Secluded Resort in Verdant Wine Country

Along California’s northern coast, Pacific surf pools in rocky hollows, corralling starfish, anemones, and crustaceans in tiny, kaleidoscopic gardens. Out of the reach of salty spray, Stevenswood Spa Resort’s ranch stretches into the Anderson Valley, unrolling gardens and vineyards of its own to furnish feasts for the eyes, mouth, and mind.

Uniquely appointed farmhouse-style rooms coddle dreamers among vibrant, colorful prints upon plush linens and upholstery. Occasional sloping ceilings and bay windows define whimsical layouts, and decorative accouterments, such as an ornately carved wooden rocking chair or a double-shaded stained-glass lamp, imbue a sense of artistry. Original canvases from local painters bedeck room walls, linking Stevenswood to the artistic community of Mendocino.

Distant ocean views complement aromatic spreads of New American cuisine at the on-site restaurant, which draws from local harvests to define a rotating seasonal menu. The wine list unites vintages from local wineries throughout the Mendocino area with regional and international varietals and vintages. Glasses pair strongly with meals or gleam alongside hard-pressed kin at the wine bar, where wooden barstools draw up to bottle-lined red walls.

After sanguine sips, the Indigo Eco-Spa facilitates further decompression with burbling whirlpools, a veranda with canyon views, and an infrared sauna. Among the available treatments, a 55-minute Swedish massage ($125) kneads away at tension and fatigue, and the custom executive facial ($85) cleanses with botanicals made from local dandelion and licorice root before applying a mask of Mendocino clay.

Mendocino County: Framed by Ocean Waves and Redwood Forests

Once the idyllic shooting location for the TV series Murder, She Wrote —which was set in Maine—the white façades and slate-gray roofs of the town of Mendocino, near Little River, perch atop coastal bluffs in a simulacrum of a cozy New England town. Artists' colonies bloom in the Pacific spray, filling local galleries with kaleidoscopic landscapes in pastels, oils, and watercolors. Mendocino Headlands State Park hugs the town, calling muses to action with knotted whorls of driftwood and fantastical sea-carved stone arches. Colorful spots of lichen play hopscotch across windswept rocks, and harbor seals bark from sheltered coves up and down the shoreline.

Farther inland, soaring redwoods tickle the underbellies of clouds within the 50,000-square-foot Jackson State Forest and its associated band of state parks. Big River, named not for the span of its waters but for the height of the trees lining its shores, forms an estuary teeming with rare birds such as bald eagles and California brown pelicans. Adventurers wander nature's arboretum along fish-filled waterways—paddling canoes, kayaks, and outriggers—or imprint the shaded soil with hiking boots, mountain-bike treads, or lucky-horseshoe prints.