MacKerricher State Park (Mendocino)

After leaving Petaluma, we headed up the coast, breaking our journey at MacKerricher State Park north of Mendocino and Ft Bragg. So far, this has been the campground Mike liked the best. The water is too cold and rough for swimming, but there are lots of trails and tidal pools (photo of girls' in the tidal pools above. Also a picture of them in front of a whale skeleton at the campground's nature center). Mendocino is something out of a postcard; I believe they filmed Murder, She Wrote, around here. Ft Bragg is a little less picturesque, but maybe a bit more authentic.

There are a lot of young and not so young people around Ft Bragg and points north whose situation is a little hard for us to place. They are sort of grunge/mother earth and look a little weatherbeaten. They seem to hang out by the side of the highway and the supermarket parking lot. We were wondering if they are homeless, or one step up from that, or maybe it's just a look they cultivate (like our urban gangsters back East).

We mentioned in earlier posts how severe the recession seems to be in California. The northern section of the coast seems to be even harder hit.

It has been extremely difficult for us to reserve campsites in the state campgrounds. While there are a great many of them, they are all booked solid. Despite their popularity, because of the recession, a number of them are scheduled to be closed. At first the governor was talking about 250 closures. Last I heard it was 86, with the parks to be selected after Labor Day. It seems the public benefit of these parks greatly outweighs the very small cost of keeping them open, but I imagine when you're also laying off sheriffs and police, everything needs to be on the block.