What Was New: November 11, 1999Elk, Mendocino, Silicon Valley, California coast(Gregory Melle's Web Diary / Blog)
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| In late October I made another weekend trip to the
northern California coast. I stopped many, many times for photos. My new
ambition in life is to move to the town of Elk! Though I might have to
settle for a shack in Gualala. In any case, I simply must move somewhere
where I can watch the setting or rising sun. In the last five years, I have
lived in too many apartments where I look over my neighbor's balcony
instead at the horizon. Trees are nice but give me distant views any day.
When I was a child I lived in a house with vast southern views that ranged from Washington's State's Mt. Baker to the Olympic Range. When I was 12 I moved to North Vancouver to live among big cedar trees in the clouds and rain. I never got over the loss of my childhood open views. |
| I must apologize in advance for putting too many photos on this page. I hope that you will wait patiently for the results to appear. |
From my last whats-new you might have thought that I wanted to move to
the town of Mendocino.
I present a few reminders from my latest trek, but as you will see there
are more scenic towns...
I camped ten miles south at Albion River. This is about 1/2 mile in from the coast. The view is from my campsite.
Then I made a morning stop at Elk. This town was formerly known as Greenwood. There is an excellent web site at www.elkcoast.com. The town consists of perhaps a couple hundred people squeezed between Highway 1 and the cliffs.
The Elk garage has apparently also been know as Mel's Garage! Surely
that is a good omen. The next photos were taken across the street from the
garage -- perhaps 300 feet from the street.
They look down at the Greenwood State Park beach and back towards the town
on the rocky cliffs.
I had breakfast at the Greenwood Pier Cafe -- the photo is from the back porch. They have some nice rooms for rent. They range from just $120 to $250 per night. You can make reservations and get information at www.greenwoodpierinn.com
The best pictures are taken on the north side of town. This is a five minute walk from the cafe.
Can you imagine awaking every morning to these wonderful views?
I have now driven Highway 1 from SF to the northern end. In some places it is difficult to average 30 miles in an hour. The road is actually quite good -- but very twisting -- in the middle Sonoma county sections. The first picture was taken in the hills that are seen in the back of the second photo. This shows Goat Rock Beach just south of Jenner.
Finally, near Point Arena, I found this fellow who has caught the topiary disease. He was working with his clippers as I passed. Am I in danger of catching the disease myself? Is the search for web site perfection just another form of madness?
There have been some interesting tragedies in the last few weeks. The American media is once again showing it inability to track more than one big story at the same time. There was little mention here of the loss of Greg Moore. He was my favourite racing car driver. I still have soul searching to do. I am a mild-mannered driver with little desire for thrill-seeking. I condemn boxing and wrestling; yet I love watching CART racers drive around tracks at insane speeds. It is a part of my psyche that I must learn to comprehend.
| Earlier Page - October 1999 | Later Page - November #2 1999 |
