lauracohenromano

You've all helped so much already, I hope you don't mind another piece here. I look forward to posting a trip report when back, in appreciation! Also, I realize that routes have been suggested that could probably be adapted for this question, but I confess I'm terrible at that sort of thing, so I'm hoping you'll indulge. I'm good at finding good places to stay and good stuff to do...not figuring the order to do things, or how to get from here to there!

Summary of where we're at and the question from here: We're staying in SF (Union Sq) Mon. and Tues. nights, mid May. Looking forward to using many of your suggestions in much-read old posts to others, there! Wed. morning heading out of SF. We don't need to be back in the city til Fri. evening, tho' we might decide to head back earlier in the day Friday...we're playing Friday by ear.

So we have all of Wed. and Thurs., and whatever of Fri. we decide, to do the other stuff we want to do. Namely, seeing a bit of Pt. Reyes, hiking a bit in Armstrong Woods, and wine country touring. Our lodging for Wed. and Thurs. eves is in Calistoga. This may have been a mistake (though looking forward to the place itself, Meadowlark), but there were several reasons for it, and it's a done deal now. So the question is, how to best do the route to keep the pace as sane/relaxed as possible? Part of what's confusing me is the wine country maps, and trying to figure out which part of wine country to do when, in a way that would make sense with the rest. Originally I thought we'd head out of SF Wed, do Pt. Reyes, then Armstrong Woods, then land in Calsistoga in the evening, and figure out the wineries for Thurs./Fri. from there. Now I'm wondering if we should head to Calistoga first on Wed., do wineries Wed. and Thurs., and return by way of Armstrong Woods and Pt. Reyes Friday. That would have the advantage of Pt. Reyes in the recommended afternoon instead of morning, too. Or other ways to do this, completely?

Also, if we're just trying to do too much, and should save either Pt. Reyes or Armstrong Woods for another time, we're open to that. Generally we're not the type of travelers who try to pack so much in, we like relaxing and allowing time for unexpected surprises...but it's also true that we're east coasters who don't know when we'll next get out there. So we'd like to do all three if it can be done reasonably...but not if not!

Any specific suggestions on what time to head out of SF Wed. am would also be great.

Oh, and also...not as critical cause I guess we'd figure it out, but my husband has a record/cd shop he wants to go to which I'm blanking on the name of but seems to be in the Haight area. I have to humor him because he humors me on all the farmers' markets I love Any suggestions as to which parts of SF touring are logical to couple together with doing the Haight neighborhood?

Thanks, thanks, thanks.

easytraveler

Ummm, I don't know where to start, so bear with me.

Have you posted before? And already gotten some answers? Or were you reading the old posts and this is your first posting? If you have already posted and have already gotten some responses, please forgive any repetition on my part.

Anyhow, here goes!

Mid-May is still early enough in the year that you may not get the morning fog along the coast. If there is no fog, then your plan to go to Point Reyes on Wednesday is a good one. What kind of hiking did you want? Easy, moderate, difficult? One of the most pleasurable "hikes" is the walk along the 10-mile beach which you can see on the way to the lighthouse. The lighthouse at Point Reyes is certainly worth visiting and the "hike" down is moderate, only 330 steps! In case you weren't aware of this, it's the hike up that is the moderate part.

If you don't have time, I'd suggest skipping Armstrong Woods. BTW, what was the reason for choosing Armstrong Woods?

Wine country: you didn't mention exactly how much time you have on Friday. If you have all day Friday, then I would spend Thursday in Napa Valley and Friday in Sonoma Valley.

Hope this helps a bit!

razzledazzle

Hi Laura,
Record store in the Haight is probably
Amoeba, yes?

Now here I have to respectfully disagree with ET-As I live in Sonoma County, travel around it, and Napa County all the time
I think, for traffic reasons, I would head from SF to Calistoga on Wed.
By Friday, you will see a significant
increase in traffic and population
in NV. Hit a few wineries as you go along up 29 to Calistoga-I Calistoga, BTW-on Thursday
you can traverse the "cross roads"
and the Silverado Trail.

On Friday, you can cross over on
Petirfied Forest Rd./Mark West Springs/
River Road to Guerneville and the Armstong Woods for an AM hike, yet this will leave you such a short spot of time
at Pt Reyes. So, I think you need to decide on a hike in Armstong or seeing more of Pt.Reyes. If you are considering driving out to the lighthouse, for example, I would skip Armstong. If you want to hike in the redwoods, then know you will have about a 3 hour drive down Hwy 1 from Jenner to SF-a spectacular drive BTW.

As you drive drive along River Road
to Guerneville, (which becomes Hwy 116 West) do know that from Guerneville to Duncans Mills you will pass through lovely stands of Redwoods.

I love how you "humor" your hubby
with record stores, me too, except he humors me with garden nuseries and hardware stores!

