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Great Escape of the Month
The Mendocino Coast
Getting There
Mendocino is 155 miles north of San Francisco. From Boonville, continue on CA 128 west, which merges onto CA 1, and head north.
Mendocino County's rugged coast, lined with rocky coves and crashing waves, makes an idyllic, romantic-getaway destination today, but
when it was first settled it was anything but that. The coastal conditions were treacherous for Gold Rush-era schooners that sailed the
rough waters. Shipwrecks led, indirectly, to the founding of the town of Mendocino.
 Today a cluster of 19th-century wooden houses, surrounded by grassy, windswept ocean bluffs on three sides, Mendocino boomed with the
Gold Rush. The population of San Francisco swelled from 6,000 to 20,000 in just a few months in 1849, making lumber scarce and very valuable.
News of the shipwreck of a cargo-laden ship bound for China drew Jerome Ford north from San Francisco. Instead of sunken treasure, Ford
discovered virgin redwood forests and found a site for Mendocino's first lumber mill. The north-coast lumber industry was born.
Mendocino thrived and then boomed again after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, when the forests became key to rebuilding the city.
Schooners that maneuvered in and out of the coves here carried up to a million board feet of lumber down the coast.
Ford built a home on the town bluffs when he married Martha Hayes, a Connecticut woman who arrived in 1854 to find she was one of
only three women in town. The couple lived in the house until 1872, raising six children. Now the house is the Mendocino Headlands
and Ford House Museum (735 Main Street; 707-937-5397; www.mendocino.com), where well-schooled volunteers describe local history using
a scale model of the town in 1890.
From the Ford museum, take in the cool salty air by walking along Main Street, looking in at the 1868 Presbyterian church built of
redwood (its steeple is a town landmark) and an array of art galleries and jewelry shops. Many of the early Mendocino settlers were
from New England, and their influence is reflected in the architecture. You can see why the town shows up in movies and on TV, often
as a stand-in for a New England village. Perhaps its best-known role was as the setting for TV's Murder, She Wrote, starring Angela
Lansbury.
Adding to Mendocino's charm are the more than a dozen water towers that poke up above the roofs. The town still does not have a
public water system, so many towers are in use; others have been converted to dwellings or shops. Check out the tower at 611 Albion
Street, which houses the gallery, studio, and home of painter Suzi Long. Another rises in the garden at the Kelley House Museum
(45007 Albion St.; 707-937-5791; www.mendocinohistory.org), a Victorian home containing historical photos of Mendocino's logging and
shipping industries.
On three sides of town, trails curl alongside the sandstone cliffs that make up Mendocino Headlands State Park (707-937-5804;
www.parks.ca.gov).
The park, created in 1974 when rumors of a planned oceanside development stirred an antigrowth movement, is a treasure of grassy meadows and bluff
paths. Several trail entrances radiate from Main Street, including one at the junction of Main and Heeser, where you can continue east for a
three-mile round-trip hike. Paths from here also lead down bluffs to Big River Beach, which is lovely for beachcombing. Winds that commonly
blow along the coast are less fierce on this protected beach, making it a good picnic site. To reach the trails along the windswept bluffs
west and north of Mendocino, follow Little Lake Street west ; after a short walk or five-minute drive, you'll reach the parking lot of an overlook,
and the trails start there.
Big River, the estuary that was integral for transporting giant redwoods to the mill on the Mendocino headlands in the late 1800s,
is easily explored by kayak or canoe. Catch a Canoe (Hwy. 1 at Comptche Ukiah Rd.; 707-937-0273; www.catchacanoe.com) offers rentals
on the river's shore for easy paddle trips to canyons and swimming holes, where you may see river otters and a variety of birds. Call
ahead, so that trips can be synchronized with tidal conditions.
 In 1908, to protect schooners carrying lumber from Mendocino forests, the U.S. government erected the Point Cabrillo Light Station two
miles north of Mendocino. The facility (707-937-6120; www.pointcaabrillo.org) was home to three families, who operated the kerosene lamps.
The station's light shone through a third-order Fresnel lens that had hundreds of prisms and was turned by a pendulum-style clockwork.
Since its restoration, the lens has been back in operation, its light is visible up to 15 miles from shore. The visitors center tells
about wrecks of opium-running ships and of the Frolic, the China-bound ship that changed the coast forever when it brought early settler
Ford and others north. It also describes the hard work of the keepers who kept the lights burning, the lens cleaned, and the compressors powered.
Nearby is beautiful Russian Gulch State Park (707-937-5804; www.parks.ca.gov), known for its forested canyon and the Devil's Punch Bowl,
a large blowhole in the headlands where the ocean churns and spouts like a geyser during storms or high tides. Trails here line the headlands.
