– Doug McConnell

One of my favorite places in all of California is the village of Mendocino, up the coast a few hours from San Francisco.  In some important ways, it’s a relic of the 19th Century with much of its character and many of its old wooden buildings intact from a time long ago when Mendocino was the first logging port on California’s north coast.  Redwoods taken from deep forests nearby, where shipped south to help build early San Francisco.

In later decades, Mendocino has been frequently used by Hollywood to play the role of a seaside New England town in movies and on television…..and Monterey in East of Eden with James Dean.   Check out our story here and see what else we have on the village of Mendocino.

And for sure, Mendocino has become a prime tourist destination over the years.  We visitors come by the tens of thousands to enjoy its restaurants and galleries, stay in its lovely inns and soak up the rugged coastal scenery, especially across the street from the village on the open expanse of the Mendocino Headlands State Park.

The Park has given many of us countless hours of pleasure, and now we have an opportunity to give back to the Park in its hour of need.   The land is overrun by trails and harmed by erosion.   Historic landmarks are not being maintained adequately and are in danger of being lost.   The terrific State Park staff and many loyal and hard working volunteers know what to do to solve the problems and take care of the Park, but they don’t have the money to do it.   The State is broke.   They need a little financial help, and that’s where we come in.   The next time we spend the night in Mendocino, we can contribute a little money and together we can all help out a lot.  It’s easy and painless.

To see exactly what the challenges are…….and to find out how we can make a difference right away, please take a couple of minutes to watch this video.  Then join all of us in helping care for one of our beloved and vulnerable State Parks.

Then, if you’d like, please take another minute and go to the website of the California State Parks Foundation, now celebrating its 40th anniversary of providing help to our entire system of extraordinary parks.   Some of us were interviewed about our favorite State Parks. I talked about Mendocino and you can find my podcast and many others at www.calparks.org/podcasts.

After watching the video and listening to the podcast, I hope you head as soon as possible to Mendocino and enjoy your legacy of protected lands and places of profound historic and cultural importance.   Have fun.

– Doug McConnell

Photo: Big Basin Scenery by Dylan Duverge

California’s first state park was Big Basin established in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1902. In the 106 years since, California has assembled an extraordinary collection of parks, recreational areas, historic sites and open spaces of all kinds. We feature many of California’s State Parks right here (for example, Bodie and the Wild West, Glen Ellen’s Heart and Wine, Mt. Tamalpais’ Land and Legends, Hearst Castle and Ranch) and we’ll add many more in the weeks to come.

When I was growing up in California in the decades right after World War II, Californians seemed to me to be united on a couple of major issues almost regardless of their political affiliations. Time-after-time Republicans and Democrats alike voted to add new parks to California’s growing system and take good care of the ones we had. My parents, for instance, were very conservative Republicans, but they were proud of our world-class public park system and our best-in-the-nation public schools.

Now, unfortunately, California finds its public schools far from the top of the national heap and its parks in deep financial trouble. Some parks face (more…)

– Doug

This morning in Marin County, California, the low clouds and fog are dense. It’s gray and cool. I find myself bundling up and thinking about more northerly and even cooler places where I’ve lived and traveled over the years.

Right away my thoughts drift up the Inside Passage to Southeast Alaska where I lived for a few years in the early 1970’s before moving to Anchorage where I stayed until 1982. I get back up quite a bit to do television stories, visit old friends and favorite haunts and discover new places. I’m also on the board of the Alaska Conservation Foundation (ACF) which, among other things, raises and distributes money to support critical conservation groups and programs in the state. I’ve had a long love affair with Alaska and I go, in real life and in my imagination, whenever I can.

Photo: Inside Passage by the17pointscale

We have a few of our Alaska stories here on OpenRoad.TV: Alaska’s River of Bears; Sitka, Alaska’s Russian and Tlingit Heritage, Juneau, Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier with more to come. Many of you have traveled there, some numerous times. Some of you even live in Alaska today. Please send us your thoughts, tips and stories about your journeys in the Great Land. We’d love to know about them.

Many many people who go to Southeast Alaska see it from the decks of cruise ships and in short stops in little towns that can feel overrun by tourists. I’ve only gone to Southeast (more…)

– Doug McConnell

Photo: Pigeon Point Lightstation by Yen-Wen Lu

I watched a piece of CNN’s “Planet in Peril” series last night. I’ve spent quite a bit of time during the past few decades working on programs to help us understand and address the immense ecological crises of our time. In most ways, I haven’t seen much success. While the biosphere doesn’t get any bigger, our appetites for its limited resources seem to grow exponentially. The planet heats, habitats are destroyed and species disappear at rates unprecedented in the past sixty-five million years. Overall, it’s a pretty gloomy picture.

However, there are many signs of hope scattered across the face of the earth. Right here in northern California, I get encouraged every day by the commitments of concerned people and the consequences of their hard work. The Bay Area in particular has long been a leader in environmental action and land conservation. If you visit here these days, (more…)