SOLO ROADTRIP III: SONOMA & JENNER [DAYS 13-14]
...and finally, this will be the last post of my 2022 roadtrip. in the morning i left my campsite to santa rosa to see the luther burbank home & garden. i love morning walks; the sun is at its best & there is a still a quietness. i only went to see the garden as it is treated like a city park & open early in the morning. this home is smackdab in the middle of a neighborhood, so i had to park on the street. luther burbank lived in this home until 1929 & created over 800 species of plants with the intention to increase food variety & supply. some of his more known creations were the burbank potato, over 60 spineless cactus, over 100 plums, & the shasta daisy. the home was left for the city.
the gnome garden.
i also stopped at the old train station in the downtown area. inside is a little visitor center. all over town you will see peanuts characters since charles schultz lived in santa rosa.
i then made my way towards jenner. it was a bit of a weird drive which took longer as the speed limits are low. this is because you drive through the small forest towns & to get to the fort, you have to drive up a mountain. this was the nost intimidating mountain drive i have ever done, and i have roadtripped quite a bit. the road was steep & there were no barriers. i can imagine the mistakes people make & there is no way you could hitch a car or drive a rv / semi-truck. it was bananas.
i know i have said this about some sites already, but fort ross was also one of my favorite places during my trip. i love walking through old buildings, even if reconstructed. for me personally, it is the most immersive way to connect with history.
there were school children here and they were marching by. it was very cute.
fort ross was a russian settlement in the 1800s. russians from the alaskan colonies moved south down to northern california for the fur & maritime trade. the fort was established so nearby settlements could be supplied with food. the fort was a community of russians and native americans / alaskans.
the ocean was so pretty and blue.
on my way back, as you have to take a little nature trail from the visitor center to the fort, i saw a family of deer and got so close. it seemed unreal that deer would be so close to the beach.
i got back on the road and drove the winding roads of the 1 - pacific coast highway. this was my first time driving the 1 on a roadtrip. i eventually made my way to petaluma for a break & to figure out the plan for my afternoon. i should have left earlier than planned because i hit the bay area traffic bad, this was a very long drive as i had to pass san francisco & san jose. there was so much traffic and i was delirious. an interesting part of the drive was roads on top of the wetlands. it was also very hot.
finally passing san jose the roads cleared up & i reached wide open spaces. being stuck in the car for hours in the city is clausterphobic even for this city girl. to reach my final camp site i had to drive through a neighborhood and up a winding hill through dead grass fields. i stayed at a campsite in henry coe state park. this site was significantly cheaper ($20) than any other california camp site trhough the state park system (some as expensive as $50) as it was considered primitive. it really was not. what was missing was showers & a camp warden. the site advertises as only having vault toilets, but if you are willing to walk a little out of the way, staff keep the visitor center toilets open overnight. this was a very different experience as there are about 15 individual campsites, & some tent only, as the site is on top of a pretty narrow hill. it was nice to have a little more quiet & limited rvs (and no trailers) since the drive up is narrow & slow. it was a nice change of pace & a great way to end my trip. it was even better as i celebrated with a mcdonalds meal.
the view is to grassy fields. since i went at beginning of fall, the plants were dead.