May 21th, 2023
Today was going to be a little bit of an odd day really. We start out on the Pacific Coastline, before feeding Giraffes, wave goodbye to the Ocean for the rest of the trip, visit the third tallest tree in the world, drive through the Mountains and Forests, past Lakes and Rivers, and arrive at the heart of America’s Wine Country Napa Valley. Not your average day really!
B Bryan Preserve
It all started with a fairly reserved alarm call. Our appointment at the B Bryan Preserve was not until 10 pm so we had a pretty relaxed morning before heading out on our day’s adventure. However, we awoke fairly early and took a nice cool morning stroll along the Coastal Path. The fog was on the edge, rolling in and out and providing a cool morning dew, as we watched Racoons forage by the inland waterway. A beautiful start to the day before heading back to our unit to pack up ready for the day.
We left with plenty of time and arrived at the preserve a little early so took a short detour down to the Point Arena Light House. The wind was howling and the Fog was right on the edge of the coast, threatening to cloak the vistas but not quite fully rolling in. It was still pretty bleak and barren looking, we would be pretty happy to finally head inland and away from the Fog (or so we thought).
At around 10 pm we headed back to the B Bryan Preserve to take a self-guided Safari around the Preserve. Honestly, this is overselling it, as it’s not really a Safari and much as you are just driving around the outside of a few paddocks. It’s still really fun to see African Mammals out roaming the Pacific Coastal Plains and is totally unexpected in this area. Bufalo, Zeebra, and various Antelopes are all totally out of place and looking magnificent.
The highlight of the tour comes at the end (although Kate was pretty happy right at the beginning when we got to pet the Farm Cats). The Grand Finale is feeding the Giraffes. They have already had their Breakfast, but you get to feed them a few mid-morning treats in the way of a bag of lettuce leaves.
The Large Male Giraffe we fed was really beautiful and his playful demeanor meant he took a lot of coaxing from his sheltered barn (maybe offer him something better than just lettuce leaves?). Eventually, the prima donna came ambling out and whisked the leaves out of our hands faster than we could get them out the back, a crazy weird sensation. Within seconds they were gone and he was off back to the sanctuary of his barn. Clearly, not one to play to the crowds!
We hung around and watched as a few other groups also unloaded their Letece into the Giraffe’s mouth, before making for the exit on a really nice and charming little visit to a really unexpected corner of the No-Cal Coastline.
Mendocino
We then continued our journey up the pretty North California Coastline as far as Mendocino. There was not too much to see on this final section of the coast, a few quaint little towns, including Manchester, which is much prettier than our hometown of the same name.
After a steady hour on the road, we arrived at the terminus of our trip up the North Pacific Coast Highway. The road carries on for another 50 miles or so, before returning to the 101 and heading all the way north to Seatle, but for today, this was the end of the coastal portion of the road trip. We had some time though to explore the absolutely gorgeous little town of Mendocino.
This is Small Town America exactly as you imagine it. Everywhere are quaint white picket fences, little shops and boutiques, and fabulous little cafes’ and restaurants. We spend around an hour just wandering around looking at all the shops before grabbing a coffee and giant Cinnamon Roll at a nice little spot with an outdoor terrace.
A perfect way to end the coastal adventure. While enjoying the outdoors and our massive Cinnebun, we noticed some alerts on our phones. A large earthquake had struck just off the coast during the night. We had not felt anything and there was apparently no damage, but it felt pretty odd to have this come up on our phone!
Montgomery Woods State Natural Reserve
From Mendocino, we took a right turn to the east and headed inland. The first section road steadily up through a large swathe of redwood forest. This section was fairly dull as the road was lined with thick old-growth forest, so nothing to see but trees. It’s pleasant enough but it was very repetitive as the road wound up the mountains.
The First stop was Montgomery Woods State Reserve. This large grove of giant redwoods was a must-stop on our trip and we were excited to see what was once considered the tallest tree in the world. Now relegated to third tallest it’s still pretty cool to see. In fact, we are not really sure if we did or not as the Mendicion Tree is not actually marked and the grove is filled with dozens of Red woods all in the 100-110 ft range, and from the forest floor it’s impossible to tell which is the tallest. But we were happy just happy to visit the grove and explore the maze of colossal Redwoods.
