First choice at the first come first serve
Now we work our way up the coast for a couple of stops. It was windy, so Richard opted to get in his exercise by power walking the bluff trail at Salt Point while I was taking a shower. This is almost always a good idea for him. It gets him regulated first thing in the morning, thus making him far less tense about traveling, getting a site, all the unknowns for the day. Highway 1 has gotten a lot of new pavement and, despite a couple of short waits at one lane construction points, it was a lovely drive. The secret to driving in wind is to go slow. That is not a problem on this section of 1. You’re supposed to go slow here.
Playing a game of ‘how close will the waves get if I stand here?’
We were the first ones in to grab a site, so we unhitched and walked on the beach for a while. We decided later to do a short trip to the tiny town of Elk to see if the store had their fancy caramel popcorn (aka “crack”). They were out, which is just as well really, because it is very hard to stop eating that stuff once you start. We walked down to the beach and enjoyed the view before heading back to Dory.
Classic Mendocino Coast near Elk
It was a chill day, so we continued just beach walking. Two things were interesting. First, when the tide comes in at a river outlet, it is jaw dropping how much of an inland current forms. The water was rushing in through a narrow sand channel, raising the banks of the entire delta lake by many feet. The power of the ocean blows me away sometimes, even though I realize this phenomenon takes place twice a day, every day.
Lots of driftwood shelters around
The other interesting thing was that we came upon a pile of someone’s beach things that was being attacked by a clever crow. There was a plastic bag with potato chips inside that the crow had managed to open up. It was feasting on Ruffles and flying away, one chip at a time, leaving pieces of wrapper blowing in the wind. We scooped up the trash and tried to use the towel and shoes to cover things up. We noticed whoever left it also left their iPhone just sitting on the beach. The crow circled overhead and waited for us to walk away before diving down again. It had no trouble removing the towel and shoes barrier to get back to the chips. We became kind of obsessed with who this pile might belong to. We approached a couple on the far side of the beach and asked if they had left stuff. They had indeed and we described the state of their former lunch. They laughed and seemed to appreciate our efforts, and then slowly walked back to salvage the remains. We were puzzled about why someone would leave a phone on the beach. The waves were coming up pretty close to their spot. But I guess if you don’t have pockets and/or really don’t care about your phone?
Hi there!
We weren’t going to get a sunset, so I stalked a little white seal for a while and called it a night. This is a great stopover spot. I can’t tell if there was too little cell service or not enough cell service. Maybe it was a perfect amount. Like if you really want to know something, you can walk your butt out to the waves. Otherwise, ignorance is bliss. There were only a few surfers and other campers there. The porta potties are fine, but even better is having your own bathroom. Perfect for a one nighter on the way along the coast.
Onward and northward!
Total miles from MacKerricher: 58.7, 2 hours 6 min, 16.6 mpg. Site 1 first come first serve, no hookups. No dump, no water. Very little cell, but 1 bar of 5g or LTE out by the water to the right.
