Thursday Mendocino to Crescent City

Our breakfast at the Blue Door B&B was a nice basket delivered to our door, consisting of yogurt and fruit, juice, blueberry muffins and coffee. We ate at the dining room table and visited with a couple form New Jersey. It was a very nice stay. Mendocino is a cute little town, would deserve a longer visit.

Before breakfast I went for a hike around the "Headlands" trails, which was awesome! Great views of crashing waves! The weather was not so great today. A bit foggy and drizzly, with a more general rain later. But it cleared by late afternoon, giving a nice sunset at Crescent City.

Just north of Mendocino is the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse. A nice 1/2 mile walk from the parking area, down to the ocean, we found a restored, yet active, lighthouse and a lightkeepers houses. Very interesting!

From here, there was very little of interest all the way to Crescent City. Just north of Rockport, Rt 1 leaves the coast and turns inland to its end, when it meets 101. That last 22 miles IS A ROUTE TO BE AVOIDED AT ALL COST! Anybody susceptible to motion sickness will die!

Route 101 is a much faster road, with many sections of the four lane variety. Yet there is nothing remarkable about any of it. We did manage a nice lunch at Calico Cafe in Garberville. The road passes through some large towns like Fortuna and  Eureka, none of it looking particularly prosperous. Main industry seems to be logging/lumber and fishing.There are few ocean views; the ones there are beaches, not rocky outcroppings as we enjoyed further south. There are also sections of Redwood "groves" which are very impressive, but they're just big trees!

So, for future explorers of the northern California coast, I'd skip the 200 miles from Point Cabrillo to Crescent city.

We got a room at Quality Inn (using our points) and had a great dinner at Good Harvest. I enjoyed a crab quesadilla!

Tomorrow we'll explore the Crescent City Marina and the lighthouse out on the point. We'll also be looking for a huge gathering of harbor seals (you can hear them barking!). Then continuing north the terminus of our planned trip, Coos Bay, Oregon. The map makes me think it will be more interesting!