Another early morning. We awoke to fog so thick you could hardly see beyond your nose. The road to get to the beach was a VERY twisty road, with many blind spots even in good weather. As we climbed up from the beach the road was wet and the trees were dripping, the fog was very thick. Visibility was almost non-existent. We had maybe 4 or five miles of very narrow back roads to get back to Route 1 at the town of Tomales (our GPS pronounced it 'Toe-nails'. I knew that travel on Route 1 would be much better driving.
A break in the fog
That wasn't in the cards today, the fog was thick and the speed was greatly reduced as you just couldn't see what was coming or where the bend in the road was. On a good day average speed was 30 - 35 MPH - and today it was MUCH slower, and we were in and out of thick fog. We found our way to Bodega and Bodega Bay, this is where Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds' was filmed. You may recognize the picture of the school house.
The schoolhouse from Hitchcocks ‘ The Birds’
Unfortunately this route took us back to the dense fog along the coast. Oh, and by the way I was looking for fuel and drove 35 miles before finding a pump, and it was another 75 miles to the next pump. Gotta plan ahead out here. After about an hour of travel in the fog, and realizing that our three hour drive will take 5 hours or more, we edged away from the coast, out of the fog and onto Route 101.
More fog, pretty but nasty to drive in.
We were planning to head to another Harvest Host but things went awry. We found a campsite with an opening in Fort Bragg and altered course. The drive from Route 101 back to Route 1 was along an incredible road through Redwoods. This was likely about 35 miles or so, and it was the most beautiful winding road, through mountains. The drop off the side of the road seemed almost straight down and on the other side straight up - it was awesome, and the sun had come out so it was absolutely beautiful.
Along Route 20
We could not have been more happy with the campsite. We were perched on high bluffs overlooking a spectacular inlet coming in from the Pacific. The bluffs were scary high and completely vertical! Awesome.
The bluffs at Fort Bragg
We hiked the trail along the edge out to the point and back. We came upon four guys, in their 50's likely, in motorcycle gear. Striking up a conversation I asked where they were coming from. They said Chico area, about 200 miles east. When I was driving route 20 I was fantasizing about how exciting that road would be on a motor cycle. I asked if that was the route they took. "No, we came over completely off road, through the mountains." It had taken them two days and the camped at night. Instant admiration. Well done fellas.
Walking the cliffs at Fort Bragg
We had a great evening even though there wasn't much of a sunset. I would visit Fort Bragg again, nice town, nice people and just a great place to be.
As usual there were too many pictures, so here is a gallery of images from the day
