I’m not sure if we’ll ever return to this cabin up in the hills above Manchester, but it was definitely a stay I won’t forget for a long time! We faced a few minor frustrations here — adjusting to the lack of microwave, living off the electrical grid, dealing with cold, rainy weather — but all in all, this was […]
We found the tide extremely low when we arrived at Doran County Park (south of Bodega Bay), where we always stop to collect ghost shrimp. Although there seemed to be a surprising number of people using the beach — across the road from where we park — we had the bay side completely to ourselves. I did notice, though, that […]
Since I’ve been looking through my photos from last October when I visited the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens in Fort Bragg, I thought it would be nice to revisit this episode — it was my very first look at this beautiful spot in Mendocino County. This segment of California’s Golden Coast originally aired in September 2003, and I featured it here on the blog in October 2018: I’ve been a botanical garden fan ever since my visit to the San Francisco Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park in 2016. Before that, I had no idea how wonderful such places could be — perfect for photography, for wandering, or for just sitting to relax in the middle of nature’s beauty. Watching this episode of California’s Golden Coast is a great introduction to the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, a unique and beautiful public garden near the small town of Fort Bragg; I was surprised to learn that this garden has been here since 1961. Now it looks like I have another spot to add to my must-visit list! The Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens is the only public garden in the continental United States located directly on the coast. Huell explores this rare jewel set within coastal pines and coastal bluffs in Fort Bragg. In addition to its diverse flora, there is a retail nursery and garden shop as well as workshops, classes and lectures so you may take a bit of the […]
Earlier this month, in my continuing quest to photograph as many California Historical Landmarks as possible, I drove for nearly an hour from Eagle Lake to Susanville. I was searching for three sites in particular; the first was Peter Lassen’s grave, and the second was Roop’s Fort. Unfortunately, by the time I arrived at what is now Memorial Park, it […]
Although I have a bit of family history centering on the Yuba City area, I’ve never really explored that region; and I tend to forget that there was a lot of Gold Rush history along the Yuba River back in the 1850s. In fact, a long stretch along the river west of Timbuctoo looks very familiar to me because it […]
There’s never enough time to stop and check out everything that catches my eye — driving back through Texas I spotted a ton of historical markers along the side of the road — but because we’ve made good time, we’re able to slow down a bit now that we’ve arrived in Arizona. I find that doing a road trip is […]
It was easy enough for me to find this brightly painted (and lovingly cared for) historic site along Albion Street in the village of Mendocino. According to The Hiker’s Hip Pocket Guide to the Mendocino Coast by Bob Lorentzen, the first Chinese arrived in this area when their boat, headed for the gold rush, was shipwrecked on the Mendocino coast. […]
Back in March 2020 I published a post (Written in Stones) in which I mentioned that I would love to travel around the state photographing California Historical Markers. I’ve definitely shot quite a number of them over the years, but I’m still not able to make this a full-time project. When I recently came across a book titled California Historical […]
Mendocino may be a fairly small village, but it’s seriously packed with historic buildings, numerous water towers, and so many small details that even without stopping to do any shopping — okay, well, much shopping — I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of amazing finds. In this series of images, I’ve focused on a relatively small area that […]