Category Archives: Day Hikes

Point Cabrillo Lighthouse … At the end of a Trail (of sorts)

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The Point Cabrillo Lighthouse is one of the few working lighthouses left in America. It was built in 1909 and restored and relighted in 1999 as a federal aid to navigation. Located between Mendocino Village (Cabot Cove, Maine in ‘Murder She Wrote’) and Fort Bragg, California, about 150 miles north of San Francisco, the 300 acres, now a state historic park, is chriss-crossed with trails and great spots to watch migrating grays, blues and humpback whales. I am one of its lightkeepers, once a month going up into the lantern room where we wash windows and clean the brass. It also is one of my favorite places for taking photos. Surrounded by about dozen other state parks, hiking in the forest or along beaches is fantastic.

Fern Canyons and Pygmy Forests

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The Mendocino Coast of Northern California has some of the rarest hikes anywhere. At Jug Handle State Reserve, a California State Parks property, you can walk about 2.5 miles from the ocean, through giant redwoods to a pygmy forest, one of only three (from what I understand) in the U.S. The out and back is a mere 1.5-hour hike that is amazing in that it takes you through about 300,000 years of geological history in such a short distance. Bishop pines that grow over a 100-feet tall in normal soil, only grow about 5 feet in this thin, highly acidic soil of the pygmy forest. One of nature’s wonders.

Be light. Be safe. Be one with the pack.