It’s Easy to Speed Through the Coast Range on Highway 26, But the Rugged Playground is Worth a Visit

If you drive along Highway 26 to or from the coast, you'll pass a number of nondescript pullouts, occasionally occupied by a car or two. It's hard not to wonder, what are those people up to? What do they know that I don't? It's not always an impromptu bathroom break or deeper form of malfeasance. Sometimes they're just hiking. The Coast Range is a place we pass through on the way to the beach for a weekend away or while hurrying home after that quick vacation. But the mountains thick with forests and rich with our state's logging history should be a destination of their own. In addition to the area's hidden-gem trails, there is a well-maintained 21-mile path converted from a decades-old defunct railroad line that's popular with cyclists and a wooden palace fit for Paul Bunyan serving giant portions of food to match.