I’m as guilty as the next person. How many times had I visited the village of Mendocino and the coast nearby, and how many times had I driven by the arrow on Highway 1 pointing towards Caspar? Dozens of times, at least. Well, finally, I pulled in to check it out and, of course, I’m glad I did. At first blush, Caspar is not much of a town, but it does have a lively inn, a restored lighthouse, superb coastal vistas and a deserved reputation for high-spirited independence and a strong commitment to a communal dream. Caspar is, for the most part, a “no shopping zone.” There’s plenty of that a little to the south in the village of Mendocino and a few miles north in the town of Fort Bragg. I’m not much of a shopper anyway, so I enjoyed soaking up the history, the views, and the music of Caspar and urge you to do the same sometime. Don’t wait as long as I did.