From here the Road continues to head upwards but soon starts to come out of the forest and start to resemble a more Alpine Medow type of landscape. Rolling fields, cattle, and trees in the distance. It was very different and very beautiful.
Eventually after a lot of climbing, we crested the summit of the range and the views switched from the west to the east as we started descending down into the Ukiah Valley, a northern extension of Sonoma Valley.
Here we started to pick up more and more signs of civilization. Since leaving San Francisco we had really been out in the wilds, the largest settlements little more than small towns and very light traffic levels. Things now picked up significantly and there were all the trapping of modern American Life, Strip Malls and Retail parks, large housing developments, and wide busy highways.
From here the fastest way into Napa Valley, our next stop was straight down the 101, but we opted for a more scenic route around the town, and lake, of Clear Lake. This was a little longer but very scenic as we drive along the pretty shores of this huge inland waterway.
From here Napa Valley was just a stones through over the formidable Highway 29, which wound its way up the foothills and peaks of The Mayacamas Mountains and Mount St Helana. Stunning views down the valley greeted us we descended through endless hairpins before finally arriving at our new home for the next few days…
Napa Valley – St Helena
One of the main purposes of this trip was to hit Napa Valley. We love Wine, Beautiful Scenery, great food, and a relaxed pace of life, so Napa pretty much fits the bill 100%. We decided on St Helena as this had the most amount of great Wineries all within easy reach and while Napa itself is great, it’s just not the picture postcard view of Wine Country that you expect. St Helena is, and we book a great value inn overlooking fields of vineyards and mountains in the distance.
Vineyard Country Inn
Napa Valley is not a cheap place to visit, with some hotels selling rooms for $1500 a night, more if you want upgraded accommodations and added privacy. This is a little out of our range, however, even cheaper roadside Motel accommodation is frightfully pricey for what you get. The Vineyard Country Inn stuck a nice balance. It was far from cheap, but not too bad considering Room Rates across the country, and offered some really stunning views across the valley.
it offered us the chance to sit on our Balcony, overlooking the vineyards as the sun set, while enjoying a glass or two of the Valleys Prduce. What more could you ask? Upon arrival, however, we were pretty blown away. The Grounds were small bit really lovely and very reminiscent of an Italian Farmhouse. The Rooms were HUGE with a kitchen area, living room, amazing bed, plush bathroom, and fantastic Terrace. We got access to a nice pool area, free breakfast, and a perfect location.
It was way more than we expected, we kind of just assumed it was a nice roadside motel kind of place, which it sort of is, but was just a lot more spacious and refined than we imagined. and at approx $250 a night, just before Memorial weekend not exactly pricey for Napa Valley.
After settling into the Room which we had booked for 4 nights we headed off to explore the town. The first stop was Safeway to stock up on goodies and get some good prices on Napa’s most prized produce. Then we headed out for some dinner. There are not a huge amount of options in the small town of St Helena and while most of the restaurants are very good, they are also very pricey. We have a few really good dinners planned, but the first night we wanted something cheaper and the options are limited.
In the end, we tried Gotts Roadside. A burger joint with a large outdoor terrace and good drinks selection. The burgers were really fantastic and we sat in the sun for a while enjoying the much warmer temperatures now we had moved inland.
After this it was back to the Inn, to enjoy some Napa Cellars Chardonnay on the Balcony watching the sun set over the Vines. A stunning end to a pretty awesome road trip and filled with great vibes about what the next few days would bring, before hitting the road again.
We hit the hay soon after sunset, nice and early as we had a VERY early rise tomorrow, but it would be WELL worth it…
Walking Total – 12,607 Steps – 6.5 Miles
We were quite shocked at how far we walked today. We felt we had largely been car-bound, however, with the Hike at Montgomery, the morning stroll, and the wandering around Mendicino we had clocked up a decent amount of footfall!
