There are so many beautiful places to wander within the Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden in Fort Bragg! It seemed to me that most of the other visitors while I was there last October headed for the bluff trails to enjoy the views of the ocean. I preferred the woodland areas and had them mostly to myself — with only birdsong, […]
One of my favorite YouTube videos recently is a 12-hour soundscape of ocean waves; I frequently use it to lull myself to sleep. When I gaze at these images from the Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden in Fort Bragg, it’s easy to summon up the boom and crash of waves along a rocky shore along with the fresh salt air on […]
I’ve stopped at the small Moat Creek parking area a number of times now, always to follow the short path to the shore. The site is just a bit south of the town of Point Arena, and the beach is popular with surfers (high tide) and with tide pool explorers (low tide). On this visit, I decided to check out […]
Below, just a few of the things I’ve noticed recently alongside of or near Highway 1 in Mendocino County — specifically, in the small town of Point Arena.
Since I was visiting Fort Bragg’s Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens in late October, I was surprised at how many brilliant flowers were blooming in the Perennial Garden. And even though shooting flowers wasn’t my main purpose for being there, it was impossible to walk past these beauties without stopping to check them out. I couldn’t always find signs to identify […]
I really wasn’t sure what to expect when I started the trail known as the Ecological Staircase at Mendocino County’s Jug Handle Reserve, but it turned out to be a really great hike — not too physically demanding and yet a decent workout. All the way out to the Pygmy Forest and back, it totals about 5 miles. After taking […]
At the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens in Fort Bragg, I was surprised to find so many different varieties of fuchsia, and each one of them more beautiful than the last!
If you’re traveling along coastal Highway 1 in Mendocino County, you will probably notice there are quite a number of different bridges crossing over creeks and rivers that flow into the Pacific Ocean. From south to north, the scenic artery crosses the Gualala River, Elk Creek, the Navarro River, the Albion River, the Big River, Jughandle Creek, and the Noyo […]
The campground at Russian Gulch State Park is currently closed for the season — to humans, that is. On the other hand, the cottontails are making themselves right at home. I accidentally caught a few of them in the middle of an afternoon snack when I took a stroll through the area last week. They didn’t seem especially alarmed to […]