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My basic plan for this leg of my journey is to spend as much time as possible along the coast. First I had to get there….

I am staying in Ukiah which, as the crow flies, is about 40 miles inland. It didn’t appear very far on the map but as I learned Tuesday afternoon the road goes over several mountains which means it is winding, narrow and slow. Rather than retrace my steps from the night before I decided to take “The 101” (which runs right next to Ukiah) south to Cloverdale, then take scenic route 128 northwest through the valley and get to the coast near the little town of Elk (population 208). It was a beautiful, sunny day and scenic roads are what I love.

“The 101” and Route 128 were indeed very pleasant to drive. Now that I was in the valley there were numerous vineyards and wineries. Traffic was light and the roads were in great condition.

Shortly after I took the “Thank You sign” photo I posted in real-time yesterday I saw this barn sitting near the road, empty and apparently unused:

After passing through Navarro I drove through several groves of redwood trees. Although it was 11 o’clock in the morning on a bright and sunny day I thought it was a good idea to turn my headlights on as the tree canopy created very dark shade. I didn’t stop to take any photos of the trees as I will be visiting Redwoods National Park very soon and there will be plenty of opportunity there.

When I finally reached Route 1 this is what I saw:

Uh oh. Not wildfire smoke…. Fog.

Route 128 ends at the bridge and the bridge itself, and the road beyond it, is Route 1. The marine layer of fog was still lurking and, as I would find out, would be persistent all day. This was taken from on the bridge, looking west towards the ocean.

I drove south on Route 1 past Elk and soon came to a Vista Point (scenic overlook). I thought to myself – “This ought to be good”

But let me tell you – that photo was taken at 1158am. At 1205, just 7 minutes later, this is what it looked like:

While I had been parked there some other cars arrived and I was talking to other people visiting the area. A couple that had stayed near the Point Arena lighthouse said it was totally clear when they got up Wednesday morning but within a short time the fog rolled in. Then it rolled back out. Kind of a “weather hokey-pokey”.

Well sure enough, a few minutes after I took the two photos above I was socked in again. Such is life along the California coast….

Further down the road near Manchester I saw these interesting topiaries in someone’s yard:

Kind of like a giant caterpillar:

When I got to Route 1 on Wednesday morning I drove as far south at the Point Arena lighthouse, south of Manchester. I took this photo of the coastal fog along the two mile access road to the lighthouse off of Route 1. At this point I wasn’t terribly optimistic…

When I parked outside the gate I could see the top of the lighthouse, but by the time I got out of the car and walked to the closest point I had gotten to on Tuesday night this was all I could see:

Today there were some seals napping on the rock below where I was standing.

Today the lighthouse was open so I could get closer to it. This was as far back as I could get while facing the entry door at the bottom and I could barely get the whole thing in the picture.

The original lighthouse was destroyed in the Great Earthquake of 1906.  This replacement was completed two years later.

This was taken inside the gift shop. One step further and I would have had to pay $ 7.50 as I would then be in the museum but I just froze in place and got this shot, presumably of the lens used in the lighthouse (or one like it).

Back outside it was still windy, though not as bad as Tuesday. I think the very stiff wind on Tuesday was actually my friend as it evidently cleared the coastal fog away and it was crystal clear everywhere I was all day long.

These were taken returning to Route 1 along the access road to the Point Arena lighthouse.  I posted photos from this vantage point yesterday but wanted to zoom in a little on the arch created by a hole under one of the formations using the digital camera.

Further out the access road I stopped again at the same vantage point where I had taken photos of the fog about 40 minutes earlier.  The black spots on the hill in the left portion of the picture are cows off in the distance.

Back out on Route 1 I saw this piece of farm equipment sitting next to a flatbed trailer near the road.  Can you imagine an alien spacecraft landing and thinking this was an Earthling?  “Take me to your leader!”

Further north on Route 1, beyond the town of Manchester, you still had to look down in order to see anything looking west.

