– 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.

FIND LOTS MORE ABOUT MENDOCINO COUNTY ON OUR INTERACTIVE MAP

Photo by Stacy Geiken

– M’Gee Johnston

The Mendocino Music Festival takes place from July 11 through July 26 and offers a wide variety of music including orchestra, chamber and jazz.  In addition to the huge tent built for this annual event, concerts are offered at various Mendocino halls and other local music venues.   To learn a little about the personality of the village of Mendocino,  you can watch our videos: Mendocino’s Beloved Protector, Mendocino’s Many Charms, and Mendocino’s Movie History.

– Doug McConnell

Those of us who work on OpenRoad.TV are always clear about a couple of things.

First, we always have and always will keep a big and insurmountable barrier between editorial content and advertising. Nobody can pay us to do a story about them or their institution. We follow old-fashioned journalistic standards in our work. We choose what stories we want to do, what tips we want to give and what opinions we want to have. We can’t and won’t let anyone’s money influence our editorial decisions. We believe our value to you is in our independence, integrity and credibility. We want to be a source you can trust and we want you to pass along your best and most credible stories, tips and suggestions, too.

The second thing we’re absolutely certain of is that I’m not the star here. I’m just the lucky guy who gets to meet the real stars of our videos almost every day. Our job has always been to find the bright, fascinating, funny and passionate people who have stories to tell about places they know and love, and who have good information and interesting ideas to share. Our collective talent at OpenRoad is our ability to find these people and then get out of their way. It’s not about me, it’s about them and they fill this website. Andrea Mead Lawrence, the first American woman to win two gold medals in the winter Olympics, and a defender of the Sierra Nevada. Keller Laros, who taught me how to scuba dive years ago and has a passion for seeing and caring for manta rays off the Big Island of Hawaii. Helen Smith, who has spent much of her adult life interpreting and restoring a Scandinavian retreat on the shore of Lake Tahoe, Vikingsholm. And Foggy Gomes, who volunteered for a lifetime to keep the fragile village of Mendocino safe from fire. They are the stars of this show and we urge you to join them.