Today we are heading up the Pacific Coast to Fort Bragg CA, not the quickest way to go North but we hope the scenery will more than compensate for the extra time taken. We are on our way by 8.30am and leaving the motel is a snack. We are on the North side of San Francisco, and Lombard Street is on Highway 101 which goes onto the Golden Gate Bridge, so we just need to turn right and drive.
About 10kms North of the bridge we turn left towards the coast onto Highway 1, and immediately find ourselves in a windy, heavily wooded climb (mostly Eucalypt Forests), over the mountains to the coast. It is not hard to see why many San Franciscans want to live in Marin County, it is not far from San Francisco central and has beautiful surroundings.
Our first destination is Point Reyes National Park.
As we approach the coast, the scenery is already spectacular, and we turn off at Muir Beach Lookout to get our first photo opportunity.
Muirs Beach Lookout
View looking North
Further along, there is a brief respite from the hilly coastline, so we pulled to have a quick look at Stinson Beach, which is adjacent the highway.
About 90 minutes out of San Francisco, we arrive at Point Reyes Station, the township where the park base is, and it is such a huge park, we had to make a choice on what we wanted to see, so we followed the signs to lighthouse and beaches (seemed like what we wanted to see)
The drive to the lighthouse took us right out to the point, quite a drive, followed by about a 1 km walk to the light house. When we returned to Point Reyes Station, the highway followed Tomales Bay, a narrow inlet, for some km. It is a large and very pretty waterway, full of Oyster farms and home for many yachts.
This beach runs from the lighthouse to the entrance of Tomales Bay
Point Reyes Lighthouse
The are 300 steps down to the lighthouse (fortunately for us it is not open on Thursdays), and this is supposedly the windiest point on the Pacific Coast, so it is sometimes necessary to close the stairway.
The lighthouse keeper has a pretty good view
We stop occasionally to take in the view , but there are not a lot of vista points for the best views, nevertheless we caught a few
we had started looking for somewhere to stop for lunch, and had passed through a couple of very nice places, one in particular, Jenner. In retrospect we should have stopped but it was a bit early. Als, from there on there wasn't much to choose from. In the end we were so hungry we agreed to stop at the next place, which was Gualala. I am not sure what Gualala is well known for, but we did see pumpkins on special outside the supermarket ( and not much else).
Not sure if this is a bargain but I am not really into Halloween
We found another supermarket on the waterfront that had a "full service deli". You can order freshly made sandwiches, mainly rolls, and they are very good. We have now done this a couple of times. However, you then need to find somewhere to sit and eat them. It was impossible to get anywhere near the seafront in Gualala, as the shops were built wall to wall along the shoreline with not public access through to the water. So back in the car, we drove for a while to find somewhere we could stop. Some 10km later we found a spot, with a nice view, and pulled over.
Not a bad stop for lunch
As we continued on we went through some very scenic little towns, and when reaching Mendocino, decided to stop and have a good look around, as the tourist write-ups suggested this was well worth exploring.
Mendocino
The size if the driftwood on this beech was amazing
There was weed like little palm trees growing on the rocks
From here it is less than 20 km to our destination, Fort Bragg. We are staying on the Southern side of town at a Holiday Inn Express, which we easily found. The early impression of Fort Bragg was a bit uninspiring, but it is at a junction with an inland highway, so maybe that adds to it;s attraction.
After a bit of a rest, we head into town to have a look around and find somewhere for dinner. There is a fishing harbour, Noyo Harbour, that we have in mind, but it is not that easy to drive to. We did a lap through town and back, and eventually found access through a back street (maybe we missed something). Anyway, it is a very quaint little fishing harbour, sitting at the entrance of the Noyo River, underneath the bridge that cross it.
There were a number of restaurants scattered around crab traps and fishing company offices. We chose Silvers at the Wharf which looked straight out to sea under the bridge. It was getting dark, so photos were challenging, but the view below should provide some idea.
We had an excellent meal, and greatly enjoyed the view. We saw two Coastguard Vessels go out for what must be a night patrol, and find it hard to get used to the port and starboard markers using the opposite convention to that we do in Australia.
Had a great dinner and looking forward to a good nights sleep. Tomorrow we continue our adventures up the Pacific Coast.
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