Highway 1, Philo and Mendocino — Day 4
We woke up early in the morning to get a good start out of Shelter Cove. I stepped out to the balcony, first thing in the morning and was blown away by the morning sun shining on the rocks and Lost Coast King’s Range. I took some quick photos before the scene could change.
Early morning view out of our Shelter Cove room.
Early morning view of King’s Range to the north.
We proceeded downstairs for breakfast at a small coffee shop that was part of our inn. Breakfast was good, quick and simple. Before heading out of Shelter Cove, we jotted down a few lots of land as they had great location and likely pretty cheap. I don’t figure we’ll ever even build a vacation home in Shelter Cove due to its remoteness, not quite as spectacular a view as say Mendocino or Albion, and its being totally disconnected from the real world. Nonetheless, I figured it would be interesting to figure out just how much good coastal real estate up there might cost.
Me driving through the Chandelier Tree.
Standing just outside the Drive Thru Tree.
After spending about 40 minutes on the winding Shelter Cove Road, being passed up by about half a dozen speeding trucks, and curving all over the place, we made it into Garberville. Finally reaching “civilization”, we fueled the car and geared up for the next stretch of road- Leggett. Even though Leggett didn’t qualify as a coastal trip, I figured since we were already so close to the Drive Thru Tree Park, we should stop there. The Tree was seriously impressive. It was 6 feet, 9 inches in depth and 6 feet in height. Tobia took some great pictures of me driving through the tree, as well as just pictures of me standing inside the tree. A nice lady volunteered to take some good pictures of us inside the tree.
Just south of where Highway 1 hits the Coast on the north end.
Just north of Fort Bragg.
Following this quick stop, it was time to hit the road towards our favorite place in the world, and next destination- Mendocino! We twisted and turned through route 271 leaving Leggett and heading to the coast. At some point along the trip (no signs) the route became highway 1. Once we hit the coast at the north end of highway 1 at Westport (roughly) the view was, as expected, spectacular. We continued down highway 1 for probably over an hour and a half, even though it wasn’t supposed to take that long. We stopped very many times just to get out and observe the unbelievable ocean views from outside the car. I have discovered that I enjoy public, outdoor, near the coast urination. I can’t quite explain it, but the whole experience just seems so natural to me. The other thing is that when I drive highway 1 I can’t keep my eyes on the road, but rather on the ocean, so for that reason it was a good idea to keep pulling over every so often. It also didn’t hurt that pulling over helped Tobia deal with some of the nausea she tends to experience with my wacky driving near the already difficult-to-traverse coastal highway.
We reached Mendocino just before noon, which meant lunchtime. We were both starving following an early lunch and long drive (we had left Shelter Cove about 4 hours earlier). Lunch was at Moose Café, ever delicious, with excellent service. After lunch, we were determined to finally trek out to Philo, 45 minutes to the southeast, off route 128, to get our favorite grape juice in the world. It was located at Navarro vineyards. We had tried the (white grape) Gewurtzraminer juice on our last visit to Mendocino in April and both totally loved it. There was also the (red grape) Pinot Noir juice that was excellent. Figuring you can barely find this excellent drink anywhere (or at least not at a reasonable price), we would buy some bottles. Initially we planned on a few, that grew to 10, a dozen, and even 20 at some point. When we reached the vineyards we bought two cases, for a total of 24 bottles: 17 white and 7 red. I’m sure we’ll only drink it for special occasions and with friends, and I can’t wait to have some.
We returned to Mendocino just before 3pm with 24 cases of grape juice. After loading up our room with our laptops and divine nectar drinks we headed to our favorite walking area- the Mendocino Headlands Park. We made our usual journey across it, from North to South, seeing beautiful waves (of all colors: blue, teal and green) crash against wild rocks. Around the walking trail were weeds and plants of respectable height, probably about 3 feet, once in a while getting in our way. After about 35 minutes of walking, we reached our favorite spot, a big rock (the source of many of our Mendocino pictures) that’s so close to the shore, but completely surrounded by water, so we call it an island. We parked our rear ends there and watched wild waves crash against it and splash us from time to time. We must have spent close to 2 hours there, relaxing, passing the time.
We took rest onlooking our favorite Island. We sat there for close to 2 hours.
Still relaxing on the rocks looking south.
At 6pm we headed to Café Beaujolais for dinner. It was great, and was followed by some great ice cream next door. Exhausted, we followed the ordeal by walking back to our inn and winding down the rest of the long day. I think fatigue caught up with us after being out on the road, coast and walking so much the previous days.