Mountain View Rd, Boonville, CA

Mountain View Rd is a wild, tossing, and rocking 26-mile roller coaster that leaves Boonville westward, launching you right past the tiny Boonville Airport and straight up the hill. If you love sudden elevation shifts, the initial, bumpy one-lane climb hits you with multiple hairpins with a steep grade that immediately gets your attention.

This road is a stretch of surreal, imperfect perfection that bridges the gap between the quiet valley town of Boonville, through a redwood forest, then up and over the Coast Range to reach the rugged Pacific Coast near Manchester and north of Gualala.

Riding westbound towards the Pacific Ocean, you'll feel the asphalt condition improve, but don't let the lack of traffic lure you into a false sense of security. The pavement cuts tight against crumbling hillsides, occasionally leaving a fine arc of sand or tiny rocks directly mid-lane.

Thick foliage creates 180-degree blind hairpins where bright sunlight gives way to deep shade of the Redwood Forest canopy above. Lean hard into one of these dark tunnels with a tinted visor, and you'll find yourself grabbing an adrenalized handful of front brake to scrub speed in a hurry. Combine the up-down elevation changes and you’ve got a cumulative 8000 ft of elevation change. Yet, the payoffs are huge.

Breaks in the dense redwood trees reveal picture-book coastal mountain vistas. Best of all, as you drop down the final grades toward Highway 1, popping out of the treeline drops the temperature by often a bewildering 15-20 degrees—shifting from sweating in your leathers to closing every zipper as the cool ocean breeze hits.

Best of all, Mountain View Rd was recently resurfaced and is nothing like the bumpy goat trail you remember on the eastern half.

https://www.pashnittours.com/marin