Views of the Property from Surrounding Properties

The best view of the property I have ever had was from an airplane traveling from Seoul, Korea, to San Francisco, just a few days after the purchase had taken place. By chance, the clouds broke on a generally stormy day just as the plane approached the coast, and I was able to take this amazing picture:

The town of Mendocino can be seen in the bottom left corner of the photo, with Big River twisting inland from its south edge. A mile or so south of Big River is Little River, with the road passing between it and the airport that can be clearly seen here on the right side of the page. The retreat center property is located five miles inland. I believe it is (or is very near) one of the light green patches shown at the top right corner of the photo.

Little River Airport Road runs along the north side of the property, with the “panhandle” of a neighboring property serving as a nice buffer between the two. These first few shots illustrate how little of the house and property are visible from the road. In fact, cars driving by would not notice the house unless they were driving slowly and specifically looking for it.

Can you see the house above, on the left? The spa is actually right in the middle of the photo, but it is almost entirely obstructed by the trees. And, by the way, to take this photo I had to stand right at the edge of the road. The road curves at this point and slants away from the property, so someone in a car driving by would not even have this much of a view.

Down the road just a bit further provides a view of the end of one of the 12 dirt roads on the property. This is where a previous owner parked an old camper where renters used to live. Some of the rubbish they left behind is unfortunately still visible at the end of that road.

If you look down the road towards the driveway entrance from here, this is what you’ll see (the driveway is on the left of the picture, just to the left of the mailbox):

Here’s a closer view of the same entrance:

The next five photos on this page are taken from other spots further down the same road. Actually, I was not able to find anywhere on the road where the property is clearly and unmistakably visible. But the trees off in the distance of these shots are, as far as I can tell, located on the retreat center property. In the foreground of the fourth picture you can see the house belonging to the closest neighbor to the east.

The next two pictures were taken from the roof of a house that is just barely visible from the front lawn, belonging to the Ramseys, who kindly allowed me to explore the view from their perspective. In the center of the first picture you can see the gray graveled parking area, with the brown soil of the yard (where there is now lush green grass!) just below it. The third photo is taken from another neighbor’s property and again shows how secluded the retreat center area is: nothing but trees is visible over the roof of the neighbor’s house.

Finally, a pleasant 15 minute walk through the forest into the neighboring property takes you to a hilltop that is across a little valley from the hill where the retreat center property is located. Two creeks run along the east and west borders of the property, with the central part being on a hill. That hill and the ravines where the two creeks are located can be seen in the following two photos. The house that can just barely be seen near the top of the hill (see the right side of the second picture) is actually north of the property, just across the main (Little River Airport) Road. None of the structures being built (or planned) can be seen from this or any other vantage point outside the property (except the little glimpse of the house that can be seen from the main road).

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