Lovely, foggy days
Quintessential Mendocino weather
A foggy day on the Mendocino Headlands
Ah, fog. Lovely, cooling fog. Yes, it’s gray and damp. But oh how beautiful a backdrop it is for Mendocino’s craggy cliffs and crashing waves, for our towering redwoods and meandering rivers and streams. It lends a certain gravity and calm to every scene. It makes you feel like cozying up with a blanket by the fire in our Great Room. It is quintessentially Mendocino.
If you’ve been following our blog, you’ve probably noticed how often our posts feature pictures with this ever-present, dove grey blanket of fog. Like when we did this hike, when we went on this run, and that one time we got to do a safari. We actually even had less fog this summer than normal – we even had several sun-filled lunches outside, bright walks along the ocean, and sunshiny dates with the flowers. So when the fog finally rolled in a couple of weeks ago for what seems to be the rest of the season, we let out a little bit of a sigh. This fog, this tranquil veil across the sky, this is true Mendocino weather.
Main Street was sort of disappearing into the fog…
Now, the temptation when the fog comes for a good while is to just hunker down inside, take a nap, and be drink copious amounts of steaming tea while staring drowsily out the window. We however, love getting out in the thick of it and searching for those beautiful moments and pictures that only come with the hovering fog. So what have we been doing? Walking! Hiking! And it has been gloriously gorgeous.
If only this picture could capture that dream-like view of Big River!
Just a couple of days ago, we spent the morning traipsing around the Mendocino Headlands. We were attempting to get a good power hike in, but we were forced to stop every minute or so to just drink in the foggy mystique all around us. The crowning moment of the walk was probably when we were out at the end of the point, just past Main Street. We were looking up along that iconic line of historic buildings towards the heart of the village, when all of a sudden we caught sight of the bridge spanning Big River. Our mouths dropped open. There before us was the most exquisite picture, with early morning light from just up the river peaking down behind the edge of the fog curtain and casting a dreamy glow on the mouth of the estuary. The fog just around the bridge framed that span over the gently sparkling water like a vision. It was breath-taking. The only sad point was that our cameras could in no way do justice to the scene.
This little crab friend was stoically tucked down in the rocks of the tide pools, waiting for us to leave him alone.
A foggy day or two before, we had caught up with friends while walking the trail from Glass Beach to the northern end of MacKerricher State Park. All along the roughly 7 miles of our walk (about 3.5 miles each way), we oohed and aahed over the scenery in between alternating rounds of serious discussion and deep belly laughs (you know how it is when you get together with good friends!). The crashing waves and the rugged, rocky cliffs that peaked through the fog made our hearts thrill. On the way out we stopped off for a bit at the tide pools at MacKerricher Beach to look for shady-day crab friends, and on the way back we paused to watch a family of deer shyly make its way through the mist across the quiet park road. After the deer tripped on by, we breathed in deeply of the cooling vapor all around us and grinned with the sheer delight of being alive.
On another day, we were revisiting the Noyo Headlands Trail, quietly enjoying the peacefully foggy afternoon. We nodded and smiled to all the dog walkers and like-minded strollers who were also out to just take in the day. We meandered along to every lookout point and scenic bench, taking our time to simply absorb the way the pearly skies highlighted the rusty red of the ice plant running over the cliffs, the swirling turquoise of the waters, and the many-hued grey of the granite rocks. This was good.
Our coastline at its finest!
There are many more beautiful walks and hikes to explore when you come visit us during these foggy days of fall and winter. Stop by the Front Desk for a map and recommendations, and we’ll tell you all the best places to go to get the most out of our Mendocino weather!
Words and pictures by Laura Hockett