Pete1222

Hi,
Driving from S.F. to Ferndale the last two weeks of September. Typically, how should the weather be during that time frame?
We hope to be doing lots of hiking.
Any suggestions on must do day hikes are also appreciated.
Thanks,
Wendy

StuDudley

That's when we usually get our best weather. However, so far this year, we've had very unusual weather. Spring was crummy - everywhere we go people talk about the roses not blooming as they usually do, tomatoes not ripening, and our jasmine that normally blooms in early spring never had a blossem till about July. Mid summer was very nice - lots of sun. For the last 1 1/2 weeks, we've had an unusual amount of fog. It is really drippy right now where I live close to the SF airport.

Stu Dudley

Pete1222

Thanks Stu---Unusual weather in the NYC area this year also. It actually feels like early Fall out here this week. Regardless, I think that we need our northern California fix.
Regards,
Wendy

sequoia370

Weather should be fine, best of the year.
For hikes, try the Ecological Staircase at Jug Handle State Park. This is just south of Mendocino, there's a fairly big headland west of Hwy One, with a loop trail around it, all open grassland, with views of the ocean and coves with pounding surf about fifty or a hundred feet below on three sides. On the inland side of the highway, the trail climbs over several ancient shoreline bluffs, nothing you would notice on your own except here's another hill, but there are signs that tell you that this was once the edge of the ocean so many hundred thousand years ago-- and at the end there's a "pygmy forest" of stunted trees that are decades old but only about four or five feet high.
See <http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=441>

Then there's Founders' Grove and the Rockefeller Forest at Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The tallest trees in the world are here. Founders' Grove is a short loop trail with the fallen Dyerville Giant, once the tallest tree in the world, now still over your head on its side. Across the Avenue of the Giants, where the freeway passes overhead you can pick up Mattole Road, which goes for miles all the way to the "Lost Coast". The first five miles pass through thick old growth redwoods, and the current tallest tree is somewhere in this place, but it's not marked, to save it from being over-visited. Not that it matters, all the trees are very impressive here, and if you need to put some numbers on the height and width, see the Giant Tree about halfway along, which has its statistics displayed on a sign at its base. There's a trail paralleling the road for the five miles to Albee Creek Campground. If you're really adventurous you can continue on Mattole Road over one or two thousand foot ridges to Honeydew and Cape Mendocino, the triple junction of three tectonic plates and the northern end of the San Andreas Fault. But this is a very isolated rural area, so don't expect any kind of facilities till you reach Ferndale. More typical is to track back to Hwy 101 and take it and/or the Avenue of the Giants to Ferndale.
<http://www.humboldtredwoods.org/>

Pete1222

Thanks Sequoia for the info.
We will check out the hikes!
The Mendocino area is alot like New Zealand, where we once lived. So we are looking forward to exploring the area, without the kids, for a week or so. Plus we've never been to Ferndale.
Thanks again,
Wendy