Mendocino

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Many years ago, Phil and I came for a week of horseback riding with the Ricochet Ridge Ranch in Fort Bragg. Our group rode horses used in endurance races that vary from 25 - 100 miles! Our rides were much shorter, but included 2-mile trots, ocean-shore rides and one 2-mile canter up through the redwoods.

At that time, our evenings and nights were spent at various bed-and-breakfasts in the area, including one in Mendocino and one on a local farm. We loved the area and are delighted to be back to explore it more thoroughly by hiking. For this seven-night visit, we rented a small secluded cottage down a winding foot path through the massive redwoods and rhododendrons on a high ridge above the Big River. Our enchanting cottage has large windows to enjoy the trees and bushes that completely surround it. Decks circle the cottage and contain everything one could desire including an outdoor shower! What luxury to have our own kitchen, private bathroom, no sounds of traffic or city lights, and time to unwind.

Mendocino County is a fascinating area: We toured the historic Point Cabrillo Lighthouse with its stunning second-order Fresnel lens that is still officially shooting its beam 12-15 miles out over the ocean, then, later on the same day, viewed a harbor seal rookery with the guidance of a docent in MacKerricher State Park.

We spent most of a day walking from our cottage into Mendocino along the Big River to its estuary, the largest north of San Francisco. The popular Big River Haul Road was especially busy on the Sunday afternoon of our walk: bicyclists, one with a small dog in the front basket, others with large dogs on leashes pulling them along, joggers, walkers, baby strollers and canoeists/kayakers on the river. We continued our walk through the town to the Mendocino Headwater State Park where we watched afternoon surfing, inhaled the invigorating sea air and enjoyed the sound of high-tide waves crashing against the rugged coast.

On another day, we strolled along the fern trail in the Russian Gulch State Park to a lovely 36-foot waterfall. On our return, we hiked, surrounded by silence, through the second-growth redwoods until we approached the distant sound of ocean surf. Then on to homemade ice cream cones in Mendocino!

Earlier, on our first day, we hiked the Ecological Staircase in the Jughandle State Reserve that is between Mendocino and Fort Bragg. This trail starts at the ocean and goes inland up a series of five ancient terraces formed by waves, glacier, and tectonic activity. Each terrace was uplifted from the sea about 100,000 years after the previous was raised. The lowest terrace is coastal prairie, followed by a pine forest, next a fir forest, then a redwood forest, and finally a pygmy forest where 100 year-old trees only reach a height of a few feet. The only place in the world that the pygmy forest occurs is in a few isolated patches in northern California. Trees and shrubs are stunted by an extremely nutrient-poor, very acidic soil (1000 times more than a redwood forest, equivalent to vinegar) underlain by an iron hardpan.

If we have an opportunity to return to this area, we'd visit in March when the gray whales swim close to shore with their young as they migrate north, or in May when the harbor seals are birthing and many flowers are in bloom. And enjoy a walk on the beach of polished glass.

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