 Fort Bragg, nine miles north of Mendocino, was a working-class lumber town but is depending more and more on tourism now that the main mill has
closed. Downtown, a Sears store and JCPenney catalog shop reside alongside high-end gift shop, newcomers on the scene. There's evidence of a
thriving community of artists and back-to-nature types; you may spot someone wearing a "Get the Glow" t-shirt from Living Light (301-B North
Main St.; 707-964-2420; www.rawfoodchef.com), a vegan, raw-food culinary school where the chef prepares gazpacho, salads, and even a vegan,
raw-food lasagna for takeaway. Fort Bragg is the home of the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens (18220 Hwy. 1; 707-964-4352,
www.gardenbythesea.org),
a 47-acre explosion of color. Spring is rhododendron season, and late summer and fall bring heritage roses, fuchsias, hydrangeas, and dahlias.
A garden store features a nursery with plants for sale.
 At Glass Beach, a short walk from downtown, at the end of Elm Street, tide pools are full of starfish, anemones, and sea urchins, and the
residue of an old dump site has been pounded and rounded by the ocean to create a kaleidoscope of colorful, glasslike stones. The beach is
part of MacKerricher State Park (707-964-9112; www.parks.ca.gov), an expanse of beaches, tide pools, a freshwater lake, and coastal hiking trails three miles north of Fort Bragg. The park was once part of Union Lumber Company's swath of land holdings here. On an easy,
three-fourths-of-a-mile -long walk , which starts from the parking lot and circles Lake Cleone, following a boardwalk over a marsh,
you may see herons and egrets along the way. Or, continue along the boardwalk along the ocean for about a half mile to a rocky point
with a viewing area to watch groups of sea lions lounging on the boulders a few hundred yards away. Unusual for a state park, admission is free.
Where to Eat
 It may be difficult to have a bad meal in Mendocino. It certainly will be difficult if your taste runs to fast-food joints: there aren't
any. But you can have a juicy, grass-fed beef burger at Moosses's (Kasten at Albion; 707-937-4323; www.themoosse.com). Mendocino is the
home one of the best-known restaurants in the region, Cafe Beajolais (961 Ukiah St.; 707-937-5614; www.cafebeaufjoais.com). Original
owner and cookbook author Margaret Fox no longer owns the place, but it still a top spot in town for its French-inspired food. Get there
at 11 AM to buy a delicious loaf of bread straight from the wood-fired ovens. To round out your picnic supplies, mosey over to the Harvest
at Mendosa's grocery store (10501 Lansing St.; 707-937-5879; www.harvestmarket.com). Mendocino Bakery (10438 Lansing St.; 707-937-0836) is
a breakfast and lunch cafe, serving sandwiches, salads, and coffee from beans roasted at the local Thanksgiving Coffee Company. For a scoop
of locally made Cowlick's ice cream, don't miss Frankie's (
10481 Lansing; 707-937-2436), an old-fashioned shop.
In Fort Bragg, the Mendo Bistro (Main and Redwood streets; 707-964-4974; www.mendobistro.com) is renowned for its crab cakes and use of
local, seasonal ingredients. The Headlands Coffeehouse (120 E. Laurel St.; 707-964-1987; www.headlandscoffeehouse.com) is the place where
residents go for their caffeine fix, casual eats, and live evening music.
Where to Sleep
Nothing may compare to a stay at lighthouse for recreating the lives of the early coastal settlers. The Lighthouse Inn at Point Cabrillo
(707-937-6124, 866-937-6124; www.mendocinolighthouse.pointcabrillo.org), a former light keeper's family home, was meticulously restored and
opened in 2006 by a nonprofit group. The red-roofed house has period furniture in its four guest rooms. Guest-only bonuses are the five-course
breakfasts and guided tours of the light station by night.
Brewery Gulch Inn (9401 Hwy. 1; 707-937-4752, 800-578-4454; www.brewerygulchinn.com) is the brainchild of Arky Ciancutti, a former
emergency-room doctor. He salvaged local redwood, including 150-year old submerged logs from the nearby Big River, to build his hotel.
The Raven room, with its ocean views and balcony, is a romantic favorite. The cooked-to-order breakfasts draw raves, and evening hors-d'oeuvres
are so generous that some guests end up canceling dinner reservations and cocooning for the evening.
A sweetly purring cat greets guests at the registration counter of the Little River Inn (7901 Hwy. 1; 707-937-5942, 888-466-5683;
www.littleriverinn.com),
a Victorian landmark owned by the same family for generations. Rooms in the new annex are swanky, but those in the old wing, such as number 115, with
its fireplace and large balcony, are still charming and a good value. In an area not known for its nightlife, Little River's bar is a fun local hang out and sometimes has live music.
If you'd like to be in town and bed-and-breakfasts aren't your style, the Mendocino Hotel (45080 Main St.; 707-937-0511, 800-548-0513;
www.mendocinohotel.com) is a good choice. Sit at the lobby's fireplace-where have sat since the hotel opened in 1878-and look out at the
crashing waves. Rooms with private baths in the old building include number 206, which has good views off a small balcony, and number 218, which is small but has a good-sized balcony. Rooms in the 1980s annex are larger and more luxurious. As befits a hotel with such a long history, rumor has it that there's a resident ghost: a Victorian woman who haunts the dining room and lobby.
Local Contact
Mendocino Coast Chamber of Commerce, 707-961-6300, www.mendocino.winecountry.com. Mendocino County Alliance, 707-462-7417,
www.gomendo.com.
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