Starting on Friday 23 July 2004, we set out on a drive to Fort Bragg, CA, a rather unremarkable town on the coast of California in Mendocino County
Fort Bragg was formerly a fort for the U.S. Army to control Native American tribes in the area, and also a lumber town. Georgia Pacific corporation appears to have a large installation there, and according to local news - is probably polluting up the area pretty good. There were quite a few restaurants in Fort Bragg, but they were all very overpriced. Tourism is the growth industry in the area, but the prices seemed unusually inflated, so much that we wondered if they give a special "tourist" menu to tourists, and a real, normal menu to the locals with reasonable prices on it.
The primary goal of our trip was to ride the Skunk Train - a steam engine train that travels between Fort Bragg and Willits, CA. When I was around 8 years old, my father bought a 28ft Motorhome, and took the family up to Willits to ride the Skunk train over the mountain to Fort Bragg. I can't remember much about that trip except that we took our (at the time) brand new dog "Rusty" up there (she was a great dog - lived with the family 13 years.)
On this trip with MY family, I found the Skunk train to be a little disappointing. First of all, the morning run with the Steam Train was sold out. We went to collect shells on the beach, and then returned in the afternoon and rode a train pulled by a Diesel engine. The train run was mundane. We sat in the front of the frontmost car, so the view was limited, but there really weren't any impressive views anyway. I had the idea that the trip through the coastal mountains and redwood forests would be better than it actually turned out to be. Part of the problem was that we've already ridden the train at Roaring Camp in Felton, CA. a few times, and the views on that ride are equal if not better than the Skunk train. The Roaring Camp train is a much shorter ride, however (lasts about 40 mins.) while the Skunk train goes for about 3 hours round trip.
The redeeming portion of our Mendocino vacation was our Sunday return travel route. We took highway 1 down the coast all the way to Bodega Bay. One lesson learned: If you are going to visit Mendocino County, don't stay in Fort Bragg. Stay in any of the small coastal towns south of Fort Bragg and you'll have a better overall experience. (Might cost more though.) The coastline is as beautiful as you might expect, and the small towns and pine tree lined highway make for an enchanting drive. One notable site to see along the Mendocino coast was the Point Arena Lighthouse - it was nice that you could take a paid tour up to the top of the lighthouse.
It was nice to have a 3 day get away from home, but Fort Bragg won't be high on my list of recommended vacation spots in the future.
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