We started out driving Friday afternoon after work, headed to Santa Barbara. It seemed like a good halfway point between the bay area and San Diego. Not to mention, we hadn’t seen the coastline south of Santa Barbara, nor had we driven the parts of Highway 1 south of there.

We got into Santa Barabara Friday night and prepared for a long day on Saturday.

Worker Bee Cafe

Early Saturday morning, we headed to the Worker Bee Cafe in Carpinteria, a lovely family owned restaurant. We enjoyed a great breakfast, then hit the road, driving all along the coast and Highway 1.

The southern California coast was mostly sandy, at times pebbly, with some rocky areas, but rather unrugged. There were some really nice waves in many areas, almost like blankets right on top of each other. Aliso beach, in particular, had some really high swells.

We passed by lots of homes, supported by beams, facing the ocean. Along the drive were many rises and descents, from small hills to mountains. It was sunny and warm the entire drive. It was right around the mid-high 70s the entire weekend down south.

Unfortunately, many stretches of Highway 1 run inland (we often cut off Highway 1 to see the coast, and came back where we left off), and we effectively just drove through city streets with traffic lights slowing us down at every block. It was an extremely slow drive.

Dana Point, southern end of Highway 1

Right around Dana Point we pulled over at a nice cafe for an energizing sugary stop. Afterwards we hit the road going south, and a half mile later, we finished the rest of Highway 1. I hope to never drive this part of Highway 1 again, but was extremely happy to have driven all 656 miles of Highway 1: starting at roughly Leggett in the north, and ending roughly at Dana Point in the south. Over the last few years, with our various lighthouse or coastal trips, we had managed to drive all parts of this road.

Down what was then called the Coast Highway, we continued along the coast, to get to the southwest strip of land, just west of San Diego. Driving through much more of the same- sandy coastline, tons of stop lights, lots of people and restaurants, we eventually reached Cabrillo National Park, where the two Point Loma lighthouses could be seen. The park closes at 5pm and we got there at 4:45pm, having taken a significantly longer time than expected to reach this destination.

We parked the car and were immediately able to see the old Point Loma Lighthouse. We climbed inside it, and by the time we came out, it was 5pm. As I could not bare to leave the park without seeing the new Point Loma, I quickly ran to a vista point, despite a coast guard gentleman calling out to me not to do so as they were closing. I was ecstatic to see new Point Loma from the lookout point some few hundred yards into the closed area. Worse yet, I was determined to run back and get the camera from Tobia to take some pictures. I pleaded with the coast guard to let me go back to the vista point with the camera, promising to run both ways and be really quick. He reluctantly agreed and I was most thankful to be able to snap some pictures.

Old Point Loma Lighthouse	Old Point Loma Lighthouse	New Point Loma Lighthouse from vista point
New Point Loma Lighthouse from vista point	Totally happy to have snapped pics of New Point Loma Lighthouse, but also out of breath from so much running	Looking out east at San Diego from Cabrillo National Park

Following this extreme running high and being out of breath, we were led to the parking lot and left the park. From there it was off to San Diego, where we pulled into the Gaslamp quarters, checked into our awesome Ivy Hotel, and had an incredible outdoor dinner at an Italian restaurant in the quarters.

We were exhausted at the end of this long day and slept really hard.

Scenic drive

Cape Arago Lighthouse

Again, we woke up at 6am this morning, rushing to get out of our extremely nasty motel in Florence, OR. We started driving down 101 South, headed towards Cape Arago Lighthouse. We were eventually able to see the lighthouse on its bluff from a nice lookout point. That was as close as we could get.

Following the lighthouse, we headed south to Bandon. Tobia had read the night before that there were some nice rocks out there off Beach Loop Drive, so we decided to check those out. We saw a rock called Face Rock, which really did look like a face looking up at the sky. There were dozens of other beautiful monoliths in the area.

