• Welcome to Toad Hall

    The home of the WXToad
  •  The Great Around-the-USA Adventure

    California: The Golden Gate to Mendocino

    27 Apr 08: Well, we've made it halfway up the California coast. Today we crossed over the Golden Gate and continued our trek northward along the coast.

    For pictures and comments of all the campgrounds we visited, click on "Campground Reviews" in Top Menu or on the links in the journal.

     Sorry - you have to suffer with one more picture of the Golden Gate Bridge, this one from Vista Point on the Sausalito side.  ca0248
     ca0256  One has a great view of the coast southward from Muir Overlook. The Golden Gate is off in the middle distance.
     Listh saysth this isth a thistle.  ca0259
     ca0267  28 Apr 08: After a night in the deep dark redwood forest at Samuel P Taylor SP, we drove out to Point Reyes Lighthouse. Hmm, t'was just a bit foggy and windy while we were there.
     As we went down the set of 308 steps toward the lighthouse, it began to emerge from the fog.  ca0275
     ca0280  Near Jenner the highway crosses the Russian River near where it meets the Pacific

    North of Jenner, we crossed several cattle guards on Hwy 1, and saw a sign warning of cows. We laughed and pooh-poohed it...until a couple miles further we came upon these creatures grazing along the highway. A collision with one of these would be a whole lot worse than an encounter with a deer.

    Speaking of roads, I try to best to pull off and let cars pass us. But it's not an easy feat to accomplish - many of the pull-offs have the shoulder surface several inches below the pavement.

    ca0291 
     ca0294

    29 Apr 08: Last night we stayed at Stillwater Cove, a Sonoma County park north of Jenner. Our first stop today was at the Point Arena Lighthouse. We lingered here and enjoyed our lunch by the shore.

    This is the second lighthouse here; the first, built in 1870, was severely damaged in the 1906 eartquake and subsequently torn down. A new light was erected in 1908, 115' tall, and containing a first-order Fresnel lens worth 3.5 million dollars today. The lens was taken out of service in 1977, replaced by an aero-beacon.

     Hole in a rock at Point Arena.  ca0296
     ca0298  Interesting geology here - at some point millions of years ago - this section of earth tipped onto its side.
     The Point Cabrillo Lighthouse was built in 1908 and housed a third-order Fresnel lens and a steam-powered air siren. In 1972 the Coast Guard retired the fog signal and replaced the Fresnel lens with an automated aero-beacon. Thanks to local conservation groups, the Fresnel lens was placed back in service in 1999.  ca0310
     ca0313

    The house on the left was Second Assistant's home, while the Head Lightkeeper lived in the house with the red roof. That building was restored in 2005 and now operates as an inn. $177 will get you an overnight stay with an evening tour of the lighthouse and a gourmet breakfast.

    Although our intended destination today was MacKerricher SP at Fort Bragg, we decided instead, since it was almost Happy Hour, to back-track a mile or so to Russian Gulch SP. There's always tomorrow, right?

    Let's move on further northward