Category Archive: hikes
May 1, 2008 at 8:17 pm
by nancy
· Filed under ecotourism, general, hikes, walks, attractions, events, history, parks, museums, gardens
Mendocino Coast Heritage Days begins on Friday, May 2, with fun and unique activities for the whole family. In its 5th year, the 2008 celebration will feature a series of living history reenactments, 19th century and Native American games, museum exhibits, heritage roses and historic walking tours. Annual favorites include the moonlight cemetery tour and the heritage walking tour. The Temple of Kwan Tai will be open to the public on both weekends, and the historic walking tours include an inside look at the Masonic Temple. Talks by experts in preservation and archaeology will give us a different perspective on our local surroundings. Living History Day will have ice cream and butter making, lumberjack demonstrations, the fire pumper, and - new this year – Wells Fargo Stagecoach rides. Many events are free.
Here is a printable (PDF) schedule of events. These pictures are from previous Heritage Days events.
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Fireman Barry Cusick Leads the Volunteers on the Hand-Pumped Fire Engine
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April 15, 2008 at 5:21 pm
by bruce
· Filed under ecotourism, general, hikes, attractions
Mendocino Village has long been the focus of tourism on 70 miles of the Mendocino Coast. Don’t get me wrong, Mendocino is one of a kind. But places like Fort Bragg and points south are coming into their own.
This past weekend, my friend Wild Bill and I took a quick overnight camping trip to Gualala Regional Park, located on the south side of Gualala River, in a grove of redwoods, including a grove with some old growths. 
Fantastic beaches, walks and a nice little town nearby. I also saw my first sign for $4 per gallon gasoline at the Chevron in Gualala.
We stopped at Queenie’s Roadhouse, one of our favorites, in Elk for breakfast. As we waited for our meal to arrive, the fog ended two beautiful clear days. After breakfast we head to Point Arena to hike out to Stornetta Preserve’s waterfall, which also was shrouded in some fog. By the time we got to School Creek road, we hit the fog-free sunbelt. Read the rest of this entry »
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December 24, 2007 at 4:35 pm
by dff
· Filed under general, hikes, walks, birding, parks, drives
A couple of days ago, I went down to Point Arena with Bruce because I heard that the tundra swans had returned to their local resting spot during migration. When we got down to the Garcia River, I was hoping I would see dozens of swans as I had in the past. On the south side of the river, there’s a huge green wetland that the tundra swans love. On Friday, though, there was only a single swan. Bruce thought he saw some off in the distance on the north side of the river, so we decided to return after visiting the Stornetta Preserve to see the waterfall after recent rains. It’s an easy mile-long walk out to the waterfall.
There was certainly more water coming off the waterfall than in the summer, but the real story was the ocean. The waves were at times quite large — large enough for the spray to obscure the waterfall! Unlike the last time we went down there, it was a sunny day, and we could see the Point Arena Lighthouse in the distance to the north.
After we headed back to the Garcia River wetlands, we went off on a side road on the north side of the river — but just around the bend, it was marked as Private Property. A man came along in a pickup as we were starting to turn around, and we asked if we could go in and take some pictures of the swans. He said it wasn’t his land, so we couldn’t get out there. But he urged us to follow him, and he took off. A couple of miles up the highway, he turned off on a dirt road towards the ocean. In a short while, we were entering the Clover Dairy — not only the sole dairy in the county, it’s also the only organic dairy in the county. He told us to join him in his truck, and he took us out a short distance to where the swans were hanging out in the fields. He introduced himself as Walt Stornetta, the owner of the dairy. He has about 400 cows on 550 acres of land. Each cow produces on average 67 pounds of milk — about 8 gallons a day. I felt really lucky to run into him like we did, and that he was so generous with his time.
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August 24, 2007 at 9:27 pm
by dff
· Filed under general, hikes, walks, birding, parks
Our weather has been spectacular lately, and so Bruce and I decided to go check out the Stornetta Ranch Preserve near Point Arena yesterday. It’s a good thing, too, because the fog was back today. The Preserve was donated to the BLM only two years ago, and you can even still find the, uh, remnants of the dairy cattle along the way. It’s easy to get there, since it’s just a couple of miles north of the city of Point Arena. Turn off Highway One onto Lighthouse Road, and go west for 1.4 miles. As the road approaches the ocean, it veers around to the right. At this point, there’s a turnout on the left for the Preserve. Pass through the turnstile, and head off to the south. You’re about at the middle of the 1200-acre preserve when you enter it of Lighthouse Road. You’ll find coastal headlands with scrub pines, and a beautiful coastline with islands and sea stacks. The coastline is very interesting, too, with many patterns in the sandstone. (It’s less than ten miles to the geological oddities of Bowling Ball Beach.)
The big island just off the coast has a wonderful arch, and it’s covered with black cormorants. As you continue to the south, you’ll find wide rocky beaches that are perfect for abalone divers. We even passed by a sinkhole, about 30 feet across and 15 feet deep, set a hundred feet back from the edge of the cliff. We continued on to the south, because we had a goal in mind: the waterfall that drops into the ocean. The waterfall is at the south end of the preserve, next to the old Coast Guard LORAN station.
When you first pass through the turnstile, you can see the buildings off in the distance, about a mile away. This is an easy walk, since it’s flat the entire way except where you cross a small creek.
The waterfall comes from a simple year-round creek that drops about 25 feet into the water. When we stood at the top, it didn’t seem that high. Once I walked around to the opposite point, I could get a better sense of the size with Bruce there.
After returning from the waterfall, we followed Lighthouse Road to the end — but the Point Arena Lighthouse was missing. I must have missed the demolition of the lighthouse in the newspaper, or maybe it was just the fog that draped the point (but nothing else around) obscuring it. It’s really a beautiful lighthouse, and it has a first-order Fresnel lens.
Since we couldn’t see anything, we headed back to Highway One, and went north a few more miles to Miner Hole Road. This dirt road leads out to the ocean, and there are trails leading over to Manchester Beach. The trail was marked Closed, so we left. This road runs along the big open field where the Arctic Tundra Swans hang out during their migration. I don’t know if you could see them any better here than from Highway One, but it’s possible. I’ll let you know when the swans return.
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