Mendocino [230825-29]
In late August we got the chance to take the T42 up north a bit to the Mendocino area.
Russian Gulch State Park
For the first couple of nights, we stayed at Russian Gulch SP. We didn’t really know what to expect, but ended up really liking our site there. It was in the back section where sites are only on one side of the road, and almost every site is sort of in its own little alcove cut off from the neighboring sites by a thick wall of trees and bushes - very secluded and peaceful, with the only sound heard most of the time being the stream that runs behind the sites. Occasionally a car would pass by headed to/from the trailhead at the end of the road - but the trail isn’t all that popular. 😉
Chipmunks would come out in the morning and eat berries off of the bushes.
And a bunny lived somewhere nearby too, since he’d come to nibble the plants by the water spigot in the evenings.
On our first full day, we decided to take the aforementioned trail out to see the Falls. Bicycles are allowed on the first 2 miles of the Fern Canyon Trail, so we biked that (mixed packed earth / gravel) portion to save time. From there it was a short continuation hike to get to the junction of the Falls Loop Trail, where you can either go clockwise the short / steep way to just see the Falls 0.7 miles away, or counter-clockwise to do the full 2.3 mile loop (which gets you to the falls from the opposite direction, with a more gradual elevation climb). We wanted to do the full loop - but also wanted instant gratification Falls-view wise - so went clockwise anyway.
All in all we were happy with our route choice, because the view was much better if you approached from this direction (instead of having this at your back as you left):
We hung out at the Falls for awhile taking photos and eating lunch. I think only 3 other couples passed through the entire time we were there.
After lunch we finished the rest of the loop and then biked back the front of the Park, to hike the South Headlands trail. The trail starts on the beach, by the Park’s iconic bridge:
From where the trail passes under the bridge, you get this neat looking view:
On the other side looking back, there was this scraggly old dead tree that apparently was some sort of major turkey vulture hangout.
We followed the trail as far as we could
but it eventually led to a parking lot, that we couldn’t find a bona-fide trail leading out of - just a few maybe-footpaths that were a bit too overgrown with what looked like poison oak for our liking, so we turned around and headed back.
The next morning we drove a couple miles up the road to visit the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse. We stopped in the Lightkeeper’s House / museum where we got a personal tour from the docent, before heading down to the lighthouse itself.
The rear of the lighthouse is still undergoing repairs from when huge storm waves came up over the cliff and crashed through the back doors and windows, flooding the bottom floor, last January.
“Devil’s Punchbowl”, a sinkhole, was on our list of things to see and we came to realize that the trail leading to it is actually inside Russian Gulch SP, so we went back to the Park again and found the side road that leads there. We’re guessing that it’s probably much more impressive at high tide, since at low tide water just foams in the constricted opening on one end:
causing waves in the “bowl” section.
But it gave us a chance to hike the (north) Headlands Trail, with its views of various sea caves and arches.
Afterwards, we drove to the Mendocino headlines where we continued our hiking tour of the area's arches and sea caves.
Some day it might be fun to come back and explore by kayak (the jury is still out on whether the water is calm enough for our inflatable, or we’d have to rent some locally or even go on one of the local guided tours) but it was much too cold to attempt such a thing this time around.
There was another sinkhole, but it was even less exciting than the previous one; sinkhole visits really need to be timed properly with the tides, we think.
Since we were so close, we walked a couple of the streets in Mendocino itself and did a little bit of window shopping before heading out to our new camp site at Van Damme State Park.
Van Damme State Park
The layout of Van Damme was not as nice as at Russian Gulch. Half of the sites are located across a sketchy temporary bridge and on top of a really steep hill, pretty much guaranteeing that you have to drive down from your site to do anything. That having been said: our site was one of the nicer ones on the hill, being on the less crowded side of the loop and by the nicer bathrooms.
We didn’t really use the picnic table at all, since it (as well as the fire ring and food storage box, and presumably the little flat area where you’d pitch a tent) were down the back side of the hill a bit from the parking pad. It would’ve been quieter down there than at a lot of the other sites, though 🙂.
Our first stop the next day was to hike - well, more like “walk” - the Pygmy Forest of Mini Trees. The grove is supposed to be accessible by a trail from inside the Park, but a section of the trail was closed for repairs so we had to drive around the outside of the Park to access it via a small parking lot, from which the forest’s boardwalk was just a few feet away. The forest sits at something of a high point, so the runoff has leeched the nutrients from the soil causing the stunted growth of the trees there.
Next we walked the beach at Van Damme, which is across the highway from the campground itself.
We saw huge flocks of pelicans hanging out in the bay.
After lunch we headed back into Mendocino
Afterwards we did a little more headlands hiking:
and then did a little more exploring of the streets of Mendocino. One of the shops had a very interesting plant growing out front, with flowers that looked like little lanterns.
That night there was only a handful of other campers in the campground with us. While cooking dinner in the T42, we noticed some visitors outside: a pair of deer had come out of the woods to nibble on the bushes by our campsite. Tom tried to exit out the opposite side of the van and sneak around for a decent photo, but these were not Yosemite deer that go about their business no matter what’s happening around them. They heard him coming and took off back into the woods. ☹️
One of them came back after dinner, though, and he managed to get a few photos without scaring her off.
The next day we decided to take a day trip a little north to MacKerricher State Park. Their brochure claims to have harbor seal viewing, but I was skeptical. As it turns out, there were plenty of seals to be seen - as long as you had binoculars or a reasonably good zoom lens (luckily we had both):
Low tide wasn’t going to be until mid-afternoon, so after lunch we took our bikes on the Haul Road coastal path that leads back down to Fort Bragg.
Right at Fort Bragg the trail crosses the Pudding Creek Trestle, which is a landmark of sorts.
We continued on the path looking for the Glass Beach. But when we got there, we found the “path” down to the beach a little too steep and treacherous for our liking, and decided to just admire it from afar.
We went as far as Otsuchi Point (named for Fort Bragg’s sister city in Japan) before turning around to look for an access point back to Fort Bragg itself.
In Fort Bragg we did a little window shopping, but the “will it fit in the Travato?” measuring stick pretty much prevents us from buying much these days 😜.
We biked back to MacKerricher and did some tide pooling in the rocks there - lots of anemone and hermit crabs, with a few shy true crabs skittering around and some starfish clinging to things.
Then it was back to Van Damme for our last night before heading home. All in all it was a fun trip, with a good mix of hiking and biking (and experimenting with power and water management in the T42 😉).
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