These first two photos were taken from the same vantage point, looking left then right, along Route 1 just north of the town of Fort Bragg, California.  These are slightly inland but, as you can see, not far from the water (which is where the fog is).  These were taken around 330pm local time.  I stayed in this location for about 10 minutes and could see the visibility towards the house and trees diminish to the left and the clouds encroach further up the hillside on the right.:

Just a little further up the road – right next to the ocean.  The bright white below the clouds are actually the waves crashing up against the shore:

If you look closely at this last picture you’ll see two people standing on a bank out by the water.

A little further north the road turned inland and started to climb a series of mountains, becoming winding and slow.  I also drove through a few more groves of redwood trees, again making the use of headlights prudent even though it was only 4 o’clock in the afternoon on a bright and sunny day (inland!).  I finally reached “The 101” near the town of Leggett and drove south to Ukiah where I am staying for a few nights.  More blog posting and two loads of laundry await me.

I will visit the coastal areas again on Thursday.  Hopefully the fog will have dissipated by the time I get there but we’ll have to see what nature has in store for me.

 

I passed through this little town several times during the week I stayed in San Rafael and as I drove through for the final time Tuesday morning I parked the car and walked around town a bit (while enjoying more pastries from the Bovine Bakery!).

 

This post is partly about the little town of Marshall and partly about oysters.

Friday, July 6 I arrived at the “Marshall Store,” a small, unassuming bayside restaurant which came very highly recommended.  Their specialty is BBQ oysters, although that isn’t what I had.  I arrived at around 445 Friday afternoon and while ordering learned that they would be closing in 15 minutes at 5pm so I put in both orders, with the more complicated one to arrive after the first.  The meal was yummy, albeit pricey.  When I got home I told my Airbnb hostess where I had eaten and she said “Oh, were they dollar oysters??” to which I replied, “Oh no, they were definitely NOT dollar oysters”.  All told, with no drink but with tip, the dozen oysters set me back $ 54.79.  Now I don’t normally eat oysters (I guess I now know why…) but this was a special occasion at a place which has a great reputation.

Remember – the two keywords are small and unassuming.  The little shack with the “Closed” sign would normally be somewhere else.  As you can see, Route 1 passes just outside the front door.  This is a tiny place with mostly outdoor seating.

The double doors are to the kitchen, the white door on the right goes in to the order counter and a very small seating area.

Friday night I ate outside, in the cold wind, at the corner of the deck as seen on the extreme left of the photo below.  Most of these photos were taken Tuesday morning.

Eating outside was my choice, to get the true ambience of the experience.  I’m not whining about the cold wind, just stating a fact.  There was hardly any indoor seating anyway.

Here was the view I had Friday night as I waited for my oysters to arrive:

So I had my oysters and went on about my business.

As I drove through Marshall Tuesday morning on my way north to Ukiah I stopped at a little park before getting to the town of Marshall.  It was there that I saw these signs:

And here was the Bay the signs were warning about.  Tomales Bay.

The restaurant sits along Tomales Bay, with the land in the distance being part of the Point Reyes National Seashore (which I have been to but haven’t posted anything about yet).  Further up the road was this establishment, which supplies the Marshall Store:

Now I don’t know exactly where they get their oysters but I saw some boats getting ready to harvest some oysters just up the road on Friday morning….

This was a small residence and dock before I got to the restaurant.

Now I feel fine, and I’m not making any accusations, but I think I may be done with oysters for a while…

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Further up the road, but still in Marshall, was this establishment – which was getting ready to open for lunch:

Across Route 1 from this establishment sat this boat, the “Black Pearl,” which looks like it has seen better days…

 

 

Tuesday as I drove north up Route 1 from Point Reyes, CA I went through the little town of Tomales.  This is a classic “blink and you’ll miss it”  American town.

This is the William Tell House, where a sign on the front door advises would-be patrons that it is closed indefinitely, sorry for the inconvenience.  That is a restaurant fixtures truck parked next to my car so evidently they are making some upgrades.

