fort bragg

MacKerricher State Park, Northern California

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Welcome to my favorite California State Park, MacKerricher State Park , located north of Mendocino, California.  I can’t say enough about this gorgeous beachside park.  Seals, tide pools, rock arches, beaches, whales if you are lucky, seasonal mushrooms, trails, fresh water lake, camping, what more can one ask for?

Do you have a park or location you just keep coming back to?  This is one for us.  Something about this place draws us in and I never tire of visiting.

***On another note: I hope everyone is hanging in there during this time of isolation and uncertainty.  These photos were taken from a recent trip prior to the California-wide shelter-in-place restrictions.  I hope in sharing them I can help make you smile for even a moment.  Take good care everyone.

 

Fort Bragg Bridge

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I’ve driven by this bridge what feels like hundreds of times and always wanted to stop. This time we had the time and thought it looked like a fun place for our son to play in the sand. Homeless people aside it is a gorgeous spot with the river spilling into the ocean and walkers crossing the high bridge. I definitely plan on coming back and spending more time in this great spot. I’ll just try and ignore the tsunami zone signs around and keep my fingers crossed the big one won’t hit!

***On another note: I hope everyone is hanging in there during this time of isolation and uncertainty.  These photos were taken from a recent trip prior to the California-wide shelter-in-place restrictions.  I hope in sharing them I can help make you smile for even a moment.  Take good care everyone.

Fort Bragg Glass Beach

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Located in downtown Fort Bragg, this beach used to be the historic garbage dump. Years of crashing waves has taken away the trash and left behind tiny soft round glass pieces colorfully glistening on the beach.

I’m conflicted about Glass Beach. It’s a cool place to visit but now officials have understandably cordoned off the beach and no longer allow people to take any glass so it’s really no fun any more.

It’s a great irony. Trash turned to treasure. So as cool and interesting a spot as it is one can no longer experience it in a meaningful way so I would recommend just passing on it when in town.  Instead take a walk on the wonderful trail which goes for miles and miles paralleling the ocean and just enjoy the view!

***On another note: I hope everyone is hanging in there during this time of isolation and uncertainty.  These photos were taken from a recent trip prior to the California-wide shelter-in-place restrictions.  I hope in sharing them I can help make you smile for even a moment.  Take good care everyone.

Memorial Day Mendocino Botanical Gardens

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Yes, yes, I know.  I have posted about the Mendocino Botanical Gardens before.  But, it’s sort of become my muse.  (If I may humbly use that term.)  Right about the time I think I might start get tired of the place I go back and fall in love all over again.  We spent a four-day Memorial Day weekend up in Mendocino and spent the better part of an afternoon exploring the garden and enjoying the hummingbird wars, coastal breeze, roses, veggie garden, golden rod crab spiders (what?), and Dahlia buds.  As I sit in 100+ degree Sacramento heat this week I am channeling the coastal breeze and cooler weather from Mendocino wishing we never came home…

Golden Rod Crab Spider known to change its color based on if it is hanging out on a white or a yellow flower. Had to do a little research after spying this creepy lady. I can’t remember ever seeing one before. Hope never to see one in my house…
Another specimen I cannot remember seeing before with blue cones
Never get tired of Dahlias
Dahlia Baby
The garden has a good collection of public art that changes regularly
Mother Nature is creative in the interesting things she creates is she not?
Saved this little one who had flown in to a green house and couldn’t figure out how to fly out the door.
Never grow tired of this view

Check out other posts I have done on Mendocino here…

Mendocino Guest House Inn

/ Bulldog Travels / 32 Comments

While visiting Mendocino last weekend we finally stopped by the Mendocino/Fort Bragg Guest House Museum.  It was a short and cute little museum.  But, the fun part was the large redwood stump out front displaying rings from almost Pre-Christian times.  We don’t see many trees this large anymore outside of the State Parks that care for them.  But, for those of you who may never have seen anything like this before check it out and then read of the many historic events that occurred in its lifetime.  I have never seen anything like this outside of California, has anyone else?

Memorial Day Mendocino

/ Bulldog Travels / 21 Comments

A week late but here I am.  For Memorial Day we bombed up to Mendocino, Bulldog and trailer in tow.  Our favorite site at MacKerricker State Park was full so we found a superb little private campground within walking distance feeling lucky we found anything at all. The weather was perfect, about 70 degrees all weekend, without a cloud in the sky.  70 degree weather gave way to over 100 degree + weather following.  We enjoyed it while it lasted…

 

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Sorry for the terrible iPhone photo but the bulldog was as excited as we were to go somewhere fun and get out of the heat.

