Mendocino County

Mendocino Headlands State Park

Sketching the Mendocino Headlands calls for my panoramic journal to capture the wide views. So I did.

In the early morning I headed out to the Headlands and sketched a rock form with two arched tunnels. I think I’ve sketched this rock before but from a different angle.

The rocks within the bays have become islands that offers a protected roosting spots for birds such as western gulls, black oystercatchers, brown pelicans, Canada goose, and turkey vultures.

I sketched three vultures, affectionately known as TVs, warming up on such an island.

One of my favorite sketches at Mendocino Headlands State Park was from the beach where the Big River enters the Pacific just south of the historic town of Mendocino.

The beach was covered with driftwood and I found a large former tree to sit on and I started to sketch the scene before me (featured sketch).

A sketchers in Paradise!

Watertower Controversy

The residents of Mendocino are concerned with preserving the heritage of the town and keeping Mendocino, well, Mendocino.

This means keeping buildings as they are, restricting construction in historical areas, and preserving the town’s watertowers.

There is one watertower on Main Street that has been slated to be torn down so I thought I better sketch it while I can.

The 1904 watertower has been deemed unsafe and it is not cost effective to repair the tower so once again the battle between heritage/history and money rears its ugly head.

I saw lots of “Save the Watertower” flyers in shopfront windows. Time will tell if Mendocino can save this historic structure.

The Skunk Train: Steam Deferred

It can be a hard time for tourist railroads with the rising operational costs such as maintaining the locomotives, rolling stock, tracks, bridges, and tunnels.

The California Western Railroad aka the Skunk Train went from Fort Bragg on the coast, 40 miles east to Willits. That is until tunnel Number One collapsed in 2013, cutting the line in two disconnected segments.

The line currently runs trains out of both ends. The Fort Bragg side runs for about three miles and stops at the entrance to the tunnel (which will take about $300,000 to reopen.)

I rode the Skunk from Fort Bragg a while back and it seems just as the train gets going it stops, halted by the collapsed tunnel. Not much of a ride with the many bridges and redwood scenery on the other side of the tunnel.

The skunk train is now under diesel-electric motive power. The afternoon Skunk pulls into the Fort Bragg Depot. EMD GP9 No. 66 is on point. On the left is the M-300 motor car.

The real star of the railroad is the Mikado (2-8-2) Number 45. The steam locomotive was built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1924.

The 101 year old locomotive is now undergoing a rebuilt in the engine house. It will likely be a year and a half before the sounds of 45’s whistle echos along the coastline. Hopefully the line will then be opened to Willits.

The three bay engine house. In the right bay sits No. 45.

The side door to the engine house was open allowing me to get a sketch in of CWR No. 45. In her current state she seems a long way off from riding the high iron.

A rainy morning car sketch of the Skunk Train Depot in Fort Bragg.

Sketching the Mendo Coast

I found plenty of sketching subjects on a Monday morning drive north from my Caspar digs on the Mendocino Coast: two whales and a rock shaped like an elephant.

My first “whale” was to be found in Westport (population 299) about 15 miles north of Fort Bragg on Highway One.

If you build a whale, they will come. At least that’s what I think the sculpture/creator thought and I did come to sketch it. At onetime you could enter the belly of the whale and recline and watch television. Now it seemed closed to the public with a sign on the white picket fence warning of the Dalmatian. I didn’t see the Dalmatian, so I guessed I would be safe.

Thar she blows!!

Some things are beyond the realm of understanding such is the gray sperm whale in the front yard in Westport. Everyone knows that gray whales are the stars of the Mendocino Coast whale migration not Moby Dick!

Roadside attraction gone bad or failed hotel room, who knows! I sketched it anyway.

I retraced by way south to Blues Beach. My next sketching subject was a large rock which, if your squinted, looked like a pachyderm, hence the name Elephant Rock.

My final whale sketch was alas, a real whale. At least a former one. This was to found at MacKerricher State Park just north of Fort Bragg.

Near the visitors center is a collection of whale bones. The 32 foot gray whale skeleton was what caught my sketcher’s eye.

I seated myself on a nearby picnic table and started to sketch the jigsaw bones of the gray whale.

The gray whale migration should begin in earnest in February as adults would be heading south to their birthing lagoons in Baja California.

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California Registered Historical Landmark No. 714

The town of Mendocino has two California Registered Historical Landmarks, both are houses of worship.

I had already sketched the Temple of Kwan Tai on a previous visit and now I wanted to sketch the Mendocino Presbyterian Church.

I sketched the church from my curbside sketching blind and when I finished I walked over to get a closer look at the California State Historic Landmark Plaque.

The church was dedicated in 1868 and is the oldest church in continual use in California. As I was reading the plaque a kindly local asked if I wanted to have a look inside.

I replied in the affirmative and the kindly church lady put her dog indoor and returned with the key.

She gave me a brief tour and told me if I was brave (I was) that I could climb the ladder in the choir loft to see the chalk signatures of past pastors and church members on the inside of the bell tower (which I did).

She also said that I could ring the bell, so I grabbed the pull and did.

The church is built of the local wood, the wood that put Mendocino on the map: coast redwood.

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The Pygmy Forest of Jug Handle

I left my Caspar cottage at 8:45 and I walked down the road to Jug Handle State Natural Reserve.

I would he ascending the Biological Staircase of terraces, my final destination would be 2.5 miles from the trailhead on the third terrace. This is the 300,000 year old Pygmy forest!

One reason that the Biological Staircase is so appealing to the naturalist is that you pass through very different habitats, giving you a nice cross section of this rare part of Coastal California.