Rock formations

Coquille River Lighthouse

Face Rock

Closer look at Face Rock

Battle Rock

On our drive down to the next lighthouse, we came across Battle Rock at Port Orford. This was a nice big rock with lots of trees sticking out of it, at the end of the little town. People were sitting all along the main street, waiting for what appeared to be a 4th of July parade.

The next stop along 101 South was Cape Blanco Lighthouse. This one was reachable, and we got to take many pictures and see it from many angles. The surroundings to the north and south were very nice, with lots of small islets. Knowing this would be a long day, we continued on south to Samuel H. Boardman scenic park, just north of Brookings, which is just 6 or so miles north of California.

Cape Blanco Lighthouse in the distance

Interesting rock formation near Cape Blanco Lighthouse

Cape Blanco Lighthouse

The Boardman scenic park was spectacular! We got to see Arch Rock as well as unique other rocks that had trees coming out of their tops. Quite a unique set of rocks. Tobia seems to really enjoy these rugged rocks with a single tree sticking out of them, so we went in pursuit of quite a few of those.

Rock formations

Arch Rock

Tree-topped rock formation

Natural Bridges

From the scenic park, we zoomed into California, past Crescent City and all the towns we saw two years ago on our CA coast trip. We pulled into Garberville (unfortunately our favorite restaurant in the area, Mateel’s Cafe was closed due to 4th of July) to eat some pizza in the small main street area at Sicilito’s Pizzeria.

The start of the Lost Coast

Where the Lost Coast and the Mendocino Coast meet

Afterwards, it was on to 271W to cross from Leggett to Westport. Right before Westport, we got to see the actual spot where the Lost Coast ends and the Mendocino Coast begins. The difference in rock structure and slope is really noticeable. We stepped out to take pictures, walk around to loosen up, and continued on about 5 miles south to our Inn at Westport.

Westport

Westport

We had passed by Westport 2 years ago, but never took the time to explore it. Well, we had a chance to do that and thought it quite charming. There is a small headlands area, a grocery store, and a small population of folks. The inn keeper was one of the most easy going people I’d ever met, having stepped out for 4th of July celebrations (presumably) and simply leaving the key inside the room for us, along with a note saying to come in and make ourselves at home (and that we would settle the bill later).

Completely exhausted by 4 days of lots of walking, driving and sight-seeing, we went in and crashed for the night.

The alarm clock went off at 6am this morning. 20 minutes later we were having breakfast downstairs at our hotel. By 6:45am we had already left Portland and were on our way to the coast and Seaside. The plan was to start at the north of the state and work our way down to Florence, Oregon, about halfway down the coast. The idea was to see at least Cape Meares, Yaquina Head and Heceta Head Lighthouses.

Chapman Point at Ecola State Park

Northern view of Ecola State Park

Postcard: Tillamook Rock Lighthouse

Postcard: Tillamook Rock Lighthouse

As we had done the previous days, we drove through acres upon acres of trees and national parks. Around 8:15 we got into Ecola State Park where we saw our first views of the Oregon coast. The views were gorgeous, more spectacular than I had seen in pictures and imagined. We walked around the trails for a while, enjoyed the views, and eventually decided to make the Catslop loop that would take us to the closest lookout onto Tillamook Rock Lighthouse.

Clearing a path for Tobia on the Catslop loop at Ecola State Park

Ultimately, despite walking for close to 2.5 tiring hours, we could not see the lighthouse, because it was unbearably foggy. I think the visibility could not have been more than 15 feet. Tired, we returned to the car in search of haystack rock and some food.

Haystack Rock

We drove a few miles south to Cannon Beach and had to walk as close as we could to the haystack rock, because the beach was unbearably foggy as well. I collected an uncomfortable amount of sand in my shoes on the walk to the rock. After returning to the main street, we stopped by at a nice bagel and coffee shop for some bagels and to hit the road again.

Twin Rock

On the drive down to see Cape Meares Lighthouse, we made dozens of stops along view points and the coast in general to take pictures and see the Oregon Coast. It was quite beautiful, but I thought it was most so around Central Oregon.

