After dropping Sally at the airport, it was chore day before we headed back to the coast.
I had the laundromat to myself for the first hour since it was only 7:20am. After the laundry was finished, we stopped at the Safeway grocery store that was conveniently located right next door; and, finally, we found a self serve car wash that Clarice would fit into, and I went to work on her. (These washes are hard to find as she is too tall for many of them.) Feeling good because the van and clothes were all clean, and the fridge and pantry full, we headed west and north from Sonoma to Van Damme State Park.
Van Damme State Park
I miss Sally’s documenting skills! She was so good at taking pictures to document the nuance of the trip. I, on the other hand, tend to forget to do this, and therefore, I have no pictures of the state park. So, I will use my words to describe it.
The entrance of the state park, sits at the bottom of a valley where the Little River flows into the ocean. There is a nice day use beach on the ocean side and the campground entrance sits on the land side of the road. I got excited as we drove up to our campsite on the Highland Meadow loop which sits on top of the hills (I might have cell coverage!); and, as the name promises, there is a big meadow in the center where kids could play.
One of the other exciting things about getting to the loop is crossing the temporary (makeshift?) bridge over the river! Once over the bridge we had to continue a little further down the road to turn around because trying to turn left off the bridge would damage the vehicle. It was a rather interesting setup. Then once you get up the hill to the loop, the sites were muddy and not level; but, the campground is beautiful with the large trees around the perimeter of the meadow. Ironically, despite being at the top of the hill, I still had no cell service, which turned out to be a blessing as I discovered a much better place to hang out for the 3 days I had here.
Mendocino Headlands
Just north of the campground is the town of Mendocino. It’s a very cute little town with bookstores, art galleries and the most amazing day use place where I parked Clarice every day. I will let the pictures do the talking.
Penguins?
We were parked in a different place the next couple of days, and I watched these birds that looked just like penguins. So, I googled Mendocino penguins to learn that indeed, penguins really are only in the southern hemisphere; and, that these birds are called Common Murres despite the similarities to penguins. They also have Lemming tendendancies…I have now spent hours trying to get a video to load to show you this tendency….I’m giving up, sorry. they literally follow each other off the cliff.
I was sad to leave this very beautiful area, but alas our 4 nights were up and we headed north again.
Avenue of the Giants
Humboldt Redwoods State Park sits in a majestic old growth Coastal Redwood forest; and, one of the most amazing experiences is to drive the Avenue of the Giants to get there. The Avenue of the Giants is a 31 mile two lane stretch of road that predominantly parallels US 101.
I love the rugged beauty of the Mendocino Headlands! The murres are pretty interesting too. I’ve always wanted to see the redwoods in California. What an awesome trip you are having!