Our Travels › Around the USA 2008
The Great Around-the-USA Adventure
Golden Gate to Mendocino, CA
California: The Golden Gate to Mendocino
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
