Highway One

(left) A truly typical view along Hwy 1 as we headed south of Little River. (right) The "lighthouse boys" at the top of the Point Arena Lighthouse.

One more time, we experienced a totally different environment and terrain as we headed down Highway One today from Little River to Gualala. The distance we traveled today was only 91 miles, the least amount of miles we've traveled since leaving KC 12 days ago, but it took us nearly all day to make the trek.

Highway One is a unique road to travel. It literally hugs the Pacific Coast,winding its way around the cliffs and craggy ocean inlets that make up the north coast area from Mendocino to San Francisco. It is quite a highway and the scenery is incredibly beautiful, to say the least. Picking the right photos for the blog was not easy, that's for sure because at every turn in the road we saw a rugged coast line of ocean and cliffs with huge rocks jutting out of the ocean floor and creating some wonderful views of the coastline. It is absolutely striking and your mouth falls open in awe every time you turn a sharp curve. You have to slow down to 25 and 15 miles an hour on some of the curves.

A number of rivers run into the ocean on this north coast, including the Navarro and the Gualala, creating a wide opening and huge inlet bays in the ocean terrain. The view reminds you of Big Sur, but it is so noncommercial here and so quiet that the little towns you go through come and go so fast you're not sure you went by them.

The highlight for us today was climbing the 145 steps of the Point Arena lighthouse. We were standing at the top of the lighthouse, 115 feet in the air, and had a incredible 360-degree view of the surrounding coastline that was simply magnificent. We could see for more than 50 miles and while we didn't see any whales, we did see many sea lions lounging on the rocks out in the ocean. The lighthouse is the tallest one in California. The stairway wound around the inside of the lighthouse and it was a workout for all three of us. Going down the stairs was much easier than going up, we all agreed. But, it was sure worth the trip when you saw the view.

The other highlight was visiting the Botanical Gardens just south of Fort Bragg. The Gardens border the Pacific Ocean where the view is spectacular. We saw hundreds of different plants, flowers, ferns and trees. Mimi, of course, was in her glory looking at all the plants and wondering why the ones in her backyard didn't look like these. The flowers were huge and when I show you the dahlias and begonias and the colors of the heather in my slide show, you will truly be amazed. (you didn't think I forgot about my slide show did you???) Really, Uncle Donn and I were amazed at the flowers. The Coast provides the kind of weather and fertile soil to grow flowers like no other area of the country. The flowers were huge and the colors were so vivid and so brilliant, unlike any color you could produce artificially.

We are only 100 or so miles from San Francisco, but it will take us the better part of two days to reach The City the way the road twists and turns along the coastline. We probably will stay at Bodega Bay or around there tomorrow and then on Monday will hit Stinson Beach—where we took Sam and Hannah last summer— before we take Uncle Donn to the SF Airport and begin heading toward Idaho. We are looking forward to our trip to the Tetons and to Yellowstone. We have seen so many different terrains on the trip so far that it boggles our minds. It would be hard to select the best but we all agree that this country is incredibly beautiful and there is so much to see.

It has truly been a lifetime trip for us and it isn't even close to over. We still have to drive through most of Nevada in the next couple of days to get to Idaho, but we'll get through it and try to find some kind of beauty in the desert.

Since leaving Calistoga, we haven't had any cell phone connection or reception and doubt we'll find any until we reach the SF Bay Area. Mimi has been texting the grand kids but I don't think they've gotten any of them because of lack or reception. We still don't know how Jack did in his soccer tournament in Des Moines last weekend. T-Mobile doesn't seem to be anywhere close to the Pacific Ocean. Uncle Donn can get some cell phone reception in the parking lot of our hotel in Gualala but not in his room. Figure that.

The hotel is really nice. Our room has a deck that looks out on the Ocean and the waves are really rolling tonight. We have the windows open and can hear the sea crashing against the rocks and sandy beach just below our room. We are just above the beach and the ocean smells wonderful.

That's all for now, more from Highway One tomorrow.

Happy Trails!