Driving Tours Extend Your Ranch Holiday
Build a driving tour to extend your dude ranch vacation
We suggest considering Siskiyou County’s diverse tourism attractions and the Humboldt County Redwood Coast to enrich and extend your holiday drive to Marble Mountain Ranch. You can also make a safer drive to your dude ranch vacation by checking Klamath River road, river and weather conditions prior to starting your drive
Driving Tours To The California Dude Ranch
The drive to Marble Mountain Ranch is ideally choreographed to also allow sampling the local culture and scenic attractions of the Pacific Northwest. You will be in proximity to San Francisco, Napa Vineyards, the Redwood Forest, Several Wilderness areas, the Oregon Caves, Ashland’s Shakespearean Festival, and more.
Approaching Marble Mountain Guest Ranch From San Francisco Vicinity
The drive from the North end of San Francisco to our ranch is approximately 7 hours. There are several tourist stops with redwood carving, tree houses etc. well signed along the way. Here are a few other suggestions:
1) Detour off of Hwy. 101 to head out to the coast North of Healdsburg. There is a very beautiful drive that takes you through spectacular old growth forests and out to Hwy. 1 which runs right along the coastline thru Fort Ross and Fort Bragg. The North Coast shore line is very unique compared to beaches further south in California. Very rugged and beautiful and worth seeing, Hwy. 1 continues North and joins up again with Hwy. 101 just a little South of Eureka. You will be approximately 2.5 hours drive time away from Marble Mountain Guest Ranch.
2) Between San Francisco and Healdsburg there are many options for visiting vineyards with tasting rooms. If you have any interest in touring a vineyard, check options in both Napa Valley and the Healdsburg area. Napa will have the oldest vineyards, Healdsburg has developed in the last 20+ years. Guests of Marble Mountain Ranch are welcome to bring their own wines to our dining lodge and there is no corking fee.
3) Eureka and surrounding area resources are well documented through Humboldt County Convention And Visitors Bureau. If you continue another 15 miles North of Mckinleyille on Hwy. 101 you come to the community of Trinidad. Trinidad is a very small city. It is more like a village on the bluffs overlooking the ocean. There are fun little shops, a harbor, an eatery with great clam chowder and blackberry cobbler, an easily accessible beach loaded with picture opportunities, a low level difficulty hike up to an overlook and a rebuilt light house with trail down to the ocean. These all make Trinidad a great day visit.
4) Patrick’s Point – Another 5 minutes north of Trinidad is a state park called Patricks Point with hiking trails and picnic sites. Patrick’s Point is in the heart of the Redwoods and has a very nice interpretive center for both the Redwood Forest and the Sea Lion communities.
Some of our guests like to make a loop and return to S.F. via I-5 which is a more direct route. I-5 is not nearly as beautiful as the drive up 101 but offers a few other things to see and do. Driving down from Yreka to Redding you pass thru the community of Mt. Shasta. This is more of a winter destination than a summer one and has some good Summer fly fishing opportunities on the nearby McCloud River. Between Mt. Shasta and Redding there is a worthwhile stop at Shasta Caverns. The caverns are about 15 – 20 minutes North of Redding.
2) In Redding you can visit the Turtle Bay Aquarium.
3) Depending on your remaining time at this point you can cut over to San Francisco or continue into Sacramento where you can visit the California State Capitol, a great water park that is housed on the California State Fair Grounds (Raging Waters), and visit Old Town Sacramento.
From Sacramento traveling back to San Francisco you go through Vallejo, home of Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. Our children and grandchild always enjoy this.
Traveling to Marble Mountain Guest Ranch from the North on I-5
For guests traveling to us from Washington, Oregon, or Idaho, or for guests who are flying into the Portland, Oregon airport and who want to rent a car rather than take the commuter flight to Medford Oregon, there are some wonderful options for things to do en route to our ranch. The drive time from Portland is about 7 hours to the ranch.
Your main route of travel going south will be on I-5. About 10 miles after you pass the border check point between Oregon and California you will take the exit for Highway 96. There is a nice rest stop there and it will be the last rest stop until you reach our ranch. We are approximately 2 hours from the rest stop.
If any member of your party suffers from car sickness you should plan to take a motion sickness medication when leaving the town of Ashland, Oregon. This will be about an hour before you turn onto Highway 96. Highway 96 is a paved, 2 lane highway, and is quite curvy. You will be on it for about 2 hours. A nice break in your drive with restroom stop can be found in Happy Camp at the Karuk Tribe Peoples Center. It has a museum, gift shop, and clean restrooms. About a mile after the town Big Foot statue, turn Right on to second Ave. and look for the Karuk People’s Center on your left just after you cross the bridge.
Sightseeing options in Southern Oregon
Southern Oregon is home to a spectacular drive called the Highway of Waterfalls and a beautiful National Park called Crater Lake. If you have the time in your itinerary this makes a very nice 2 day loop bringing you back to I-5 in Medford, Oregon just 30 minutes North of the California border. The Highway of Waterfalls has numerous waterfalls that are a short distance from the parking lots and many that are longer hikes. They are well marked and their site will give you a detailed map with the names and information about each waterfall. Crater Lake can be viewed in a day or you can spend a couple of days and enjoy it at a slower more relaxed pace. There is a great boat ride on the lake down in the crater but you must have advanced reservations. They sell out months in advance for the summer season so advance planning is suggested. There is a spectacular hike down to the lake but it is not a stroll in the park, especially on the way back up! There are amazing photo opportunities along the trail as well as everywhere else in the park.
Traveling South from Medford you will come to the community of Ashland Oregon. During the Summer season people come from all over the globe to visit the Ashland Shakespearean Theatre. Theater tickets must be purchased in advance.
About 30 minutes North of Medford Oregon is the town of Grants Pass. You can take Highway 199 West from Grants Pass until you come to the town of Cave Junction, home of the Oregon Caves. This is a National Monument and is well maintained and managed. Our family always enjoyed visiting the caves. There are lots of steps up and down inside the caves so cave guests should be in general good health. It is also very cold inside the caves, even in the summer, so bring a warm jacket and long pants. From Cave Junction your journey will continue South on Highway 46 to Happy Camp, California. You will dead end at Highway 96 where you will take a right hand turn. Stay on Highway 96 for approximately 40 minutes. Marble Mountain Ranch will be on your left hand side with a large sign that hangs out above Highway.