Cape Meares Lighthouse

Cape Meares Lighthouse

After what seemed like at least a few hours, we finally made it to our first lighthouse- Cape Meares. It was a nice lighthouse and I loved the surroundings, which included some monoliths and rugged rocks to the north and south. About 1/4 mile up the hill from the lighthouse is the Octopus Tree- a weird looking, multi-branched tree that is unlike any I’ve ever seen. We took some pictures, hung around and ultimately hit the road for Yaquina Head Lighthouse.

View of the cliffs around Cape Meares Lighthouse

Rock formations at Cape Meares Lighthouse

Giant rock near Cape Meares Lighthouse

Octopus Tree

Some 2.5 hours later, we reached Yaquina Head Lighthouse. Again, in the process, we stopped repeatedly to look at the coast at just about every possible stop. The lighthouse is located in a National Park, and at the end of the large Yaquina Head rock. The lighthouse itself was very well preserved, tall, and quite nice. Its surroundings were also nice, less attractive than Cape Meares’ though.

Cape Foulweather with Yaquina Lighthouse in the distance

Yaquina Lighthouse in the distance

Yaquina Lighthouse

The Spouting Horn at Cook’s Chasm

On our final long drive of the day, we headed to Heceta Head Lighthouse. That drive seemed to take forever, because I believe the most beautiful part of the Oregon coast (at least to this point) is between these two lighthouses. I think Cape Perpetua is magnificent. In particular Cooks Chasm was one of the nicest coastal destinations I’ve ever seen!

Shortly after Cape Perpetua, we reached Heceta Head Lighthouse. I was so excited, I climbed some dangerous rocks to get unique views of the lighthouse. Heceta Head Lighthouse is truly unbelievably beautiful. The only other lighthouse in its league is Point Conception, I believe. It is perched on an awesome, rugged rock, with some monoliths in the area and at the north end of a tiny cove. I couldn’t get enough of it.

Scaling the rocks around Heceta Head Lighthouse

Heceta Head Lighthouse

Heceta Head Lighthouse

Heceta Head Lighthouse

Heceta Head Lighthouse in the distance

We had a subpar meal at this casino

When we finally got our fill of the lighthouse, we went to check into our (nasty) motel, went to have buffet dinner at a casino, fueled and headed back to the motel to crash after a tremendously fulfilling, exciting, but exhausting day.

Driving conditions out to Jalama Beach were really bad. Parts of the road were completely flooded and others just rough. It took us almost an hour to drive out there, twice as long as expected. We pulled into a completely empty Jalama Beach Store area (even the store was closed), and parked the car at our meeting spot. To say it was raining hard would be an understatement. Our car fogged up within about a minute of our turning it off. It was just a few minutes after 9:30am when we sat back and waited anxiously.

Less than 5 minutes later, to my excitement, two cars were pulling in. The first was a sedan and the other an SUV. Through the fog I could see the license plate on the SUV, and it said “Government”. Ecstatically, I hopped right out of the car and walked towards the two cars. A middle aged couple emerged out of their car and we quickly chatted each other up, making sure we were both headed to Point Conception Lighthouse.

The other car passengers took a couple minutes to get out. When they did, I knew we’d see Point Conception- two Coast Guard uniformed gentlemen emerged and we quickly chatted them up too.

The locked gate, keeping people off Cojo Ranch (last sold in January 2007 for $135 million).

We waited for the others to show up and eventually after discussing the ground rules again, all us guests hopped in Brian’s (an oceanographer from Cal Poly who had a monstrous van, courtesy of the university) van, and followed the Coast Guard to Cojo Ranch, a few minutes away.

This was one of the smaller pot holes in the road rising up to the lighthouse.

We pulled up to Cojo Ranch and the Coast Guard captain opened the gate for us.

We drove for about 25 minutes, the end of which constituted some atrocious pot holes in the road. I was surprised our Cal Poly van (with 7 of us inside) could make it up the heavy slope with the horrid road and rain.

