The Ultimate Guide to Mendocino, CA
My trip to Mendocino was a little road trip I took with my brother right before Thanksgiving 2020. He had taken time off of work so we were determined to go on a little adventure. I originally had Big Sur on my list of places to go while on the West Coast, but an image of Mendocino popped up on Instagram and we ended up pivoting to do that! I’m so glad we went because it was a little off the beaten path and not as crowded (good for COVID times). Below is our full itinerary as well as some tips and things to know if you plan a trip (which I highly recommend you do!).
QUICK FACTS/NOTES:
- Mendocino/Fort Bragg are located on Highway 1 are a little over 3 hours from San Francisco (you take Highway 101 to Highway 128). It’s about 3.5 hours from Sacramento (you take I-5 to Highway 20).
- Though most people refer to the area as visiting Mendocino, this guide includes activities in Fort Bragg which is a much larger town than Mendocino and it’s only a 15 minute drive north.
- Be very aware of cliffs when exploring and heed warnings on signs that are posted. This blog post had some good info about exploring with children. Also pay attention to the tide when exploring beaches!
- Pack layers – while it has a mild climate and is good to visit year round, fog is not uncommon and temperatures can drop when the sun goes down.
- Be prepared to be off the grid! This was actually one of my favorite parts of the trip – the cell service was pretty limited unless you were in Fort Bragg. With that being said though, make sure you download a Google map before you go so you can get around easily!
- When traveling during COVID make sure to check the Mendocino county website as well as the state of California’s website for up to date information on what’s open/what to expect.
- I usually share all the details on where I stayed when I travel but I honestly can’t bring myself to recommend the hotel we stayed in. The only good part about it was the view from our deck. Otherwise, it was really tough to turn into/out of, the room was dirty (mostly the “carpet” and side chairs) and cold (it only had a small electric fireplace and a small space heater, otherwise no heat source), and there was some sort of odor in the room that would not go away. The hotel is pet friendly and I honestly think it was due to that. We told the front desk about it and they sprayed air spray for us but it still lingered. Given we were only there two nights, I didn’t fight it too hard. That being said, some other hotels I would look at next time are: The Brewery Gulch Inn, Glendeven Inn & Lodge, Little River Inn, Mendocino Grove Glamping, and the Inn at Newport Ranch (a little north of Fort Bragg).
DAY ONE – FRIDAY
We left Sacramento around 7:30 AM and headed to Nancy’s Airport Café. Even though it was a little out of the way, my brother had read about it during a class at school so while we were heading up that way we decided to check it out! The food was actually delicious and it had a great small town diner kind of vibe. From there we made our way to the Anderson Valley/Philo to do a little wine tasting at Lula Cellars. There are a TON of wineries in the Anderson Valley and Lula is a cute boutique one I found for us to check out. Because of COVID, it was a little tough to find wineries that were open for tastings, but Lula had a super easy online reservation system set up. Also, fun fact, the Anderson Valley is known for its Pinot Noirs, which happens to be one of my favorites, so I was excited for the stop! We ended up purchasing a bottle of the 2018 Lula Cellars Pinot Noir for Thanksgiving dinner.
At this point it was about 2 PM so we backtracked a little to grab sandwiches at Lemons Philo Market and then made our way to the coast! I thought there was a spot to pull off in the Navarro River Redwoods State Park to eat and really take in the redwoods, but we didn’t ever find the spot. Apparently there’s a campground along Route 128 but it’s currently closed. There are a ton of redwoods in Hendy Woods State Park but we would have back tracked a lot. Because we couldn’t find a proper place to stop, we went to Navarro River Beach to eat our sammies. Our end goal for the day was to make it to the Point Arena Lighthouse to wander and we had about an hour before sunset was supposed to hit. We made our way down Highway 1 (our first time seeing the coast!) and I was literally in awe of every twist and turn we took because the scenery was stunning. We arrived at the lighthouse/Stornetta Public Lands around 4:30, just in time for golden hour. Given this was our first taste of the coast, we were both totally in love and couldn’t wait for more!
We checked into our hotel after dark and had to figure out dinner. We didn’t make reservations anywhere because we’d talked about potentially just doing take out given how everything was ramping up with COVID. It also gave us a little more flexibility because we didn’t have to be anywhere at any specific time. We ended up ordering food from Luna Trattoria and it was fantastic. We had the gnocchi with meat sauce, the California pasta, a Caesar salad and the chocolate mousse. We literally enjoyed everything.
DAY TWO – SATURDAY
We woke up early so we could take our time getting to Fort Bragg for our morning activity. We stopped at a lookout spot across the street from Brewery Gulch Inn, Keesbury Bay viewpoint (got out and walked north along the path a little bit), and then stopped at Russian Gulch State Park. It’s an $8 entrance fee but totally worth it in my opinion! There’s a few places you can venture around – out along the coast, down by the river and you can also hike back to a waterfall. Based on what I read, there’s a couple routes to get to the waterfall. On the North and South trail within the park, it’s about a 5 mile hike or you can drive to Route 409 to a different entrance and it’s about a 3.8 mile loop.
