{"id":1917,"date":"2021-08-30T15:46:03","date_gmt":"2021-08-30T15:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1917"},"modified":"2021-08-30T15:46:03","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T15:46:03","slug":"the-russian-river-and-its-bridges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1917","title":{"rendered":"The Russian River and Its Bridges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long before the Russian River became synonymous with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, it was a river\u2026and of course it still is.\u00a0 As the Russian River approaches the Pacific through Sonoma County, it is quite a beautiful river, at that.\u00a0 It begins in Mendocino County and flows south, flowing pretty much along Route 101 (or vice versa, we suppose). As it enters Sonoma County, the river runs between Route 101 and Route 128, the main drag of Alexander Valley.\u00a0 At Chalk Hill, it hangs a right and proceeds southwest to the ocean.\u00a0 For those who come to Sonoma County for wine tasting and would like to do some touring as well, it\u2019s this last stretch of the Russian River that\u2019s the place to visit.<\/p>\n

If you proceed south down Westside Road, you can catch occasional glimpses of the river, although you may be more attentive to the wineries that are there.\u00a0 As Westside turns west and becomes River Road, you\u2019ll see and pass over the river often.\u00a0 In fact, it is the bridges that are for us the main attraction.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Wohler Bridge. \u00a0Photo courtesy of mattegray.net.\u00a0 We recommend this site for a virtual tour of Russian River\u2019s bridges.<\/em><\/p>\n

One of these is the Wohler Bridge, where Wohler Road crosses to meet Westside Road.\u00a0 It looks pretty rickety, but it must be pretty secure since it\u2019s been there for 100 years.\u00a0 It\u2019s a one-lane bridge so you have to be careful that no one is coming the other way before you cross it.\u00a0 Also be on the lookout for tourists (they could be us) having their picture taken while standing next to the bridge. \u00a0Nearby wineries include Gary Farrell, Moshin and Rochioli.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Hacienda Bridge.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of historicbridges.org.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Hacienda Bridge is at the point at which River Road merges with Westside Road.\u00a0 You may see swimmers or boaters in the water.\u00a0 We\u2019ve always been there for the purposes of wine tasting, so we\u2019ve never dived in ourselves.\u00a0 There are many resorts in this area as well.\u00a0 Korbel and Porter Bass are wineries in this area.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s likely you\u2019ll want to visit in nice weather, which is a generally good idea.\u00a0 It\u2019s particularly important for the Russian River.\u00a0 That pleasant waterway, well used for boating, rafting and swimming, can become a raging torrent in the winter months.\u00a0 Flooding occurs frequently, roughly every other year since 1940, according to the San Jose Mercury<\/em>.\u00a0 There\u2019s a lot to be said for going wine tasting in winter<\/a>, but it\u2019s probably not a good idea to plan on an excursion along the Russian River.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long before the Russian River became synonymous with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, it was a river\u2026and of course it still is.\u00a0 As the Russian River approaches the Pacific through Sonoma County, it is quite a beautiful river, at that.\u00a0 It begins in Mendocino County and flows south, flowing pretty much along Route 101 (or vice … Continue reading The Russian River and Its Bridges<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1917"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1920,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917\/revisions\/1920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}