Getting out of the car, staring over the wall, we saw Point Conception Lighthouse for the first time.

As soon as we stopped, I immediately hopped out and peered over the short wall separating us from a roughly 200 foot fall down the hill to the lighthouse. It was breathtaking and made me shake nervously. On top of it all, the fog horn went off every 5 or so seconds, breaking the silence, almost as if ringing in the next act at a play. I don’t know if it was just the anticipation of finally being here that overtook me, or the beauty, or both, but I was not be able to slow down for the next 2 hours we would spend there.

At the bottom of the steep rocky hill is the lighthouse.

The Coast Guard guys had work to do.

We descended just over 150 steps down to the lighthouse, far from any form of civilization. There were a few bluffs extending out from the main lighthouse area, and they made for some beautiful views of the lighthouse. We also got to climb up into the lense room. It rained hard the entire time we were there, but it didn’t slow any of us down from appreciating things just the same. In fact, the gray rainy skies seemed to be the perfect background for this day and location. The air was cool and clear.

I had to get a picture with the lighthouse in the soaking rain.	View to the South East.	A different angle of the lighthouse.	Another angle.
Yet another angle, I wanted it all!	One of my favorite pictures of this lighthouse. I love the unique rock here and seeing the lighthouse on top of it. Waves crashing right below.	Looking up from below.	If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that was my dad in the picture, except he’s a bit taller.
More of that unique, rugged rock to the North West.	Didn’t want to leave any angle out. Don’t know if I’ll ever get to see this beauty again.	Another really nice one. We had to inch really close to the end of the bluff to get this one.	One last angle and picture of the lighthouse as the last Coast Guard officer finishes up.

Tobia and Arnon

After the Coast Guard finished their maintenance, we climbed back up the stairs from the lighthouse and ultimately headed back to the Jalama Beach store where all 7 of us had lunch together before parting our own ways.

The main street in Solvang, not too far from Point Conception.

One of the couples on the trip suggested we stop at Solvang before returning home. We ended up at a nice café in Solvang, stayed for a little while, and finally made the 4.5 hour drive back north to get back home. It rained through all of Central California, but eased up as we got closer to home.

All difficulties, anticipation and excitement aside, this was the most beautiful lighthouse terrain I have seen in all my trips. It was well worth the effort to get to Point Conception.

We landed in LA around 10:30 in the morning and rented a car to drive out to Palos Verdes, where the lighthouse is located. The lighthouse is only open the 2nd Saturday of every month, so our timing had to be planned. Driving through Sepulveda Blvd in LA, we ultimately joined Highway 1 South and reached the lighthouse just before noon.

Approaching the lighthouse.

Palm trees surround the lighthouse area.

It was quite warm even that close to the coast. We got to walk into the lighthouse and climb into the lense room where it was extremely hot. On our way out, we walked along the coast line and got some nice pictures of the lighthouse from a distance. It was then I was able to truly appreciate the bluff upon which the lighthouse was built.

Tobia and I at the lense room.

Looking south from the tower.

Looking north from the tower.

Appreciating the lighthouse bluff. There is a fair bit of erosion going on there.

Following the lighthouse we had lunch outdoors, overlooking the ocean, which was very relaxing. We dropped the rental car off, and were extremely efficiently bused to the airport where Tobia was able to get us an earlier flight back home.

Once at home we quickly got ready and were picked up by Richard and along with Wes, headed off to SF for some great Italian food, followed by Beach Blanket Babylon (which was hilarious). A great and extremely tiring day… quite a jet-set life.

The following day we went to our favorite restaurant for dinner. Wonderful weekend!

A couple weeks earlier, Andy expressed interest in joining Tobia and I on our trip out there. Just 2 days before finding out the tour would happen, we all kicked into gear really quickly and planned our hotel and trip down there.

The three of us met at our house after work Friday night and drove down to San Luis Obispo. We slept the night at a mediocre hotel and woke up early the next day to head off to Port San Luis to hike out to the lighthouse.

Port San Luis-the location where our tour started.