Next to that building is one mysteriously labeled “Not A Bank”:

And if you don’t want to pull a muscle in your neck looking up, the door makes it very clear:

Perhaps they got tired of getting robbed?  At first I thought someone cleverly deleted letters from First National Bank of Tomales but laying in bed this morning it occurred to be that that sequence of letters wouldn’t make sense.  Oh well, keep me in suspense.

Next door is the Continental Inn, which seems to be doing quite well.

And across the street is the General Store and the Post Office:

There were a few small shops on the other side of Route 1 but the morning sun was behind them, making pictures difficult.

Route 1 curved inland for a short while after Tomales and then the coast started to get interesting (see Morning/Early Afternoon/Late Afternoon posts which follow).

Saw this about 20 minutes ago as I drove north on scenic Route 128 between Philo and Navarro, California. I knocked on the door at the house and spoke with the woman who lives there. She said that, unfortunately, it has gotten used too often the last few years.

UPDATE – I hadn’t noticed it yesterday but this burnt-out hill is only 2 1/2 miles from the woman’s house:

Tuesday I drove from where I had been staying in San Rafael, CA north to Ukiah, CA.  Much of the drive was along US Route 1 which, in many places, runs right along the coast.  Once I reached Route 1 in Point Reyes it was roughly 100 miles north to Manchester, where I had to turn and head inland towards Ukiah.  Here are some of the things I saw throughout the day:

And if wildfires and earthquakes aren’t enough to keep you on your toes, there’s always this.  If fire doesn’t get you, water might.

This was the view from the deck (and practically from my table) at the restaurant I went to for lunch.  The Jenner Inn, which came highly recommended, has new ownership and is now only open for dinner.  I went across the road to the Jenner Post Office and the woman working there recommended another place up the road.  It was an excellent choice.

This is a three shot panorama from right to left.  This is actually the Russian River draining into the Pacific.

 

Tuesday I drove from where I had been staying in San Rafael, CA north to Ukiah, CA. Much of the drive was along US Route 1 which, in many places, runs right along the coast. Once I reached Route 1 in Point Reyes it was roughly 100 miles north to Manchester, where I had to turn and head inland towards Ukiah. Here are some of the things I saw throughout the day:

After having lunch in Jenner I continued up the coast towards Manchester. I actually backtracked a little ways to some of the more interesting things I had seen to take a break and just watch the birds fly and sit and listen to the ocean. It was INCREDIBLY windy – a very stiff, steady wind (in North Carolina we often give them names…). Believe me, at times it was hard to just stand and hold the camera out in front of me. I once had a client in North Carolina who came to our office when it was extremely windy in Durham and commented “I don’t know how little people stay on the ground”. I was worried that the constant movement might make my pictures blurry but fortunately they turned out ok. Even with full sun the temperature was only 60 degrees which made the wind chill about 10 below. It really didn’t feel all that cold, even though I was only wearing shortpants and a t-shirt.

Below is the same rock formation seen at the top of the first photo of this post. When I drove up the road a short ways from where I had been parked I noticed it had a big hole through it. Some of the formations in the next post (Late Afternoon) also have such holes, creating an arch above them.

This is a beach called Goat Rock. If you look closely you’ll see vehicles parked along the beach access area.

As I was driving back out to the main road I noticed this phenomenon to the south. If you look very closely a little right of center you’ll see a “cloud” rising up from the ocean surface and going towards land. I tracked down a lifeguard who I had seen driving from beach to beach and asked him what it was. It is fog forming. I could see a layer of fog out at sea (which oddly looked white while wearing my sunglasses but gray when I took them off) and while I could clearly see this white cloud of fog forming near the coast with my sunglasses on it was more difficult to see without them (and in the photo).

Looking north up Highway 1 I could see that this was where the road was going to take me next.

And this was the the view looking back down at where I had just come from.

Looking north this was the hill above the road:

And as the hill descends to the ocean: