Kay Travels
A small white lighthouse with a red-roofed outbuilding at the end of a gravel road, a gray wooden fence with fish-shaped signs in the foreground and the Pacific behind.
The Point Cabrillo lighthouse on Saturday morning, November 12, the sun still low.

Veterans Day weekend 2022 · Fort Bragg and Mendocino

Sea Glass and a Pygmy Forest

Two nights on the Mendocino coast over Veterans Day weekend, with Glass Beach, a five-mile hike to the pygmy forest, fish and chips at Noyo Harbor and a morning at the Point Cabrillo lighthouse.

When
Route
Fort Bragg
Length
3 days, 2 nights

Veterans Day fell on a Friday in 2022, and we used the long weekend for the Mendocino coast. It was a long drive on winding roads, about three and a half hours, to two nights at the Holiday Inn Express in Fort Bragg.

What we came for was sea glass, big trees and a lighthouse, and the coast delivered all three.

The route

Route of Sea Glass and a Pygmy Forest Pacific Ocean Coast Ranges to and from home 1Fort Bragg 020 mi

Drive Ferry Flight

  1. 1Fort BraggNov 11–13

Highlights. Showing 22 of 90 photos.

Day 1

Glass Beach and the pygmy forest

1Fort Bragg

The room wasn't ready when we reached Fort Bragg, so we waited in the lobby of the Holiday Inn Express, where the sign over the coffee bar read Must. Have. Coffee.

A stone-pillared covered entrance with a hanging sign, planters and a car park under a bright blue sky.
The covered entrance of the Holiday Inn Express.
A girl in a brown hoodie pours coffee at a lobby counter under a wall sign reading Must. Have. Coffee.
Coffee from the lobby bar while we waited.
A girl in a blue tie-dye hoodie stands with her arms crossed beside a glass door to a balcony, a red chair in the corner.
By the balcony door in the lobby.

Then we went straight to Glass Beach on a bright, clear morning. We walked the bluff and crouched on the pebbles to pick out the sea glass, and soon there were handfuls of it. The prize was a big piece of bright green glass.

Blue water, dark rocks and a gravel cove below a grassy bluff under a cloudless sky.
The first look at the coast at Glass Beach.
A man in a gray fleece takes a selfie on a coastal bluff with the sea and rocks behind him.
A selfie on the bluff above the cove.
A small blue cove between rocky walls, a leaning wooden post on a rock and green ice plant in the foreground.
A narrow cove below the trail, ice plant on the rocks.
Gravel scattered with rounded pieces of white, brown and green glass.
The reason for the name: frosted glass among the pebbles.
A man in a gray fleece stands on a beach of gray pebbles between two rock walls with the sea behind him.
The pebble beach between two rock walls.
A man and a girl in a blue hoodie lean together in a selfie, a rock wall and calm water behind them.
A selfie on the rocks.
A girl in a blue tie-dye hoodie and pink leggings stands on brown dirt below a green bank with a small trickle of water and a rusty pipe.
A little seep in the bluff, an old pipe above it.
A man, two girls and a woman crowd into a selfie in front of a rocky bank with sun flare across the top.
All four of us, the sun flaring over the rocks.
A girl in a blue tie-dye hoodie looks down at something small in her hand on a pebbly beach.
A piece just found.
Two cupped hands hold smooth sea glass and dark wet pebbles over a gray gravel beach.
A handful of the best finds.
A girl in a blue tie-dye hoodie and lilac leggings crouches on gray gravel, smiling, holding glass in her palm.
Sorting glass on the pebbles.
A crouching girl holds out both hands with small pieces of glass in front of a dark cliff and the sea.
A haul of sea glass, the surf just behind.
A large translucent green chunk of glass sits among pebbles and frosted glass in close-up.
The prize: a bright green piece.
A girl and a woman lean against a big driftwood whale carving and bench above the sea.
The driftwood whale on the bluff.
Rounded golden rock ledges, a still tide pool and rock stacks under a clear blue sky with the Pacific beyond.
Golden rock ledges and a tide pool at the end of the walk.
A girl in a brown hoodie, a woman and a girl in a blue tie-dye hoodie stand with their arms around each other above a tide pool and the sea.
At the tide pools, arms around each other.

The big outing of the trip was a five-mile hike at Jug Handle. It ran down the boardwalk through wind-bent cypress, past the Highway 1 bridge over the gully, up through the redwoods and on to the pygmy forest, where the trees stay stunted in the pale sandy soil. The beach lay at the bottom, and the reserve sign marked the trailhead at the end.

A wooden boardwalk and stairs descend among wind-bent trees.
The boardwalk down through the cypress.
A concrete arch bridge crosses a wooded gully under a blue sky, framed by spruce branches.
The Highway 1 bridge, high over the gully.
A bright starburst of sunlight between the trunks of tall redwoods.
Sun coming down through the redwoods.
A girl in a brown hoodie, a woman and a girl in a blue tie-dye hoodie stand together on the same sandy trail among low, twisted trees.
Among the low, twisted trees.
Two girls and a man stand on a pale sandy trail lined with stunted pines and cypress.
The pale sand of the pygmy forest, stunted pines all around.
A girl in a brown hoodie stands on a forest trail, ferns and a fallen log behind her and tall trunks all around.
On the way back, in taller forest.
A girl in a blue tie-dye hoodie stands on a wide, trampled beach with a green headland and the sea behind.
The beach at the bottom of the trail.
A brown wooden sign reading Jug Handle State Natural Reserve stands at a trailhead under cypress in low sun.
The Jug Handle State Natural Reserve sign, at the end of the loop.

Dinner was early, at the fish market in Noyo Harbor: fish and chips, an oyster po'boy and fish tacos, and it was good. After dark we went into town for ice cream.

A girl in a blue tie-dye hoodie looks at her phone on a deck with picnic tables, a red rockfish sign on the wall above.
The deck of the Noyo Fish Company, under the red rockfish sign.
Fishing boats, a Coast Guard vessel and a crane tied up beside a wooden pier in a calm harbor.
Fishing boats tied up in the still water of the harbor.
A girl in a blue tie-dye hoodie eats at a counter under a white tent with a glass of water and condiments, the harbor behind.
Dinner at the counter under the tent, the harbor behind.
A girl, a man and a girl stand in front of a fish market with a red rockfish sign and a stack of fish crates behind.
Out front, fed and happy.
A woman holds a cone and a girl in a blue hoodie sits beside her on an orange bench in a bright ice cream shop.
Ice cream in town after dark.
A girl in a brown hoodie eats at a white table under a lime-green wall.
More ice cream, under a lime-green wall.

The practical bits Left home early Friday, by way of Willits (gas stop), and reached Fort Bragg late in the morning. Two nights at the Holiday Inn Express.

Day 2

The lighthouse and Mendocino

1Fort Bragg

By breakfast time on Saturday the low sun was already lighting the road out to the Point Cabrillo Light Station, and we walked the last stretch toward the lighthouse beside a gray fence with fish-shaped signs. We spent most of an hour among the lighthouse and the keeper's houses with their red roofs, and along the rail above the surf, where a sign asked us to leave the wildlife area alone. The board in the window said the station dates from 1909.

A girl in a blue tie-dye hoodie and green leggings sits smiling on a red chair beside a table with plates of waffle and eggs.
Breakfast at the hotel: waffles and eggs.
A girl in a blue tie-dye hoodie and teal leggings stands with arms crossed under a covered entrance in bright sun.
Outside the hotel, ready to go.
A girl in a red jacket and green leggings walks toward the camera along a paved road lined with dry grass and cypress; two walkers are far behind.
The road out to the light station.
A girl in a bright pink-red jacket and teal leggings stands on a paved road in early sun, a young pine and the sea behind.
The sea at the end of the road.
A man in a dark fleece stands on a road in dry grass with pines and the sea behind him.
Dry grass and pines along the same road.
A girl in a red jacket smiles on a grassy road below a windbreak of cypress; a red-roofed house is in the distance.
Cypress trees and the light station's red roofs.
A girl in a tan hoodie carrying a blue coat, a woman in a brown jacket and a girl in a red jacket stand together on a paved road beside a white picket fence, with a red-roofed house and a distant lighthouse behind.
By the white picket fence, the lighthouse in the distance.
A man, a girl in a red jacket and a girl in a brown hoodie stand in front of the picket fence and a red-roofed house.
A minute later, with a new photographer.
A white picket fence curves along a road toward a red-roofed house and a small lighthouse near the sea.
The picket fence curves around the keeper's house, the lighthouse behind.
A girl in a red jacket rests on a wooden fence beside a gravel road that leads to a small lighthouse.
The fence by the road to the lighthouse.
A small white lighthouse tower rising from a low building on a grassy point, with the sea at the horizon.
The lighthouse and its keeper's building against the deep blue sky.
A small white lighthouse tower with a dark lantern room rises from a two-story building, shot from low on the grass against a blue sky.
The tower and the keeper's building, up close.
A girl in a light brown hoodie and a girl in a red jacket stand in front of a white building with a red roof and lantern room.
At the lighthouse, its red roof and lantern room behind.
A woman in a dark jacket and a girl in a red jacket stand at a wooden fence beside a brown sign about a wildlife area, with the blue sea behind.
The fence above the surf, beside the wildlife-area sign.
A man and a girl in a red jacket stand in front of the red-roofed lighthouse building.
One more in front of the lighthouse.
A whiteboard in a window reads Welcome to Point Cabrillo Light Station, est. 1909, open 11 to 4 every day, with shelves of souvenirs behind.
The welcome board in the window: open eleven to four every day.
Red-roofed white houses among wind-bent cypress with the sea and the small lighthouse beyond.
The keeper's houses, red roofs and a cypress, the lighthouse far off at the edge of the land.

Then we drove on to Mendocino for the rest of the morning: a walk out on the headlands above the beaches with the fog lifting off the river mouth, a bookshop, a red-and-green temple, and lunch at a café under paintings of red and green fruit, with a quesadilla, a rice and beans dish and tomato soup.

White steps and a railing beside a big pine tree, a house with a dark roof and a bank of low fog behind it.
Steps and a garden at the edge of the village, fog lying beyond the roofs.
A girl in a red jacket stands at the bottom of white steps with a plaza and a house behind her.
At the foot of the church steps.
A girl in a red jacket, a woman in blue and a girl in a gray fleece stand at a bluff edge with a wide beach and surf behind.
A lookout above the beach.
A tall man, a girl in red, a woman in blue and a girl in a gray fleece stand in a row on the bluff above the sea.
And all four of us.
A wide sandy beach and river mouth under a fog bank, with surf sweeping in, framed by dark pine trunks.
Surf sweeping in across the river mouth, fog lifting off the far headland.
A dirt trail runs above a blue cove toward white houses on a distant bluff.
The headlands trail, the village on the far bluff.
A girl in a red jacket smiles on a bluff with a turquoise cove and a cypress behind.
On the bluff, a turquoise cove behind.
A cove of blue-green water curls onto a small beach below a rocky headland and a horizon of sea.
A turquoise cove and a rocky point.
A curved beach in a green cove below dry headlands, with village houses along the far bluff.
The curve of the cove, and the village along the bluff.
A girl in red, a woman in blue and a girl in a gray fleece stand on a headland with the cove and the village behind.
On the headlands, the cove and the village behind.
A circular hole in a grassy cliff top, with dark water in a sea cave at the bottom.
A sinkhole in the headland, the sea coming in far below.
A girl in a red jacket smiles on a rocky bluff over breaking waves.
White water below the rocky bluff.
A man, a girl in red, a woman in blue and a girl in a gray fleece stand together on a golden rock bluff with white surf and clouds behind.
The four of us on a rocky bluff over the surf.
Waves crash against golden, layered rock under a blue sky with drifting clouds.
Waves on the golden rocks of the headland.
A girl in a red jacket browses shelves in a crowded shop full of books and cards.
A village bookshop.
A woman in a blue jacket and a girl in red stand at a table of books, with stairs and bookshelves behind them.
A table of books, stairs and shelves behind.
A girl in a red jacket stands among book displays, red stockings hanging from tall shelves.
Christmas stockings already hanging from the shelves.
A cream-colored building with a curved corner and a sign reading Out of This World, with parked cars and the ocean beyond.
The curved corner of the Out of This World shop in the sun, the sea at the end of the street.
A wooden water tower rises over a white house and a garden with a stepped path and a white handrail.
A water tower over the gardens of the village.
A woman in a blue jacket and a girl with glasses in a gray fleece sit at a corner table under paintings of red and green fruit, with three empty paper cups.
Empty cups at a café table, under paintings of red and green fruit.
A girl in a red jacket stands on the grass in front of a small temple building with green trim and red steps, two people climbing the steps.
The red-and-green temple and its steps.
A girl in red, a woman in blue and a girl in a gray fleece stand in front of the green doors of a small red-and-green building.
On the temple steps, in front of its green doors.
A notice board with maps and leaflets on a white porch, and a lawn with picnic tables running toward the sea.
A notice board on a porch, and the green above the sea.
A wide green lawn with picnic tables and a white fence, blue sky and clouds above, the ocean on the horizon.
The green, with its picnic tables, under a big sky.

Back in Fort Bragg there was a rest in the afternoon, and at dusk a look at the sunset from near the hotel.

Tall pampas grass silhouetted against an orange band of sunset under gray clouds.
Pampas grass against the sunset.
A pine bent by the wind over a rail fence and a lawn, sunset glowing behind.
A wind-shaped pine and the last of the light.

After dark we went into town again. The shop windows on the main street were already full of Christmas trees, and we ended up at Taco Bell, where the burrito turned out to be a good one.

A night street of lit storefronts and a red traffic light on wet pavement.
Downtown Fort Bragg after dark, wet streets and Christmas lights.
A girl in a red jacket looks at a tall white tree in a shop window at night.
A white Christmas tree in a shop window.
A girl in a dark fleece with her hair up looks into a shop window at a tall Christmas tree hung with gold and red decorations.
Another window, this tree in gold and red.
The lit inside of a gift shop full of decorated Christmas trees and displays.
Inside the shop: trees and more trees.
Three people in jackets walk away down a wet sidewalk beneath a hanging sign that reads Cucina Verona.
Down the wet sidewalk, past the Cucina Verona sign.
A tree covered in red-and-white candy decorations in a dark shop.
A Christmas tree made of peppermint candies.
A girl in a red jacket stands in the entrance of a covered arcade of shops with framed photos on the walls, under a sign reading Soft Serve Ice Cream.
An arcade of shops, under a Soft Serve Ice Cream sign.
A girl in a red jacket, a girl with glasses and a person in a blue puffer jacket sit at a white table with water glasses, a window sign reading Breakfast at the Bell behind them.
At Taco Bell, under a Breakfast at the Bell sign.

Day 3

The long way home

1Fort Bragg

The last breakfast of the trip was at the hotel, pancakes and sausage before we packed.

A girl with glasses in a brown hoodie and a girl in a blue tie-dye hoodie sit at a table with a pancake, sausage and a banana.
Breakfast on the last morning.

On the road out, the low morning sun made rays through the mist and the trees, worth a few pictures through the windshield. Then it was back over the hills and across the valley past Williams, and we were home before noon.

A view through the windshield of a curving road with rays of morning sun and a green wall of trees.
Sun streaming through the trees on the road home.
A misty road bends past a wooden fence, a bright red tree and tall firs.
A red maple among the dark firs, a curve in the mist.
A wet, curving road with golden sunlit firs and a haze of mist.
Golden light and mist among the firs.
Beams of sun cut through mist above a curving road under tall trees.
Rays through the mist above a bend in the road.
A starburst of sun between dark redwoods above the road.
The sun bursting between two walls of redwoods.

The practical bits Left a little before eight on Sunday morning, with a change of drivers after the first hour.