After a surprisingly great breakfast at Coco’s we drove out to the port and signed in for our tour. There were two options, a slow hike and a fast hike. Too excited to be slown down by anything, I chose the short hike. Two guides- one from PG&E (who effectively owns and controls traffic on the trail because they own a power plant on the same grounds)- led us on the roughly 50 minute walk to the lighthouse. We walked up and down the large hill through some paved roads and other times through gravel and trails to get there.

Approaching the lighthouse.

Looking at the ocean facing side of the lighthouse.

The lighthouse was at the western edge of the hill, unviewable from the harbor. I loved its secluded nature, just above and quite close to the ocean. Our tour led us up to the lense room where we got a nice view of the surrounding coast.

The 3 of us on our walk back from the lighthouse.

The walk back was really quick. We followed this up with a stroll on the Port San Luis pier where we saw sea lions, had some drinks at a bar, and then we headed off to the San Luis Obispo Mission and lunch before driving back home Saturday afternoon, exhausted but really content.

Roughly an hour after ordering, we got our food, ate heartily, and Marc and I took off on Mattole Road to begin our drive to Punta Gorda Lighthouse. We drove south past Cape Mendocino, cutting inland before Punta Gorda. Turning off onto Lighthouse road, we drove this poorly paved road for a while. There were no signs anywhere and we merely had to rely on google map’s directions to get us there.

Ridge road was a bit nerve-wrecking to drive through.

The directions I mapped indicated that we had to take a left onto Ridge road after roughly 5 miles of Lighthouse road. Indeed, when my odometer showed 5 miles had passed, a scary-as-hell, 35 degree incline, gravel road appeared before us. Figuring surely this was a mistake, we drove out the remaining mile to the end of Lighthouse road where we ended up in a campground. I believe this campground is where most people do their trek out to the lighthouse. Sticking with my map and comparing with the campground directions, I felt pretty sure that it would be better to return to Ridge road and take the other path to the lighthouse.

It was probably the right call walking this instead of driving this.

Sure enough, Ridge road was really tough. Driving a 1996 Honda Civic, I started climbing this hill in 1st gear. Despite the great power of 1st, the car really struggled up this hill, and I think it’s fair to say both Marc and I were pretty tense. Again, with no signs anywhere or a true sense of comfort, we simply continued on Ridge road. Eventually, we reached a small turnoff to the right, which, according to the map was supposed to be Windy Point road. Ridge road seemed like a smoothly paved highway when compared to Windy Point road. A few hundred feet into this most precarious drive, we came across a green gate. Marc jumped out of the car to read a sign that said that only 4×4s should drive this road. Already pretty nervous, we agreed it’d be best if we just parked off to the side near the weeds and trek the rest of the way down this road.

Still high up above the ocean.

We walked down Windy Point road for about 2 steep miles downhill, fully aware we’d have to climb this road on the way back up. At the end of this road we were finally at the coast line. Punta Gorda Lighthouse was visible at this point, looking deceptively close. After a mile of walking along the black sands beach and also on weeds, we reached the lighthouse. I took some pictures and we climbed to the top, where the lense used to be and had some pre-packed lunches we brought with us.

Finally at the coast line, Punta Gorda Lighthouse in the background.

So much was made of this creek in my readings, saying it would be virtually impossible to cross at high tide. Well, we crossed just an hour after high tide and I didn’t think much of it.

Finally, Punta Gorda Lighthouse! So remote…

Some old, rusty remains of a ship wreck.

Heading back to the car, the climb up Windy Point road seemed to take forever, as the noon sun beat down on us and the temperature got pretty warm. We reached the car tired and sweaty, but glad it was still there.

It was hot and we had already climbed quite a bit from the coast line. We had all of this to look forward to.

So glad the car wasn’t stolen, towed, damaged or otherwise missing.

We descended Ridge road slowly and could see our next destination in the distance to the north- Cape Mendocino. Check back tomorrow for more.

