2012 California Road Trip: Mendocino to Pacific Grove on Hiway 1

Tuesday, July 17:
We stopped into Mendocino to have a look around and fuel the car before we hit the road.  The day was chilly and damp with a thick marine layer overhead.

the local bank

the thickest lavender blossoms I have ever seen, with several drunken bees 

wobbling around in the stems

I love groceries like this, with open, exposed loaves of bread stacked on the shelf

the road was damp, with a layer of fog rolling up the onto the shoreline

This is part of Highway One that we had not driven before.  It was even more "thrilling" than the area south of Pacific Grove, which we will see later.  The road was much narrower, carving into the steep edge of the mountain.  Few guard rails, with many hairpin curves.  I'm not afraid of heights, but at times the palms of my hands tingled like they did when I climbed a bit too high in a tree as a kid.  

We saw a landscape that went from an alpine-looking flora, with mostly low clumping plants.

to this:  pines, eucalyptus, and madrones. 

I don't think this photo does credit to the impressive landscape.

We stopped very near the San Andreas fault to grab these photos.

Note the road in the distance.

Here we are, squinting into the bright "sun"