Van Damme SP

We left a rainy Hendy Woods and made our way to the coast and to a new campground. The rain messed up Richard’s desire to bike from campground to campground, but at least it was a pleasant drive. Even towing in the rain, this stretch of Highway 128 is stunning. The curves are calm, and it takes you right through the redwood forests before opening up to the ocean at Navarro Beach. From there, it’s all the glory of California Highway 1, and not too much of the scary stuff.

We pulled in with plenty of daylight left, so we drove over to check out the town of Mendocino. I’ve driven past this place plenty of times, but have never really stopped to take a look. It is small, but super cute. Our first stop was in the historic Ford House. Here, we learned all about the local history and admired the tiny reproductions of how the town looked back in the Gold Rush.

We then did a walking tour of the couple of blocks you could call the “downtown,” sampled some chocolate at Mendocino Chocolate Company, and got an afternoon slice of pizza snack at Frankie’s.

The next day, we treated ourselves to an amazing hike through Fern Canyon. This trail normally runs from the campground, up the valley for almost five miles, and ends at a Pygmy Forest. One of the many bridges has washed out though, so we instead drove up to the Pygmy Forest parking area and walked down, intending to do a loop. We learned what pygmy forests are all about along a short loop trail with a boardwalk and plenty of informational kiosks. Apparently, when there is a flat terrace with shallow hard pan, there can be extremely harsh and acidic soil conditions. This makes it hard for the normally thriving trees and shrubs to grow. They can be hundreds of years old and still look like saplings.

From that terrace, the trail descends to the Little River valley and follows it all the way to the coast. The trail closure meant we would not make it the whole way, but there is a logging road you can take back to the parking area in order to make a loop. Once the trail reaches the canyon, it becomes pretty dramatic, and you realize how the valley has earned its name.

The Fern Valley trail is really one of the most beautiful we’ve ever been on. It is dark and cool under the cover of the redwoods, but the ferns grow everywhere. There are something like twenty little wooden bridges that cross back and forth over the river, revealing fairy-like tiny waterfalls and occasional little pools. Mushrooms grow bountifully along the side of the trail, or atop fallen tree trunks. They all looked toxic to us, but we have never known much about mushrooms.

Once we got to the place where we needed to cross the river and catch the logging road, we ran into a river crossing that is probably not usually so wet. There were some logs and big stumps placed as a way to get across, but at this was the day after a nice rain, the little river was big enough to make us go, “nah.” We maybe could have done it without falling in the water, but chances were high enough that one of us was going in, we decided to just turn around there and go back the way we came. It was certainly a lovely trail, so the thought of repeating was more appealing than the likelihood of walking back to the car with wet pants.

We drove back to the campground and tried the trail going the other direction. You can get all the way to the broken bridge, assuming you are willing to walk around the fence and all the signs saying the trail is closed for repair. Another guy ahead of us led the way and knew all about the status of the trail. We discussed the relative morality of rule breaking as we proceeded up the closed trail.

We wrapped up our stay with a glorious sunset at the beach. The campground is right next to a gorgeous cove beach, making sunset viewing easy peasy.

We really enjoyed this campground and would come again. It is nicely located a short distance from Hendy Woods and Mendocino. Plus, you’ve got a spectacular trail and a beautiful beach right by your site. A lot of the loops and sites seemed to be closed, maybe for the season or maybe due to storm damage, so there aren’t many to choose from. I think we got this site as a cancellation, but so many people were no shows in the rain, there were empty sites even on a Saturday.

Onward and up the coast!

Total miles from Hendy Woods: 29.9, 16.2 mpg, 1 hour 31 min. Site 6 no hookups, no solar. Curby dump, so skipped and dumped at MacKerricher. Upper loop closed.