Once a bustling logging and shipbuilding community, Little River is now more like a suburb of Mendocino. The town does a brisk business handling the tourist overflow from its neighbor 2 miles up the coast; vacationers in the know reserve a room in serene Little River and make forays into Mendocino only for dining and shopping.

The town is near Van Damme State Park (707/937-5804), a 2,337-acre preserve blanketed with ferns and second-growth redwoods. One of the finest state parks on the Mendocino coast, it has a small beach, visitor center, and campground, but its main attraction is the 15 miles of spectacularly lush trails—ideal for a stroll or a jog—that start at the beach and wind through the redwood-covered hills. Fern Canyon Trail is the park’s most popular, an easy and incredibly scenic 2-1⁄2-mile hiking and bicycling path that crosses over the Little River. You can also hike or drive (most of the way) to Van Damme’s peculiar Pygmy Forest, an eerie scrub forest of waist-high stunted trees. To reach the Pygmy Forest by car, follow Highway 1 south of the park and turn up Little River Airport Road, then head uphill 2-3⁄4 miles.