Welcome to Mendocino, California. So pretty, I'm getting so excited, one of
the most beautiful stretches of coastline in the world.
Wow. I can't believe I'm looking at this right now.
I've heard this part of California described as being in a perpetual spring. It's super,
super cool. That's always been true for me, the moody coastline bringing in fog or sometimes
soft sunlight. You can argue I'm biased as this is my home state but I think if you come
too, you'll find yourself amazed.
I met up with some of my best girlfriends for this trip, beginning in the Bay Area and
then driving up to Mendocino. This drive is gorgeous though be forewarned, it's windy.
We had a bit of rain on our way in but just as we were pulling in, the clouds began to
clear and everything looked so beautiful.
I'm so excited.
The thing about Mendocino is it is full of gorgeous little seaside inns. And one of the
most important things you can do is pick a beautiful place to stay that is quaint and
gorgeous.
All right. Look how cute this is.
Woman: This is so nice.
Kristin: This is super cute.
Woman: Holy moly.
Kristin: It's magical. There's a secret garden over there.
Woman: There is? Oh, right there.
Woman: Dope.
Kristin: They gave us champagne? Wow.
Woman: Fancy AF.
Woman: It's so romantic.
Kristin: Is it?
Woman: Welcome to the Mendocino Coast. We want to wish all of you a fabulous girls'
weekend. If there's anything else we can do for an even more memorable visit, please do
let us know. Enjoy.
Kristin: Like the air in here, it just feels so good when you breathe it in. You've got,
like, the pine, and the redwoods, and, like, the salty sea air. It's just really, really
nice.
The sunset was amazing and it was only our first night.
Little did we know that that was just a taste of what was to come.
Okay, so it's about 8:20. I've been up for an hour and a half and that means it's breakfast
time. The other girls are still sleeping but I'm gonna have to get started. So we've got
some really good options here like eggnog french toast. We've also got NorCal chilaquiles
but I think I'm just gonna go with the classic two farm fresh eggs, any style.
I know people like to think of California as the hot southern beaches in Hollywood but
there's so much more. It's the kind of place where if you look out at the Pacific long
enough, you'll see spouts of dolphins and whales. And speaking of the Pacific, she's
moody with deep greenish-blue waves carving the rocky coastline, playing host to seabirds
and the trees that frame her. It seems like everything grows and flourishes in this bread
basket and it's easy to see why it's long enchanted poets, writers, and human beings
in general. So in such a magical place with practically limitless things to do, how do
you narrow it down when you've only got a weekend?
After an amazing sunset last night, a fantastic breakfast, we decided to head out to the Russian
Gulch State Park. This is probably one of the most famous parks in the area because
it has beautiful hiking trails.
Tiffany: It's like spongy.
Kristin: We chose the Fern Trail.
Woman: Ranger Tiffany.
Tiffany: Yeah, a lot of this stuff looks like it would be in the ocean.
Woman: Yeah, it looks like it would be underwater.
Kristin: One of my favorite things about it were all of the redwood trees that we encountered
a few miles in.
The hike to the waterfall is about three miles and you can either turn it into a loop or
you can just go back the way you came.
Another famous feature of the park is this bridge. There is a little lookout that you
can hike to to see it but since we were already done with hiking for the day, we decided to
hop in the car and make our way up to Fort Bragg.
Now, Fort Bragg's arguably most famous feature is the Glass Sand Beach. The thing to know
about Glass Beach is it actually used to be a dump so the glass doesn't really belong
there, of course. But over time, the ocean eroded the dump and a lot of the glass bottles
ended up becoming this beautiful sand. I had visited the beach previously and I was super
disappointed.
I stopped by Glass Beach in Fort Bragg and I'm really sorry to report people have come
and taken all the glass.
People really wanted this glass for their home so, over time, they collected it off
the beach. But we just decided, "Hey, let's go catch a sunset there," because remember,
the rocky cliffs being beautiful. And this time, I don't know what happened but there
was glass. Maybe it was the tide, maybe it was just our luck or the way the light was
catching it but previously, I hadn't seen any glass on this beach, and now, out of nowhere,
here it was.
We just came for the sunset and then we got glass, too. Yeah.
Then on top of that, we saw seals having their pups.
Tiffany: Oh, there's a family.
Kristin: Hell, yeah. Needless to say, it was the cherry on top of a fantastic day.
The next day, we woke up bright and early and while our other two friends slept, my
friend Paige and I decided to check out the Ten Mile Dunes.
Like that?
Paige: Yes.