Weeks before I set off on my journey to the Pygmy forest, I did a sketch of a cross section of the five terraces to help me understand that ecosystems I would be traversing.

The trail was filled with large puddles and portions of the trail became a small stream bed from recent winter rains. This was a wet walk but well worth the mud and the blood and the tears. (Okay just mud, but lots of it.)

I had been on the trail for almost an hour when the tree cover opened up and the morning sun warmed my bones.

I was now nearing my destination: the Pygmy Forest! A small sign marked the beginning of the boardwalk.

A Pygmy forest occurs when the soil is nutrient poor and plant species are stunted as a result. A Pygmy forest is rare habitat that is only found in a few locations in Northern California. The boardwalk protects the valuable soil from visitor’s damaging footfalls.

The serpentine boardwalk through the Pygmy forest.

Half way through the board walk there was a pull out with benches and a 1968 plaque proclaiming the Pygmy forest as a California Registered Natural Landmark. I rested here, had a snack, and did a sketch of the view. I’ll admit the sketch is a bit loose and wild (featured sketch).

My return journey on the boardwalk.
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Mendocino Town-Sketching

The town of Mendocino is really a sketcher’s paradise.

I have sketched this town many times and there are endless angles, perspectives, and hidden gems to add to my sketchbook.

As a sketcher you can either “zoom” in or “zoom” out depending on what strikes your fancy (no zoom lens required). For much of my panoramic sketches I chose to zoom out with a wide angle perspective.

For the featured sketch I positioned myself across the street from the Blair House (used in Murder, She Wrote) right beside Heider Field. The sketch looks towards Lansing Street at a water tower, old buildings, and the Masonic Lodge. A rustic townscape.

On another day I took a wide angle perspective from the small park across the Big River mouth to draw the bluffs and the town (below).

A panoramic sketch of Mendocino.
What a view!

I did do a few sketches a little more “zoomed in”. One was of a water tower and the back of the Crown Hall and the other is at the Mendocino Headlands State Park and a black oystercatcher.

Black oystercatchers are easy to see at the Mendocino Bluffs.
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Sketching Ft. Bragg

While many painters, sculptors, and artists are attracted to the picturesque town to the south, Ft. Bragg has plenty of objects to sketch.

And I added a few to my sketchbook.

I hiked out on the Noyo Bluffs, north of the river mouth. My destination was the Noyo Center’s Crow’s Nest Interpretive Center.

This center has marine mammal skulls and bones, maps and diagrams, a tide pool tank, and a deck for whale watching.

I sat at a picnic table and sketched the interpretive center. All this hiking and sketching makes me thirsty.

Good thing I was in Fort Bragg, because on Highway One, near the train depot, is the North Coast Brewing Company. Across the street from the brewery is their pub where you can get a bite to eat and sample their brews.

North Coast has been brewing since 1988, well before I could legally drink. They always have creative names for their brews such as Scrimshaw, Old Rasputin, Brother Thelonious, Old No. 38 Stout (named after a California Western Railroad steam locomotive), and my favorite Red Seal Ale (sketched above).

Cheers from Fort Bragg!

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Train Sketching: Ft. Bragg

I have enjoyed sketching in the town of Fort Bragg, just to the north of Mendocino.

The genesis of Fort Bragg as a town was the huge strands of coast redwoods and lumber mills sprang up to harvest the timber.

Now how to get the lumber to markets like San Francisco to help build the growing city?

Lumber was shipped south by boat but once the California Pacific connected Ft. Bragg with Willitis and the Northwestern Pacific, milled lumber could be shipped by rail.

The rails of the past lives on as the Skunk Train. Now a tourist railroad.

I did some sketching at the train yard (featured sketch) including the water tower with the skunk logo.

The past and present of Skunk Train. A diesel pulling into the station with a water tower of the steam age in the background.
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Pomo Bluffs Park and the Noyo Rivermouth.

In between rain showers I made it out to Pomo Bluffs Park to sketch the large swells at the harbor mouth.

The trail along the southern bluffs offers a great view to witness the drama where the Noyo River meets the Pacific.

On this December morning, the wave action was epic. No boats were entering or leaving the harbor with these crashing swells.

I found a patch, set up my sketching chair, and opened my panoramic sketchbook. The result is the featured sketch.

Sketching the harbor mouth.
The locals have a screwdriver and a sense of humor!
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Sonoma Coastal Sketching

One a recent weekend trip with the lads on the Sonoma Coast I added some coastal impressions to my sketchbooks.

I have sketched the coastal locations of Bodega Bay and Sea Ranch many times.

On the drive up I stopped at the Tides Restaurant in Bodega Bay for lunch (made famous in Hitchcock’s The Birds). I had a table with a view of the bay and the Bodega Head across the waters.

After lunch I walked along the wharf where I saw a group of sea lions resting on a dock. They didn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon so I sketched one of them (featured sketch).

The sea lion on the left is begging to be sketched!

After my sketch I drove north on Highway One towards our cabin in the woods just north of the Sonoma/ Mendocino border.

From our base camp in Gualala we headed south back into Sonoma County to visit Sea Ranch.

A Sea Ranch espresso sketch.

While I was at Sea Ranch Lodge, I did a sketch of the lodge buildings. I had stayed here once before.

One of my Sonoma County sketching touchstones is the seaslug-like Sea Ranch Chapel. I have sketched this whimsical building every time I am in the area. Every angle yields a new sketch. This time I sketched the chapel from the side, slightly to the rear. I never seem to tire of sketching this unique structure.