Last month for my wife’s 28th birthday, we decided to spend some time in the North Coast. We drove through the same winding road I drove on during many family camping trips as a kid but this time instead of turning right into the town of Fort Bragg, we headed left, making our way to the coastal town of Mendocino for two nights. Heavy rainstorms were expected throughout the whole trip but we were still excited to explore this little coastal corner..
The dark and stormy weather kept reminding me of these two photos from Robert Frank’s book Good Days Quiet:
I was fascinated by the amount of water towers scattered across the area! I only photographed a few but still, they were an unexpected subject throughout the weekend. The City Hotel Water Tower1 was my favorite and it caught me by surprise as we turned one of our first corners in downtown Mendocino.
The highlight of the whole trip in my opinion was our hike in Russian Gulch State Park2. After a night of the most rain I had ever experienced/seen, there were pockets of morning sunshine carving through the dense forest canopies while speckles of rain fell from the moss-covered branches. I cannot even fully explain how entranced we were..
It all felt like pure magic. An endless state of awe..
a corner of dramatic growth, embedded abundance
life carries on in this quaint coastal corner
nothing else seems to matter
on the edge of the world.
I’ve been to a few forests in my lifetime but man, this had to be the most lush, vibrant and dense one I had ever gotten to walk in..
For our final morning, we bought tickets for the historic Skunk Train3 in Fort Bragg.
As we boarded the train and started to leave the downtown area, the sun came out one last time and a light, glowing rain filled the air.
It was the perfect send-off..
Great shots, we have a similar style!
Awesome series of photos. My favorite type of black and white: nice and dark.