Far from the motoring crowd: find your way to the Lost Coast - travel to the northern coast of California just south of Eureka

Sierra, Jan-Feb, 1998 by William Poole

California's Lost Coast is not so much lost as it is stubbornly remote. A contorted conjunction of ridges, cliffs, peaks, ravines, and wilderness beaches in the northwestern corner of the West's most urbanized state, it has long resisted major road construction and development. Now protected in the north by the 60,000-acre King Range National Conservation Area and in the south by 7,400-acre Sinkyone Wilderness State Park, the Lost Coast offers splendid isolation to hikers, backpackers, and campers willing to brave the region's narrow, twisting, and seasonally impassable roads.

Some visitors to the King Range come to hike one of the three inland trails to 4,087-foot King Peak, the Lost Coast's tallest mountain. Views from here encompass turbulent coastal ridges, fir forests patched with brushy openings, and a great gulp of open ocean only three miles away. But the biggest attraction is the Lost Coast Trail, which threads the region for 54 miles north to south. In the north, the trail begins at a U.S. Bureau of Land Management campground at the mouth of the Mattole River near the village of Petrolia, and follows the beach for 24 miles to the settlement of Shelter Cove. Otters play in the surf off lonely, driftwood-strewn beaches, and Steller sea lions bellow from off-shore rocks. Between the black-sand beaches and the eastern ridges spread grassy flats and hillsides thick with lupine, poppies, wild mustard, and beach pea.

About eight miles south of bustling Shelter Cove (the only spot where a paved road pierces the coast and a good place to buy provisions) the trail reaches the narrow bolt-buster dirt road that provides the only vehicle access to the northern end of Sinkyone Wilderness State Park. For those looking for a single place to visit on the Lost Coast, this may be it. Around the Needle Rock Visitor Center and nearby Bear Harbor, a handful of secluded walk-in campsites offer cliff-top views up and down the coast, day hikes along the Lost Coast Trail, and encounters with Roosevelt elk.

So rugged is the Lost Coast Trail south of Bear Harbor that backpackers often budget three days for the 16-mile hike. The trail cuts inland here, scales steep, sun-struck ridges with views encompassing a hundred miles of coast-line, and descends into stygian groves of old-growth redwoods. The trail terminates at the drive-in Usal Camp-ground at the park's southern boundary. While Usal is not as isolated as Needle Rock or Bear Harbor, it offers a lovely cove, embraced by mountains and grassy, spacious campsites along alder-shaded Usal Creek.

Over the past few years, the Lost Coast has captured the attention of hikers and campers charmed by the idea that California beaches need not abut blacktop highways and parking lots. It takes effort to get here, but the opportunity to see a slice of lost California makes the trip worthwhile.

NUTS & BOLTS

How to Prepare

Winters are temperate but wet on the Lost Coast. Summers are usually warm and dry, though blanketing fog may send temperatures plunging. To increase your chances of seeing the Coast's edge-of-the-earth vistas, plan a trip for spring of fall.

In the King Range, water sources on higher ridges may be dry by late spring. Carry water and treat all surface water before drinking. Fire permits are required along the King Range section of the Lost Coast Trail, and camping permits are required within Sinkyone Wilderness State Park. Dogs and mountain bikes are not allowed on the state-park trails.

For More Information

For a map and guide to the King Range National Conservation Area, contact the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Arcata office at (707) 822-7648. For information about Sinkyone Wilderness State Park, call (707) 986-7711 or (707) 445-6547. Be sure to ask for the latest road information; entry roads may be closed due to bad weather. A Sierra Club backpacking trip will explore the Lost Coast in late May. For more information call (415) 977-5522 and ask about trip #98038A.

For Deeper Reading

Visitors will want to obtain the invaluable Hiker's Hip Pocket Guide to the Mendocino Coast and Hiker's Hip Pocket Guide to the Humboldt Coast, Both by Bob Lorentzen (Mendocino, California: Bored Feet Publications, 1993, 1991). A classic environmental and social profile of the Lost Coast area is An Everyday History of Somewhere by Ray Raphael (Redway, California: Real Books, 1992).

The Politics of Place

Even the BLM, that often reluctant bank of conservationists, realizes how special this chunk of California coastline is. The agency has recommended closing 3.5 miles of the King Range Conservation Area's Black Sands Beach to off-road vehicles, which will finally allow it to manage the largest stretch of unsullied coast in the state for its "unique primitive and undeveloped character." All-terrain-vehicle owners have protested as noisily as their high-revving engines, but environmentalists, who know that limited motor-vehicle access adds to the coastline's splendor, have responded in force. The BLM will make a final decision early this year. For more information, contact Diane Beck, conservation cochair of the Sierra Club Redwood Chapter's North Group, at (707) 445-2690.