Cleone, CA

Cleone is a Mendocino County census-designated place just north of Fort Bragg along California Highway 1, with the coast and redwood country right at its doorstep. The 2020 census counted 622 residents. Its name likely comes from Kelio, a Pomo village or division, and the old post office began as Kanuck before taking the Cleone name in 1883. Logging and shipping once ran through here, with rail cars carrying wood downhill toward the coast. These days, the main entrance to MacKerricher State Park is the big local landmark.

ATTRDavid Eppstein / CC BY-SA 3.0

Lake Cleone, a former tidal lagoon turned freshwater lake, sits inside a park that also brings beach, dunes, forest, wetlands, seals, birds, and whale-watching overlooks into Cleone's orbit. Fort Bragg handles the bigger errands, but Cleone has its own coastal address and a history shaped by timber, trains, and the water. You can feel that handoff along the park road. Cleone's local scoop is a 622-person Highway 1 pocket where an old logging route now leads to a state park.