Day 95 – A little warmer, 37 degrees this morning, still hazy. We decided that we would leave today rather than Friday as originally planned. When we took the drive south to Bodega Bay in the car on Tuesday, the entire trip was extremely winding on the narrow road, right next to the cliff’s edge. While it was pretty, in an RV towing a Honda, we’d probably develop ulcers by the time we got there. Road work once again to repair the road where the cliffs had caved in to the Ocean below, mudslides – cliffs being put back together with various solutions – cement made to look like rocks, netting holding the cliff up, plantings to keep the sides from crumbling, etc. What made a real impression on me was when we saw an area where parts of the previous highway were slightly below the current highway and houses had crumbled down the cliff into the sea leaving just bits of the foundation. Just not worth risking being run off the cliff because a truck or another RV is going by you in the opposite direction…..
62 miles
We decided to backtrack and go inland a different way to reach Bodega Bay. My cousin, Ann, lives in Sebastopol, which is between Santa Rosa and the Bay. We’d planned to stay at Bodega Bay and meet up with her this weekend. Originally we wanted to steer clear of Santa Rosa, after the fires and all, but this alternate route will get us where we want to go safely.
Gualala Regional Park, 42401 CA Highway 1, Gualala, CA 95445, (707) 785-2377, http://parks.sonomacounty.ca.gov/Visit/Gualala-Point-Regional-Park/Camping/. Check-in 2 p.m. (they are not strict about this); check-out noon. This is a small campground located in a large Regional County Park, less than 20 campsites. Very few sites were big enough for our 30 foot RV & tow car. We chose site #5 because it was big enough (barely) and because it was on the Gualala River. Site #4 was occupied; site #7 was where the campground hosts were camping. There were only 2 other sites that were big enough for us. There are redwood trees here and it’s located right next to the River. Quiet this time of year, no hook-ups, a dump station, water spigots located throughout the Park. Traffic noise from Highway 1 is not bad at all. $32 per night, no discounts. The campground roads are so narrow that we had trouble getting the RV through them, but it was do-able. We would stay here again, but it was not fantastic. There is an independent campground in Anchor Bay or possibly the Redwood Campground further inland (which we did not see) that might be better, but this one was probably cheaper than those campgrounds.
We left Gualala at 11:35 a.m. and it was only 44 degrees out. Obviously no reason to hang around for outdoor activities today. The drive north on Highway 1 was winding in places but not nearly as bad as it would’ve been to drive straight south to Bodega Bay tomorrow. We headed east on Route 128 and promptly left the coast & entered the redwoods, coming out of the woods & entering wine country in about 25 minutes. We’d previously camped at Hendy Woods State Park & loved it, right in the middle of the redwood trees and located in the Anderson Valley wine country. It felt like we were back at home again. We were happy to visit again for one night & nabbed our previous campsite (#27). We were the only ones camping in the Park, other than the campground hosts. We arrived at 1:15 p.m., still cold out – 47 degrees (it really makes a difference when the sun is shining but the warmth cannot reach the land).
No need to include pictures of this campground & this campsite; we’ve been here before, but for anyone who wants a nice experience & has an RV that’s not too big (sorry Mark & Donna), this is a great place to stay. We hung out at the RV, relaxing, catching up on the blog, reading, drinking wine & beer, etc. Tomorrow we drive to Bodega Bay via Highway 101 to Santa Rosa, then west back to the Ocean. LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU ON SATURDAY, ANN!