to Stinson again 2 May 2022

back down the coast

Taking the familiar, gentle, s-l-o-w road south for the second time in eight months: a BIG expedition for us! Sienna takes our picture, as usual, before we roll out, with her house's Rhodies in full bloom.

Nothing much different from the October ride. Hills are greener. The haze is from a fitful ocean again, driven by a gusty north wind. Always meant to stop for a picture of this sign . . .

Trinks in Gualala, the Mendonesian Coast's southernmost outpost, for lunch . . .

then on south. The whippy wind had even Stillwater Cove frothed up.

South of the Gualala River and Sea Ranch, the mountains fall into the sea, and have been pushed around for millennia by the interaction of the underlying plates. My father's assessment: “God isn't quite finished with this part.” Just north of Sonoma County's Russian Gulch, a sharp upthrust causes Highway One to make some serious switchbacks.

Google Earth (below) shows the highway snaking up the scarp. Here's one reason that visitors who think they'll drive up Highway One for a day trip to visit us need to think twice.

In southern Sonoma County, the coast gentles into rolling dairyland. Here the wind driven Pacific is beating itself against the beach just north of the town of Bodega Bay. 

Into Marin County, most of the traffic exits inland to avoid the complexity we're seeking along the Golden Gate National Seashore. Highway One gets very patchy and lonely. 

Lots of seabirds and ravens stunting in the wind, coexisting well with the people on the beach and the windsurfers. Here's the obligatory Curlew picture. They chortle and skirl at each others so quietly one needs to be close to hear.

the same trip in 2021

the same trip in 2023