February 20, 2024
Although we had dropped in to Point Arena for dinner a couple of days earlier, we took the opportunity to visit the amazing Point Arena Lighthouse on our way out of Gualala.
The rugged and vibrant cliffside views just ahead of the lighthouse is spectacular - worth a quick look even if you're not visiting the museum.
The informative tour starts in the museum + shop (Fog Signal Building Museum) and takes you to the top of the lighthouse where you're greeted by another guide along the iron stairwell, who shares more fun facts about its incredible structure and history.
The views from the top rock! Lends a different perspective when you see the vast surrounding area landscape of the Pacific Ocean, Manchester Beach and the Point Arena/Stornetta Unit of the California Coastal National Monument on the coast - plus we witnessed yet another glowing rainbow!
Fun facts:
At 115 feet, the Point Arena Lighthouse shares the title of being the tallest lighthouse on the West coast of the United States.
The lighthouse is the closest location on the mainland (excluding Alaska) to Honolulu, Hawaii at a distance of 2,045 nautical miles.
The museum's centerpiece is the Light Station - the the original 1st Order Fresnel lens that lit the way in the Tower from 1908 through 1977.
Before visiting the lighthouse, we stopped in the charming downtown area for coffee and sandwiches. Little Green Bean is a friendly, artisan coffee roastery that brews one hell of a cup right in front of you - seriously one of the best we've tasted! They are big on sustainability - select fair trade + organic beans and work with small farms around the world. Owner Tom Neth knows what he's doing. Worth a stop, for sure.
While we sipped on fresh brew, we ordered sandwiches and walked around the Point Arena General Store...luckily, they have items to peruse because the service is a little slllloooooowww. Tasty sandies, though! Joel devoured the turkey pesto and I'm impressed with the delicious tempeh BLT - tempeh can a challenging cooking ingredient!
Off to Albion we went!
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