Our next stop was Headlands Coffeehouse in Fort Bragg so we could grab some fuel before the Skunk Train! The Skunk Train is a 75-minute ride through the redwoods just outside of Fort Bragg and was a nice activity! We wanted to do the rail bikes but just couldn’t justify spending $250 on it. I think if you have it in your budget and you have the extra time, the rail bikes are great because you have a longer layover in Glen Junction so you can explore the redwoods more. But we also really loved the historical tidbits we got from the train. You can also take the early train (11:30 AM) and if you want to stay in Glen Junction and explore, you can take the later train back to Fort Bragg (leaves Glen Junction around 2:45 PM). After the Skunk Train we went to North Coast Brewing Company for some beers. We also had plans to go to a seafood place for lunch after beers but because of COVID we had to purchase a meal with our drinks. I got the clam chowder (which was amazing) and my brother got the chili (also very good) and for beers I tried the Scrimshaw (pilsner), Laguna Baja (Mexican-style dark lager), Le Merle (saison), Foggy Day IPA and the Barrel-Aged Old Rasputin XXII (aged Russian imperial stout) and my brother got their new Wiezenbock German Wheat and the Blue Star wheat. I loved the Scrimshaw and Le Merle and we both really loved the Wiezenbock German Wheat. It’s not on their menu yet but I really hope it gets a permanent spot in their rotation! And a note about the Barrel-Aged Old Rasputin – it is VERY strong. Like so strong and such a heavy bourbon taste that I couldn’t drink much of it.
Our last big stop of the day was venturing to MacKerricher State Park. I saw some amazing photos on IG when I was planning this trip so was super excited to check it out and it did not disappoint. We parked in the coastal parking lot and walked out along Laguna Point to Seal Rocks. The path was a really cool boardwalk through the trees and grasses and standing out on the deck overlooking Seal Rock was wonderful. So nice to just watch the waves and we even saw a bunch of seals! I was determined to watch the sunset from our hotel balcony so we made our way back and did a quick stop at Van Damme State Beach (which was super cool and I would definitely spend more time exploring here on the next trip). After a gorgeous sunset we ordered pizza from Frankie’s and chilled by the fire.
DAY THREE – SUNDAY
We thought it’d be a great morning to catch the sunrise and after researching the best places to watch it in Mendocino, we settled on Navarro Point Preserve and Scenic Trail (the link to where you park is here). I couldn’t find a good mountain top for us to venture to and this seemed to be a good, flat spot near our hotel. When we woke up it was pretty foggy but that still made for a really magical sunrise. We also played with the drone for a bit back at our hotel and got some fun shots.
After checking out of our hotel it was time to tackle the few things we hadn’t gotten to yet so we set out for breakfast and exploring. We grabbed breakfast burritos from Goodlife Café & Bakery and they were bomb. After that we spent some time walking around the Mendocino Headlands State Park on the Point Mendocino Trail. We parked at the parking lot off Little Lake Street but you can also enter the trail from the main part of Mendocino (along Main Street). If it were warmer (and if we’d had more time!), we definitely would have grabbed the trail from Main Street.
Next stop was Big River Beach where we wandered for a bit. You can also rent outrigger canoes and explore from the water!
Our last big exploring stop of the day was Glass Beach up in Fort Bragg. It was definitely the busiest spot we’d been to (out the entire trip) and was actually a little hard to find because it doesn’t look as colorful from up above! Glass Beach gets its name from the smooth and colorful glass pieces you’ll find among the pebbles. The glass is actual glass – it is broken pieces of glass that have been smoothed out by the sea over time. Make sure you just admire it though, it’s illegal to take pieces from the beach! We parked in the lot off of Noyo Point Road and from the walking path/cliff the beach merely looked like a bunch of pebbles. Which, don’t get me wrong, there were a lot of pebbles but you had to really get close to fully appreciate and experience the sea glass.
Before heading home, we had one last hurrah at Princess Seafood (the place we’d planned to go the day before!). This popped up on a lot of guides I read and while it’s no-frills, the food was really good. I got the rockfish tacos (with the mango salsa but honestly could have done without it or made sure they didn’t include the regular salsa as well) and my brother got the kimchi crab cake sandwich (it was really good!). I definitely recommend this place but don’t go if you’re on a time crunch. It’s a small, quality operation and a ton of Yelp reviews complained about a long wait which bothered me because it is small and it’s not fast food. They also have a deli section so you can buy fish and cook it yourself if you’re staying somewhere with a kitchen and don’t want to wait!
And that’s it! Thank you so much for joining me on this adventure and as always, drop any questions you may have in the comments below!
