SACRAMENTO, GRANITE BAY, TO FORT BRAGG ON THE REDWOOD COAST

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Tuesday, June 12^th

Holiday Inn in Elk Grove, California---Not sure who named the town, but there haven’t been any elk in this suburb of Sacramento in a VERY long time, if ever. 73 degrees at 10:21 am with blue skies and much higher temps predicted. Starting mileage was 27402.

We stopped at the corner station to get gas at $3.879 per gal. Took 18 gals for $70. We had called our friends the night before and got their address in GraniteBay which is a planned community north of Sacramento. She is a Mock on two of her family lines, but not really related to us at all. Barbara used to write the Mock Historian Newsletter and we saw them in Ohio at the Mock Reunion. Anyway, we headed that way for a visit with them. We arrived just at lunch time and we had lunch with them and they then convinced us to stay the night. They have an absolutely lovely home with very high ceilings throughout the house. They have been to Africa twice and their home was decorated with items they brought home from there plus many of Jim’s fantastic photos of African wildlife they saw. We had a really good visit. A black phoebe and a spotted towhee, that is very similar to our rufous-sided towhee in both looks and actions, were spotted under their birdfeeders. Both are new birds to us.

Wednesday, June 13^th

Jim and Barbara’s home in GraniteBay. 9:00 and the temperature is 69 degrees. Starting mileage is 27439

We left Jim and Barbara’s home after she had cooked and we had eaten a delicious breakfast of French toast. We drove out of their community and then up Interstate 80 to the next exit and took highway 65 to Marysville and then crossed the YubaRiver into Yuba City. After leaving the suburbs of Sacramento that were spread out from Interstate 80 to the town of Lincoln, we drove along and through large fields of rice, hay, alfalfa, and orchards of walnuts, peaches, and other fruit and nuts we were not sure of. Can you have orchards for nut trees?? Or is the term used only for fruit trees???

We crossed the Sacramento River and it looked wide enough here for our ancestors to have traveled by steamship from SF to this point and then taken out on mule back into the Sierras for gold. We drove through the town of Colusa, which has a State Park located on the banks of the Sacramento River to check on the accommodations for the night and to eat lunch. The Park wanted a fee for day use and $28 per night with no hook-ups---- it didn’t look inviting to boot. Drove the couple of blocks back into the main street of town and found a shady spot under some big trees next to a FREE city park to eat lunch in Rosie.

Continued on highway 20, now having lots of periodic stops for road construction, which gave us the opportunity to admire the orchards and fields. Along this area, the fields were planted in what looked like produce of some sort we obviously couldn’t ID. Where are the signs for farmers to tell us what they are growing? Passed many orchards with a row of olive trees planted in front of the walnut and almond trees and we think maybe some pistachio trees. Soon after crossing Interstate 5 at Williams, we began to climb into the foothills of the CoastalRange. Dry, dry tall grassy hills. It is only June; what will they look like in August? Came to and then drove right along the eastern shore of ClearLake. Lots of old, old vacation cabins and homes as this area was developed in the 1920’s and 30’s as a vacation place. Some fancy new homes are perched high on the cliffs to overlook the lake. Not a place Valerie or I would want a cabin as the land surrounding the lake is all dry grassy hills. Stopped at a public park area and watched a very large pair of black and white Western Grebes swimming in the water. Had seen several large flocks swimming as we drove along the shore, but too narrow to park for pictures.

Leaving the lakes behind, we joined onto highway 101 for about 15 miles due north to the town of Willits. Willits is an attractive resort town and prides itself as the home of the “skunk” railroad, which is a narrow gage train that previously carried lumber and supplies to and from lumber camps and the coast. After getting gas at Safeway, we turned due west again, on now a very curvy section of highway 20. We quickly climbed up into the fir, pine, and redwood covered Coastal Mountain Range. The road was very narrow and extremely curvy but, we still met many full logging trucks and quite a bit of other traffic. Pretty, pretty drive with the rhododendron and pink/purple fields of foxgloves blooming all along the roadside especially, as we got on the down side of the mountains toward the coast. No place to pull off to take pictures so, have to keep the images in my mind’s eye.

Highway 20 ends at FortBragg on the Pacific Ocean. Drove through town looking for the library as it was past time for some new books and to donate those that we had read. As we turned toward the library the end of the street was closed off for a farmer’s market. So of course we parked Rosie, to see what they had to sell. It was a true Farmer’s Market with no flea market stuff and they were selling very pretty looking lettuces, plants, breads, honey, and goat cheese. Valerie bought some goat cheese with herbs and had hoped to get some bread to go with it. The bakery guy was out of what she wanted by the time we got back to him. Got back in Rosie and drove a block to the library to find that they would accept our donation of books, but only sold books twice a year and now wasn’t one of them.



Drove north about 10 miles along the coast as we had planned to stay at MacKerricherState Park that is right on the ocean. Found it packed with people with only a couple vacant spots even though the park has 148 campsites. We grudgingly paid the $33 fee for dry camping there as we were afraid as late as it was, and as full as the park was, we might not find a place to stay for the night. It was Father’s Day weekend coming up and California schools had just gotten out for the summer.

Thursday, June 14^th

53 degrees with blue skies. MacKerricherState Park, Fort Bragg, CA. Starting mileage was 27659 this morning.

We decided to move south along the coast and check out other camping places. This area is one in which we camped both with our parents and with the Girl Scouts, but neither one of us remembers paying to use a park for picnics nor to camp. We drove a bit through the absolutely gorgeous seaside town of Mendocino, the town used for “Murder She Wrote”. Everything was neat with fresh paint and flowers in bloom everywhere. I think the TV show gave the old Victorian town a real boast bringing in tons of tourists to keep the cash registers ka’chinging. No one had spoiled the “look” with new modern buildings. Drove a few miles south to Van Damme State Park and they had only two open sites. Both spots were on the side of a hill and the parking space was fit only for a tiny car if you could get up it and then you might find a level spot to pitch a tent. Got out the maps and camping books and then continued on down the coast to highway 128 just south of the community of Albion. We thought if we got away from the ocean we could find a camping spot in the redwoods, which is what we wanted to do anyway. We drove about 10 miles and then pulled into the Paul Dimmick Campground in the NavarroRiverRedwoodsState Park and found it almost empty of people but full of huge redwood trees.



So blissfully, quiet , with ferns and laurel and bay trees under the redwoods. It was a reminder of all the camping, picnics and Sunday drives we enjoyed with our parents to places like BigBasin and Big Sur. We spent that night and all weekend there doing nothing but vegging. The cost was $23 per night. $2 off for seniors---big deal!!!

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