Driving down Ridge road, noticing Sugar Loaf Island and Cape Mendocino up north in the distance.

Headed west to Cape Mendocino.

Approaching Piedras Blancas Lighthouse heading South on Hwy 1.

Piedras Blancas Lighthouse (or White Rocks lighthouse) is in Cambria, about a 3.5 hour drive South of where we live. It is just north of Hearst Castle on Highway 1 in Coastal Central California.

The drive on Highway 1 was, as usual, beautiful. We hadn’t driven this segment of road since our trip to Morro Bay roughly 3 years ago. It was also extremely tiring, as this was a day trip with over 7 hours of road time.

This white rock or piedra blanca is where the lighthouse gets its name. The rock got this color from birds droppings over the years… hard to believe but true!

We picked up our tickets at the Hearst Castle Visitor Center, and proceeded by bus, on an organized tour to this otherwise unavailable-to-the-public lighthouse.

One of the first things we learned, that I found amusing, was how the lighthouse was named. Piedra Blanca means white rock, which has formed in the area for hundreds of years due to birds’ droppings. Initially I found this hard to believe, but eventually was just amused. It turns out that many of the nearby rocks don’t get hit by waves, thus keeping the rocks dry. As a result, birds stay on these rocks longer and do their business. In contrast, rocks on the northern Mendocino Coast (for example) constantly get pounded by waves, so birds won’t stay long and will fly off before they can leave their turds.

I liked the lighthouse from this angle, showing its size and some of the surroundings. The volunteers who took us on this tour are working on renovating this lighthouse.

We proceeded to walk around the grounds listening to a bit of history prior to the construction of the lighthouse, and eventually had a chance to get inside. The lighthouse, with the exception of the fresnel lense (removed, residing at Hearst Castle), stood as it had been since its establishment in 1875. It will be undergoing renovations as it continues to fall apart.

Beautiful white rocks surround the area leading north to the lighthouse. I love seeing the rocks jut out of the ocean.

After our 2 hour lighthouse trip, we returned to the Hearst Castle Visitor Center and hopped on Highway 1 North to get a few more glimpses of the lighthouse from the road, then on to dinner and back home.

We stopped in Carmel on the way home, had some dinner and much needed coffee to keep me awake on the drive home. We got home extremely exhausted but really content. I have now seen 13 lighthouses, but have also added an extra one I’d like to see… so 3 more to visit.

On the last day of our trip we woke up around 7:30am in Mendocino. We had seen signs across town that they were going to have a pancake breakfast from 8am – noon. From past experience (having done this in labor day of 2006), we knew this would be good. When we showed up at 8am, figuring things would just start rolling, elderly men were making pancakes, eggs and sausage, and already serving dozens of people before us.

I ultimately settled for 5 pancakes, an egg, a bunch of melon, pineapple and some orange juice. Yum! It was really good.

Passing by the town of Elk on highway 1 south. We had never driven in this area before.

Following breakfast we fueled one last time and hit the road on 1 South, determined to complete the last leg of our trip seeing this part of road we’d heard was beautiful. Beautiful it was. Instead of cutting Southeast at Highway 128 to Cloverdale, we continued down South to Elk on 1. Elk was followed by Point Arena. At Point Arena we pulled off- as we had originally planned in our trip- to go visit the lighthouse. After 2 miles of driving almost purely West, we reached the incredibly tall lighthouse structure.

Once at the site, we were given a trip up the stairs to the top of the lighthouse. Both our tour guide and the gentleman waiting for us at the top of the lighthouse insisted that Point Arena was the Western most point in California. I had read the entire last month that it was Cape Mendocino and let them know this. Still, they insisted where we were was the Western most point. I figured I would resolve this later at home when I could check actual coordinates of the locations.

We climbed about 10 flights of stairs to the top of Point Arena. Picture of staircase looking down.

View of Point Arena from the top of the lighthouse.

Point Arena Lighthouse the tallest lighthouse on the West Coast. But not the Western most point in California

Point Arena Lighthouse is perched on this rock.

