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The North Coast (also Redwood Empire or Redwood Coast) is a region of the U.S. state of California commonly including Marin County, Sonoma County, Mendocino County, Humboldt County, and Del Norte County.
Notable towns and cities in the expansive region include: San Rafael, Novato, Petaluma, Bodega Bay, Santa Rosa, Ukiah, Mendocino, Fort Bragg, Ferndale, Eureka, Arcata, and Crescent City.
The coast along the Pacific Ocean in the area stretches from San Francisco Bay to the border of Oregon and is characterized by cliffs, hills, and tide pools while interior portions are more mountainous, dissected by small rivers and their canyons, and densely forested by redwood trees.
The lower reaches of the North Coast are largely urbanized while the rest is mostly rural. Notable seaside beaches can be found at Marin Headlands and Point Reyes National Seashore. The grandeur of the redwood forests can be experienced in places like Muir Woods National Monument and Humboldt Redwoods State Park as well as along State Route 254, which is better known as the Avenue of the Giants.
The region includes Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve, Muir Woods, Humboldt Redwoods State Park, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park and Redwood National Park. Together these parks have more than 45 percent of all the old-growth redwood forest in California.
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