We turned off 101 to go to Ferndale, then took the Mattole Road south and back out to the coast. I figured we'd spend the whole afternoon on very windy roads before getting back to the highway - which is exactly what happened. But what an incredible route!
I had been afraid for weeks that this section would be fogged in, but we got lucky. On the other hand, just before we lost cell coverage, one of M's friends texted us about a possible 8.0 in the Aleutians. I had visions of the tsunami washing us off the road south of Cape Mendocino until I thought about it a little more and realized it was more likely to drown us in the campground later that night. As it turned out, a big wave never materialized.
Cape Mendocino was spectacular and we had it almost to ourselves - this road discourages tourist traffic. I spent a great 30 minutes wandering the beach at the mouth of the Mattole River (M seems to like the views and the opportunity to read more than walking on the beach while I take thousands of pictures). We stopped, as I suspect most tourists through here do, when we saw the zebras sharing pasture with the horses near Petrolia.
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