R5

lauracohenromano

Thank you both so much for the replies. Very helpful. I was starting to think we were planning too much, so your feedback validates that.
We'll have to talk and decide. It's a hard one! Tho' razzle-dazzle, I'm glad you pointed out that we will be seeing redwoods as we drive...that might tip us to Pt. Reyes. Otoh, we'll have seen lots of gorgeous coast before getting to SF, as we're taking two nights to come up from our week in Southern CA... Ah,what a wonderful dilemna to have.

ET, I posted before as we started planning the trip, and got helpful advice. I'd never used the Fodor boards before, and you're all absolutely great!

Armstrong Woods originally came on the plan when we thought we'd try to see both Redwoods and Pt. Reyes on Wed., and then land in wine country in the evening, to be ready for Thurs. and probably some of Friday. I noticed it on the map, asked about going there instead of our orginally thought Muir, and many thought it was a good idea (you may have been one of them!). However, at that point we'd figured to stay in Healdsburg, and somewhere else Thurs. night. On more thinking/looking, we decided that we really wanted to stay in the same place for both Wed. and Thurs., and chose Calsistoga for a number of reasons. Then I started to re-think the whole thing...in fact, just before reading your posts, I started to think we should just enjoy wherever roads around Calistoga take us, and not try *either* redwoods or Pt. Reyes! But now it sounds like one could be do-able in a way that still allow us to really enjoy.

I did also read today in someone's trip report, that the Pt. Reyes Lighthouse is closed Tues. and Wed., and I just validated that info on the Pt. Reyes site. So if we decide to do that rather than hiking redwoods, by default we'll have to do that on Friday.

Btw, for light to moderate hiking in these areas, and the Pt. Lobos/Pfeiffer area as well, are sneakers ok? Hiking shoes are very bulky and we're hoping not to need them!

I'll try to get a little less long winded as I do this more

easytraveler

Sorry, laura!

At my age, I get fuddy a lot - but haven't reached the duddy part yet!

If Pt Reyes lighthouse is closed on Weds, then Friday would be a good day. Pt Reyes' hiking is by and large non-redwood.

Since you are coming up along the coast, I'd suggest even skipping Pt Reyes and Armstrong altogether. Substitute Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. Hike it in both directions: both to the waterfall (1/2 hour, easy hike) and then inward towards the redwoods (NOT the Ewoldsen Trail), about 1 hour roundtrip - easy to moderate.

Pt Lobos is great for sea views, better than even Pt Reyes.

I favor Merrills as both a hiking "boot" and a walking shoe. Sneakers are OK, but if you can wear the boots on the plane, then I'd suggest the boots. In some places you need to have a firm grip, either because the path is uneven or because of slight moisture. I also hate stubbing my toes on those unseen roots that sneak up on the ground.

razzledazzle is one of our resident experts on Sonoma and Napa. Follow her advice. I do!

lauracohenromano

I am so grateful for this help.

Razzle-dazzle, if we decide to follow Easy Traveler's suggestion and skip *both* Armstrong Woods and Pt. Reyes this time around (not decided yet to do that, but it's possible!), do you have a suggestion for the general mapping of how to do wine country Thurs. and part of Fri. (after following your suggestion and doing a couple on 29 Wed. on the way) given that our base will be Calistoga, and we need to be back in SF Fri. eve (meeting some folks for BBB 10 pm show; we're lucky to have reserved seats, but do want to get back in town in time to check in to our motel and have dinner ahead somewhere in North Beach neighborhood).

Btw, so glad you love Calistoga, as I've been a bit concerned about whether I was trying to have it all too much, by choosing there thinking we might get in some Napa, some Sonoma, and some Russian River or Dry Creek too. Started thinking I should have just chosen one area and let that be enough! Which is how we usually do things, actually...when we went to Rome for a week, we stayed there the whole time - many thought we "should have" done more places, yet we loved really feeling we got to know Rome. And look forward to other parts of Italy in the future! But I digress.


Yet somehow while planning this trip, I found myself having a yen to taste a bit of each area.

Point well taken on the Merrell's too...I bet I'll be grateful for them over sneakers even in SF!

Speaking of such, if we find time for something like a drink at the Top of the Mark in SF, is dress/footwear an issue?

sequoia370

I think you should go to Armstrong Woods. The trees there are taller and the forest is thicker than at Big Sur. It's not very big, and you can drive back to the picnic area, so an hour or two is plenty of time there.

Point Reyes is another matter. It's about an hour from the entrance to the ocean, and there's a lot you could see there. But it won't be all that impressive if you've just come up through Big Sur. An alternative would be to stop along the coast to the north, between Jenner and Bodega Bay. This is nearly all state park land, with hiking trails and picnic areas close to the highway. Goat Rock, Sonoma State Beaches, google for those. If you do this on Friday on your way back to SF, you can just see how much time you have for Point Reyes when you get there. Oh, there's also the area south of Point Reyes, Mt. Tamalpais, where highway one climbs up above the ocean like it does around Big Sur. The point is, there's plenty of ocean hiking that's much more accessible than Point Reyes along the same route. You can easily do this route in one day if you skip Point Reyes.

For the Haight, Golden Gate Park is the logical next stop.