You would think that a place like Fort Bragg would have everything that a person or family would want for recreation. For quick breaks during the day, you can dine on exotic specialties at the Asian Buffet, have some oysters and clams at Django’s Rough Bar Cafe, or go with what’s smooth and cold at Cowlick’s Ice Cream.

For longer furloughs, the Russian Gulch State Park promotes calm with their majestic redwoods. You can commune with the ocean Coastal Trail. And there’s even the year-round Flynn Creek Circus with acrobats, aerialists, comedians, and other performers but no animals.

For a change of pace, though, you sometimes want to try something that you can only find out of town. Maybe take a day excursion to someplace beautiful that the whole family will find worthwhile. Sonoma Zipline Adventures offers just such a diversion. Getting there takes a couple of hours from Fort Bragg.

• Head south on South Main Street and then East on Highway 20 until you hit US-101.
• Go south on US-101 and take Exit 502, Old Redwood Highway.
• Turn Right on Eastside Road, left on Trenton-Healdsburg Road, left again onto Trenton Road, and right on Laguna Road.
• Then comes another right on Guerneville Road, left on Vine Hill Road, which merges into Mueller Road.
• Make a right onto Graton Road and then right onto Bohemian Highway.

After about two miles, you’ll find us on the left. If you need more instructions or if you want to make the required reservations, call us at (888) 499-9150.

Now, get ready for some adventure. You’ve never seen redwoods from the vantage point that you’re going to like up a spiral staircase to 250 feet into the treetops. Your educational two-and-a-half-hour Eco-Tour continues across two sky bridges and up to seven zip lines. The longest such line measures 1,500 feet and you can launch through it at up to 40 MPH. At the end, you can rappel back down to the ground.

You can enjoy three experiences, so we hope you come back. The longest Tree Tops Tour, the shorter Forest Flight Tour, and the Night Flight Tour, which brings you views of the moon and stars, and gives you a lighted helmet, but is otherwise the same as the Forest Flight Tour.

Don’t worry if you’ve never done a zip line before. Most guests haven’t, but everyone receives expert instruction from the guides. The activity is perfectly safe when you put on a specially-designed two-piece chest and seat harness, so you’re always secured to a wheel on the line. Kids 10 and up weighing at least 70 pounds are welcome if when accompanied by a parent or adult.