Following Point Arena, we continued through Anchor Bay, Gualala, Sea Ranch and Fort Ross. Roughly at Fort Ross (even though advertised as Jenner), we pulled off at the Timber Cove Inn. We had read about this place in Tobia’s Via magazine, and the picture used to describe it is beautiful. Walking in like we owned the joint, Tobia and I trekked into the beautiful Inn and walked around, sneaking glances into rooms as they were being cleaned by the maids. We noticed a hallway door that led outside, and we followed it out to the rocks.

Once on the rocks (almost as if at home), we descended down almost to Ocean level, taking pictures, getting some good air, and appreciating being out of the car for a while. We were able to find out way back to the car without entering the Inn on our way out.

After venturing right through Timber Cove Inn we walked through to the back and scoped out the scenery.

Gleason Beach south of Fort Ross.

From Fort Ross we continued down to Jenner and Bodega Bay. It was around 12:30pm when we reached Bodega Bay, so pulled off to the side of Highway 1 and ate at a marvelous restaurant called Brisas Del Mar (see breezes). For me that meal was the most delicious in our entire trip (and we had some good food throughout) and the service was phenomenal.

The 24 bottle of white and red grape juice we bought.

With our stomachs full and content, we continued through Highway 1 across the Point Reyes National Seashore area. We started cruising more Southeasterly and eventually met up with Highway 101 South at Petaluma. Reality kind of hit us there as many vacationers were returning home too and the honking, passing up of other cars and impatience returned. Most of all, it was really hot again.
We followed 101 through SF, passing the Golden Gate Bridge, driving slowly through the City to get through to speedy 280. At the junction with 380 we crossed over to 101 where we pulled off into Foster City, realizing reality was back and we needed groceries for the week. We picked up food at the Whole Foods salad bar for dinner and drove home. We returned home at 4:30pm to some chores but content with the trip and being back. Our dinner consisted of our salad bars and a bottle of the Gewurtraminer white grape juice we bought in Philo the previous day. We toasted to a most incredible road trip and relaxing vacation.

We had dinner one evening and breakfast the following morning at this place.

Heading South on 101 having just left Crescent City. Beautiful redwoods dominated the drive and the angle of the sun penetrating in was marvelous.

We started the day out in Crescent City, waking up at 7:30am. We decided we liked yesterday’s bakery and wanted to have breakfast there. After a good, big breakfast, we hit the road in search of Trinidad Head lighthouse. After a quick hour long drive, we pulled into the small and most charming Trinidad 60 miles south. There are two lighthouses in Trinidad: a memorial lighthouse, located in the center of the town, and another of Trinidad Head, a huge rock (300 feet high) facing the ocean. The memorial lighthouse was immediately visible and pretty nice. There were steps below it leading down to the ocean. We took the steps down and enjoyed watching seals on nearby rocks and just appreciating the scene.

After a short while it was time to trek up the big Trinidad Head rock to see the original lighthouse. After following an uphill path for about 30 minutes, we reached a point from which the lighthouse was visible. The lighthouse has been off limits for years by the CA coast guard. Not sure why. I had to climb a very unstable platform (I highly discourage doing this) and had Tobia hold my feet down as I tried to get more quality shots than just the standard ones you can get from the platform.

Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse. Immediately visible as we drove into Trinidad.

View of Trinidad Bay.

Trinidad Bay from ocean level. Some seals on the rock and 1 swimming.

I had to stand on a weird, unstable platform to get as good a shot of this as possible. Tobia held my legs down I was shaking so badly. Worth the photo.

It was pretty hot and we were a bit winded following the tough climb to Trinidad Head rock.

After our descent from the rock, it was time to head to Shelter Cove. The drive to Garberville (the only town with a road to Shelter Cove) was very quick and again full of redwoods. We ate at a fantastic tree huggery restaurant called Mateel’s. I had a baked tofu sandwich, and Tobia had a chicken quesadilla. We both remarked how fresh, delicious and wholesome the food was. Tobia’s dish came with some fabulous organic flax seed chips that we couldn’t stop pigging out on. I know this all sounds crazy, we couldn’t even grasp how good the food was.

