I was torn between driving down to Big Sur or the longer haul up to Mendo, but was curious about the Navarro river since I've seen guys launching kayaks from that little parking area.

I probably should have loaded up the yak but did a couple things in the morning and thought I might get a quickie dive in and still make the Stanford/USC game.  Should have taken the yak...

Anyway it was my first time there. I just did a shore dive. Can't remember seeing so many really dinky abs. With all the talk this summer about starving abalone I looked around for "urchin barrens." I was amazed to actually find some even though they were small zones, just loaded with purple urchins. Just as people described, there are some REALLY flat abs in there, sometimes only 25 feet from good bull kelp- guess they don't move enough to find better grazing.

Also didn't seem very fishy- took me quite a while to put some scraggly ass (that's a highly technical term) rockfish on the stringer. Didn't really come on great structure of the type you find launching from Albion.

Question to you veterans of this area? Where do you heading out from the parking? BTW: the wind and swell were forecast to pick up big time that afternoon, and right on schedule as my pup, Skipper, were relaxing and packing up, the swell started pumping. Going north on a day like that seems either pretty crazy or heroic? But I'd love to get more knowledge and experience if anyone wants to share either here or by PM. Thanks!