 

We took our favorite local Fern Canyon hike to the full and flowing waterfall at Russian Gulch State Park nearly 7 miles round trip.

We also checked out the Mendocino Botanical Gardens as usual.  So, stay tuned for more flower photos on that…


 

 

Mendocino in the Fall

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Fall in Mendocino means mushrooms.  Mendocino is surrounded by ocean, redwoods, and hills therefore the fall colors do not blaze as brightly here as they do on the drive through the wine country to get there from Sacramento.

Mushroom hunting

My husband and I dream of owning property here one day.  But, in the meantime it really does not get any better than camping at MacKerricher State Park.  It is $35 per night and one is surrounded by Redwoods, ocean, Cleone Lake, mushrooms, curious seals, deer, wine cork stealing bunnies, and even a Giant Whale Skeleton on display for kids.

 

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She is smart enough to sniff and walk away!

Looking for seals or wayward sailors

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After realizing she looks a lot like a seal with legs

MacKerricher is my favorite campsite in California located in one of the prettiest areas of California.  MacKerricher sits just north of Fort Bragg.  Fort Bragg is a tough old logging town which is finding its footing with breweries, shops, and tourism.  Fort Bragg has newly renovated its famed Glass Beach formed from years of waves crashing against an old garbage site.  My favorite place to visit in Fort Bragg is the Mendocino Botanical Gardens.  It is and will remain my happy place.

Just a hop, skip, and a jump down the road is the village of Mendocino.  This iconic village is where Eric and I got married five years ago!  (Happy Anniversary to us!)  We relived the big day by having dinner at our favorite restaurant 955 Ukiah Street Restaurant.  The next day we picked up a baguette from Cafe Beaujolais and picnicked on the ocean.

Just north of MacKericher is a beach near Pacific Star Winery where the tide pooling is stellar.  A nice little blue grab game out to assert his domain.

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Mr. Blue Crab

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Not that you can tell with the iPhone but those are seals out there lounging in the sunshine

 

 

The guy who showed me what fun tidepooling can be

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Low tide allows for shenanigans like this

The amazing part about the Pacific Ocean is that we left weather in the 40’s and found clear weather in the 60’s on the ocean.  The weather is typically the opposite of what is happening in the Sacramento Valley.

Happy Fall everyone. I am trying to hang on to the last bit of it before winter takes hold.  Is it cold and wintery where you are already?

Remnants of an old dock at MacKerricher

For further Mendocino and Mushroom adventures click here.

Mendocino Mushroom Festival – Day one

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It’s no secret Mendocino is special to me.  Eric and I took our first real camping trip to MacKericher State Park, my favorite place to camp in all of California.  And he and I got married in Mendocino.  Mendocino is also home to the best baguette in California at Cafe Beaujolais! 🙂 We go back any chance we get probably camping there at least twice per year.  This year we decided to celebrate our anniversary attending a festival I have always wanted to visit…the Mushroom Festival.

We arrived on a friday and set up camp.  If you have never been to MacKericher you have been missing out.  I will surely blog all about it another day.  But, one of the awesome things about this coastal campground is its forest.  And in November this forest comes alive with mushrooms.  The mushrooms make the coast and the forests mystical and interesting.  And while I might lament the lack of fall colors for only a second they are totally crowded out by fall mushrooms.  We even had multiple mushrooms right in our campsite.

Before going anywhere for the festival we embarked, with Amelia in tow, through a large grove of forest that is parallel to the ocean.  The mushrooms were overwhelming and plentiful.  And since it is a state park no one was able to pick them.  There were tiny delicate mushrooms, large red dangerous mushrooms, mushrooms with personality, mushrooms that looked like they could kill you, blankets of mushrooms, mushrooms that could win the prize for largest mushrooms, mushrooms that could take the prize for smallest mushroom, mushrooms that looked like candy, and mushrooms that looked like they were freaks of nature.  Anything you want, this forest did not disappoint.  At this point, we were totally uneducated on what any of the mushrooms were called and if any of them were safe to eat.  

Stand by for part two of the Mushroom festival to come soon…