Book Review: Day Trips, Roaming the Backroads of Northern California

(I’m finally getting back to adding to my reviews of books on Northern California’s backroads and off-roads. The next one may have to wait until after the holidays though.)

By Peter Browning. 198 pages, about 6 x 8 3/4”.

This is often one of my “go-to” books when I’m looking for someplace to drive to with the family. It’s not an enormous, canonical volume, nor is it densely packed with several interesting spots on every page. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, the author has included just the right amount of information to make this book a handy and valuable reference.

Northern California in this case is defined as the greater San Francisco Bay Area, from Sonoma on the northern end to Santa Cruz down south. It’s very much a Bay Area thing to define Northern California in this manner, which is rather absurd. Still, this scope works just fine for my purposes, regardless of the title.

I’ve used this book many times to identify a quick day trip, and interesting backroads. The sites listed are mostly of historical interest – or disinterest, if that’s not your cup of tea. Flipping through the book reveals numerous black-and-white photos, mostly showing old buildings, old walls, old bridges… You get the idea. That sort of thing certainly interests me, but YMMV. Caveat emptor.

There’s enough detailed history of the sites to help bring the old structures to life. I enjoy being able to pull up to an old, overgrown meadow in the woods and be able to get out and tell the family how 150 years ago, two small towns existed on this very spot…

While there are some state parks and commercial establishments to be found among the listings, there are no mainstream tourist attractions, theme parks, or other similar distractions to have to sort through.

It’s hard to dream up too much more to say about this book, so I won’t. I think it’s safe to say that if you’re in the Bay Area and you enjoy the backroads and odd historic spot off the beaten path, away from the malls and chain stores and traffic, you’ll enjoy this book. The author has scored a bullseye with his target audience – people like me.

My only real criticism (other than an obviously screwed-up photo on page 138) would be that the book could have contained so much more, or could have come with additional volumes. “I wish there was more” is usually a sign that the book is good though, and this one is no exception.

Unfortunately, the book seems to be out of print, so I can’t say how nice it was that the list price was only $12.95. On the plus side, a used copy probably runs even less now.