The prettiest town on the northern coast, Mendocino nestles on a bluff and is packed with characterful wooden buildings dating from its 19thC settlement by New England loggers. As the lumber trade declined during the 1950s and 1960s, Mendocino’s picturesque perfection (now maintained by strict building codes) encouraged an influx of San Franciscan artists, their influence still apparent in the town’s large number of art galleries. The bedrock of the local economy today, however, is the tourists who fill the town and its numerous bed-and-breakfast inns throughout the summer.

The Kelley House Museum (http://www.kelleyhousemuseum.org), 45007 Albion Street, gives a flavor of 19thC Mendocino life, and is the departure point for guided walking tours which explore the town each summer Saturday.

Fret not if you miss the tour, the town’s Victorian architectural highlights are easily found and include Main Street’s Gothic-style Presbyterian Church, the 1854 Ford House – Mendocino’s oldest home – and the 1866 Masonic Temple (its lower floor now a bank), the steeple of which – complete with masonic symbols – rises above the corner of Lansing and Ukiah Streets.

If the weather’s fine, set out on the interlinked foot trails crossing Mendocino Headlands State Park (for which the Ford House serves as a visitor cen­ter). Set across the undeveloped portion of Mendocino’s coastal bluff, the park encompasses dramatic cliff tops and gives views of oddly-shaped rock stacks, formed by years of wave and wind erosion.