s golden age. For the first time along the 101 since leaving San Francisco, travelers are immersed in a roadside town…