More Incredible Coastal Scenery (Jenner to Mendocino CA)

Get up early to take a short walk along the Russian River and then get ready for our daylong drive on Highway 1 between Jenner CA and Mendocino CA. It’s a gorgeous sunny warm day for a drive and the scenery is incredible. We first stop at the Russian River outlet at the ocean and watch a group of harbor seals for awhile. We’ll see harbor seals several places on the rocky shore today.

The scenery is absolutely incredible today! Highway 1 hugs the rocky coastline here and the wildflowers are in bloom. I need to watch my camera battery power today -- so many beautiful scenes and flowers and I keep taking picture after picture. As you can see in one of the pictures, there are lots of calla lillies that grow wild along the northern California coast....it was the end of the season so they were starting to fade but still beautiful to see calla lillies growing wild!

We stop at a Russian fort, Fort Ross, that was built here by the Russians in the early 1800s when Spain still controlled the area. The fort was eventually sold to John Sutter in the second half of the century when it was found to be unprofitable to keep up. The same John Sutter who owned the sawmill where gold was discovered to start the CA golf rush in 1849.

Near the fort the land is private and the cows roam freely, including beside the road:

But we now know why California cows are happy -- they have a great view of the ocean!

We make lots of stops and take several walks along the coast

One interesting beach is full of driftwood, so previous visitors have made huts and sculptures with the driftwood:

Eventually we end up at Mendocino, a small picturesque town with lots of Victorian styled houses. We climb one of the many water towers in the town and eat at the Bay View Café, with a great view of the ocean and bay,

and then we start the long drive home. We choose not to drive on Highway 1 because of the twisty road and large drop-offs and instead take Rt 128 – a VERY curvy 2-lane road! So a long, tiring drive back for Jere.