Surrounded by Wild Animals … And Unafraid
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Volunteer Scott Lewis with preserved baby skunk.
Scott Lewis found himself surrounded by skunks, owls, sea lions, whales, deer, bears and bats when he arrived at work this week. Don’t worry. He’s not in danger.
Scott is a winter volunteer in the Visitor Center at Fort Bragg’s MacKerricher State Park where you’ll find these and dozens of animals and their skeletons preserved for public education, along with a big variety of stuffed animal toys for sale.
For the past four winters, Scott has worked four days a week helping visitors to MacKerricher each day looking for trails, information about birds, sea life, and tourist attractions, like nearby Glass Beach.
Full size Gray Whale skeleton at MacKerricher State Park Visitor Center
Retired, But Helping Out State Parks
“My wife, Pam, and I retired a few years ago and now we are full-time RV’ers,” Scott explained. While their RV is home, much of their time is spent volunteering — at MacKerricher, Hendy Woods or the Ford House (the visitor center for Mendocino Headlands State Park). Wife Pam is on the staff of Mendocino Area Parks Association (MAPA) the non-profit volunteer organization that supports local state parks.
One of the MacKerricher Visitor Center’s featured attractions is the full-size Gray Whale skeleton, located just outside near the parks entrance kiosk.
Since you don’t actually have to enter the park to check out the Visitor Center, there is no cost to park. Best of all, this fun-for-the-whole-family attraction is just about two miles north of Downtown Fort Bragg.
November 29th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Day use is free at MacKerricher SP. There is an access to two board walks. One around Lake Cleone and the other to Laguna Point were you can vist the tide pools and Harbour seals.