This was where I had the incredibly good Tofu Sandwich in Garberville. Tobia’s dish came with really good organic flax seed chips.

Following this delicious adventure in Garberville, we finally headed off to Shelter Cove. The path to Shelter Cove consists of a long, twisty, climbing and descending road (I had to slip into 1st and 2nd gears so many times just to have enough power to get through), and it was very difficult to pass. Not that I drove fast enough to pass anyone, but many 4×4s simply smoked me along the drive.

We finally descended into Shelter Cove around 3pm to a gorgeous partial view of the airstrip and the ocean. We checked into the hotel where the inn lady told us there wasn’t much to do in town. Kinda surprising, I’ve never had such poor tourist recommendations. Still, we decided to take a walk around Shelter Cove, as I had mapped out distances of about 1.5 – 2 miles across the little cove. We ventured through the lower pacific drive street, where we were able to descend to the headlands and see crashing waves just a few feet away. Kings Range and the Lost Coast were visible both in the North and South directions in Shelter Cove, and they were simply magnificent. It was also very warm in the Cove, the ocean hardly cooling down this area. Right at the beginning of our walk, we saw a small plane take off from the Cove too, which was quite a cool viewing experience.

Shelter Cove- to the North is King’s Range. Right in front of us (no more than 100 feet) was this beautiful view from our room balcony.	Looking south from our balcony.	More of King’s Range to the north.
Rugged rocks, strong waves, I loved the scenery.	Planes at rest in Shelter Cove airstrip. About 10 minutes after this picture on of them left the Cove.	View of King’s Range to the south. It’s really quite an abnormality that Shelter Cove formed right in the middle of King’s Range as it’s terrain is so different.

We continued our walk, noticing dozens of empty land lots for sale. The view is spectacular at Shelter Cove, and I can see that despite its remoteness, people would be lured to this place. I got the sense that Mendocino (though more beautiful) seems like a pampered, too close to real life type place as compared to Shelter Cove. Phones do not work here, the internet exists with very weak on and off signals at a few locations, and they look to the small town of Garberville as “the city”.

Cape Mendocino Lighthouse relocated to Shelter Cove. It has been remodeled and too out of its element in my opinion. It doesn’t have the rugged look it used to have.

(Picture from lighthousefriends.com) This is what the lighthouse looked like back at Cape Mendocino at the Western most point in California.

Around midway through our walk, we saw the old Cape Mendocino lighthouse, migrated here from the Cape itself and restored. It now resides on the south side of the Cove in Mal Coombs Park, an ordinary lighthouse, clearly not in its true home and definitely out of place. Following the lighthouse we descended to a black sand beach, at the Southern corner of which we saw the day’s fishing boats returning full of fish, only to be lugged up a 500 foot or so semi-paved road by a badass tractor up to the Cove. On our way back from the black sands, I noticed a shoe in the water. Figuring it for hopelessly gone, we walked away. As we went up the steps back to the lighthouse, the shoe appeared close enough, and after a few acrobatic skips between rocks to avoid waves, I was able to snag the shoe out of the water and onto land. I was quite pleased with myself, though I figure it was ultimately for nothing.

This is the tractor that was pulling the day’s shipping boats up to the cove from the water.

Walking on upper pacific drive, looking down at the airstrip.

I proudly display the shoe I rescued out of Lost Coast waters.

On our trip back, we walked on upper pacific drive street. We got good looks at the airstrip and also at most of the golf course holes (9 hole golf course in Shelter Cove). We returned to the inn, had some pizza for dinner and I stepped out to our most incredible balcony to look out at the ocean 100 feet away, and capture the day’s events.

Me sitting down to capture the day’s events while appreciating the gorgeous view from our room prior to sunset.

View from our room’s balcony around sunset.

Another beautiful view.

Just after sundown.