Magnificent N. Cali Coast, Thunder in the Dunes

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Geo: 38.3333, -123.047

Well it is finally coming to an end. We have to start heading back to Santa Fe. The original plan was to drive back to Berkeley today and spend Monday packing up for an early Monday morning departure from Oakland airport. Robert managed to make a good enough argument to spend one last night with Jerry and Naxdli somewhere along the coast heading down toward Berkeley.

We all were breaking down our campsites when suddenly our attention was drawn to the opposite shore where we could see a heron fishing on shore and a otter fishing in the water! The otter began rolling in the mud with the heron keeping a watchful eye on him. Then the heron would walk down the shoreline, and the otter would match his movement in the water! Quite a show they put on for us. It was a great memory to have as we left the campground at Schooner Landing.

First stop along the way was at Navarro Beach State Park. This is camping right on the beach with the waves crashing on the shore. It is a beautiful setting and did seem to be quite popular. Watched a kayaker try to make a landing but got himself sideways and hit the water. Safely to shore though.

We stopped at a stunning tower of rocks on the outskirts of the town of Gulala. It looked a lot like a fanciful building from some science fiction movie. Did some shopping at a wonderful store in Gulala and then fixed ourselves a sandwich looking out over the ocean.

Where the Russian River runs into the ocean, there is a area where the seals have hauled themselves out and people were watching them. This is a beautiful area and we also drove down to the beach area which is proclaimed to be one of the "most dangerous" spots on the coast because of sneaker waves, riptide, undercurrents and something else.

Was getting toward the end of the day and we start looking at places to stay. Wrights Beach is a small state park and only had one site available. Some of the sights have ocean front views but this particular one did not so we drove on toward Bodega Dunes State Park.

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