Kristin: The guy at the front desk at Brewery Gulch Inn told me about the Ten Mile Beach
that was full of dunes. Being a dune enthusiast, I just wanted to check it out for myself.
They were kind of cool.
Next on our way, we stopped by MacKerricher State Park where we found some beautiful abalone
shells and, of course, our little friends, the seals from last night.
From there, we picked up our other friends and headed to Jug Handle State Park. We didn't
really know anything about Jug Handle other than we've read that there were some tide
pools which we wanted to check out. However, pretty much right away, we discovered something
crazy, cool, amazing.
Woman: Oh, what do we have here? That looks pretty cool.
Kristin: Here we go. This is called the Pygmy Forest. And there are several different pygmy
forests all throughout the Mendocino Coast in different state parks but we stumbled on
this one quite by accident and I have to say it was incredible.
Woman: I like it, too.
Kristin: Oh my gosh. That's super cool.
Woman: It's a witches coven.
Kristin: The Pygmy Forest isn't really something that was on our radar.
Woman: Do it again because it looks like it was your first time. There she goes. There
we go.
Kristin: We saw a sign for it when we walked in and ended up checking it out kind of by
mistake.
I don't know why the trees grow like this. It's like a natural maze or something. Well,
actually, I just Googled it. It turns out that this is not actually the perfect environment
for them and they ended up growing in these weird ways just as a way to try to survive.
But if you ask me, it is so creepy and cool at the same time. It's just amazing to walk
through.
This Pygmy Forest is honestly awesome. I keep thinking fairies live here.
Woman: Right.
Kristin: Right?
Woman: Who live here?
Kristin: Who lives here? We live here.
Since we had come to Jug Handle for the tide pools, we still had to go check those out.
Woman: It looks like a butthole.
Kristin: They were just okay. The beach though was absolutely stunning.
Next, we headed to the Noyo Harbor Inn to have the amazing dinner there. I'm not really
good at describing food but suffice to say, we all loved what we ordered and I highly
recommend that you eat there.
Good morning, Mendocino. It's a beautiful day. The sun is shining. We're taking a little
walk in the morning, learning a bit about history.
This is our final day. We had to end it with an institution.
Are you excited?
Woman: So excited.
Kristin: Skunk railbikes is a thing to do here at Fort Bragg. And I didn't understand
why anyone would name a company that, but apparently, back in the day, the trains smelled
like that, I guess the gasoline they were using, so the locals said it smelled like
a Skunk Train.
Anyway, we're gonna head to the redwoods now, which I've been looking forward to this whole
trip, and we're going to, like, pedal our way through. I'm just so excited to be amongst
the tallest trees on planet Earth.
The Skunk Train has two options. You can either take an actual train or you can pedal yourself
into the Redwood Forest and then go for a little hike.
Okay. This is, like, really giving me Mario Kart vibes. I was always Bowser. What were
you?
Woman: Yoshi.
Kristin: Yeah, Yoshi was this shit until I realized Bowser, you just, like, bump into
stuff. He has, like, extra powers because he's big.
The redwood trees are the tallest in the world. And there are several varieties. You have
the coastal redwood, which you see here, and then you have the giant sequoia, which can
get huge around.
Woman: These are so cool.
Woman: Super strength.
Kristin: The coastal redwoods don't tend to do that but they are amazingly tall. It's
really, like, spongy and fibrous. The other thing you will find in abundance in a redwood
forest are these ferns. Ferns everywhere. The ferns really dig the symbiotic relationship
they must be getting from these redwoods.
Just fell and got so muddy. Well, if this is Mario Kart, then I just slipped all over
the Banana Peel and Yoshi won.
They didn't see me fall. Let's see what they think.
Check out my new look.
Woman: Oh my goodness.
Woman: What happened?
Kristin: You don't like it?
Woman: I love it. I love it.
Kristin: After finishing up our Skunk Train experience, we headed back down to Mendocino.
And while there, I definitely recommend that you stop by the town proper. It is so cute
and it's full of little boutiques. Now, if you guessed that these are higher-end, you'd
be correct but we did find a pretty cool thrift store.
You guys, we found an amazing place to catch the sunset.
Now, you can argue that pretty much anywhere in Mendocino, as long as you're coastal, is
a wonderful place to catch it but I was so partial to the way it just perfectly colored
everything at Van Damme State Park.
Plus, there weren't even all that many people around.
Look, there's so much to do in Mendocino that it's kind of hard to narrow it down.
But I think that we did a pretty good job.